Los Angeles moved Wednesday to reboot its once-promising legal marijuana market, giving initial approval to changes large and small to expand licensing and get more assistance to operators who endured the consequences of the nation’s war on drugs.
Broad legal sales kicked off in California in 2018, and at that time Los Angeles was expected to quickly establish itself as a world-leading cannabis economy. But that never happened. Instead, robust illegal sales continue to outpace the up-and-down legal market, while businesses complain that hefty taxes and a cumbersome bureaucracy have slowed, rather than encouraged, growth.
The City Council, voting unanimously, gave preliminary approval to a series of revisions that would provide a jump in licenses for so-called social-equity applicants — people, many of color, who were arrested or convicted of a marijuana-related offense, and lower-income residents who live, or have lived, in neighborhoods marked by high marijuana arrest rates.
Only those applicants would be eligible for new retail and delivery licenses through 2025.
Other changes would allow businesses seeking licenses to quickly get temporary approval to begin operating once certain benchmarks are met, would permit businesses to relocate while being licensed and streamline the application process. [Read more at NBC Los Angeles]
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Name *
Email *
Website
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Comment *
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
Δ
Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank…
The state budget that’s expected to be adopted in the coming days calls for repealing the potency tax on marijuana products as well as new regulations intended to give local municipalities, including…
SEATTLE (AP) — Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in…
Significant adjustments have been made to Connecticut House Bill No. 5150, the omnibus cannabis/hemp legislation that is waiting to be taken up by the full House. An amended version of…