So far, not a single one of the 56 cannabis licenses that have been awarded in New Jersey has gone to a Black entrepreneur, advocates say.
WEST ORANGE, NJ — NOTE: This article has been updated with a statement from the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, which has disputed claims from the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey and Rep. Donald Payne Jr.
For Corey Dishmen and Charles Penn, the people who make up the “cannabis culture” of New Jersey have always been “100 percent inclusive of everyone.” And that goes for the people who work in the marijuana business, too.
But according to the owners of The Library – who are hoping to open New Jersey’s first, Black-owned cannabis dispensary in West Orange – there’s no denying that the state has a long way to go when it comes to social justice and marijuana.
As late as 2017, New Jersey was averaging 95 marijuana possession arrests per day, or nearly one arrest every 15 minutes. The ACLU-NJ said that – as in previous years – Black people stood almost a 3-to-1 higher chance of being arrested on a marijuana charge in New Jersey than white people that year.
When narrowed by county, the racial gap in arrests got even starker in some portions of the state, the ACLU-NJ pointed out. Black people in Hunterdon County were 11 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. In Ocean County, Black people were arrested at seven times the rate for possession. And in Salem County, the disparity was six times the rate.
When the state’s new Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) took over the licensing process for recreational and medical marijuana businesses, one of its duties was to make sure that diversity among the new owners remained balanced.
But that’s not happening at all, some say … not by a long shot.
So far, not a single one of the licenses that have been awarded for cannabis businesses in the state has gone to a Black entrepreneur, according to the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.
“Based on conversations I’ve had, with stakeholders, out of the 56 licenses awarded to date, none has been awarded to a Black-owned business,” said the chamber’s founder, John Harmon.
“People need to know what’s going on,” Harmon added.
Harmon said that many Black-owned businesses have been trying to get into the state’s cannabis industry since 2012, when medical marijuana became legal in New Jersey. And just like back then, Black entrepreneurs are being passed over and marginalized, he alleged.
“No Black-owned business received a license back then, and none has received a license since the legalization of cannabis for recreational use thus far,” Harmon said.
The state hasn’t balked at making these entrepreneurs pay for the privilege of applying for a license, however, he added.
According to Harmon, the commission requires that applicants maintain site control while its members consider their application. In other words, applicants must have legal access to and control of the real estate at which their businesses will be operated. This means that many applicants are hit with mounting monthly lease payments which can’t be deducted as a business expense, especially considering that marijuana use is still prohibited on a federal level, he said.
“It’s a costly proposition for Black license applicants to wait indefinitely while the CRC drags its feet in awarding licenses,” Harmon said.
“In his second inaugural address, Gov. Phil Murphy touted the creation of the cannabis industry in the name of social justice,” Harmon said. “The clock is ticking, and social justice remains denied to Black entrepreneurs.”
“The African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey is tired of watching and waiting,” Harmon concluded. “We urge Gov. Murphy to exert his influence to speed up the licensing process and award licenses to Black entrepreneurs in the name of social justice.”
U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., who represents New Jersey’s 10th District, including West Orange, backed up the chamber in a recent statement.
“I am outraged to hear that Black-owned businesses have been shut out of the state’s cannabis marketplace,” the congressman wrote.
It’s especially egregious considering that Black marijuana users are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white marijuana users – even though overall use for both groups is almost the same, Payne continued.
“New Jersey has a chance to correct this inequality and allow people abused by the system to finally benefit from it with a fair distribution of cannabis business licenses,” he said. “Instead, we are seeing the same inequality with these licenses that we see in marijuana arrests.”
“Governor Phil Murphy promised that the state’s cannabis industry would right the wrongs of the past as it concerns social justice,” Payne said. “Now, New Jersey needs to uphold this promise. I join the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey in their outrage that this inequality continues to plague our state, our society and our country.”
NJ COMMISSION: WE HAVEN’T GIVEN ANY LICENSES YET
The CRC has since disputed the accuracy of the statements from the chamber and Rep. Payne.
According to Toni-Anne Blake, a spokesperson with the commission, it hasn’t awarded any recreational licenses since it began taking applications from cannabis cultivators, manufacturers and testing labs in December 2021.
As of Monday, the state has received 358 recreational license applications. A breakdown by race wasn’t immediately available.
Applications for class 5 retail licenses will be accepted beginning on March 15.
“I don’t know if they are confusing the recreational licensing process with old 2018 and 2019 statutorily mandated RFAs for medicinal cannabis that were being administered under the New Jersey Department of Health,” Blake told Patch.
“Even so, we have not released any information about the 2019 applicants, so we don’t know where that information would be coming from, and it would be false that none of the awardees identify as Black-owned businesses,” she told Patch.
Under the CRC’s rules, social equity businesses, diversely-owned businesses, microbusinesses, and conditional license applicants will be prioritized in their review and scoring. These include businesses owned by people with past cannabis convictions, those from designated “economically disadvantaged areas, and minority-owned, woman-owned and disabled-veteran owned businesses.
THE WAITING GAME
The lack of representation in the marijuana industry isn’t unique to New Jersey, reports suggest.
Nationwide, Black people make up 14 percent of the U.S. population, yet only 2 percent of America’s estimated 30,000 cannabis companies are Black-owned, according to a 2021 report from cannabis information website Leafly.
The $18.3 billion dollar industry now supports 321,000 full-time American jobs, researchers said.
Source: https://patch.com/new-jersey/westorange/no-black-owners-have-been-licensed-nj-legalized-marijuana
