Or, as they succinctly say in their piece. “The proposed High Times dispensary is an intersectional crash of these two types of equity — as the iconic counterculture magazine High Times moves into the world of Wall Street investment deals. The outcome of this curious conflict could prove a potent case study in what private equity and social equity look like in the new and evolving recreational marijuana era.”
California retail-chain dispensaries are not like supermarket chains. Each individual franchise is often legally structured as its own Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), so a given store can comply with cannabis regulations that differ between individual cities and counties.
Bronson says his LLC is being used as a pawn by large, cutthroat corporate players. Bronson’s dispensary was initially to be named Have a Heart — as it was originally part of a Seattle-based chain of 10 Have a Heart dispensaries that spanned Washington, California, and Iowa. His LLC was called HAH 2 CA, and in compliance with San Francisco Office of Cannabis equity rules, he owned a 40 percent share of that LLC and was appointed CEO.
“I met the income guidelines,” he says, noting he satisfied other social justice criteria, as well: he’d been evicted in San Francisco and has a previous cannabis arrest (although, he notes, he was not convicted).
Read more at https://www.sfweekly.com/news/cannabis/high-times-called-out-for-canna-greed-in-pot-shop-deal/
