By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent
St. Louis couple Tiffany Lee and Anwar Lee believe that Missouri’s marijuana industry is the “new gold rush” and are considering purchasing a lottery ticket to gain entry.
The $1,500 fee is for an application to be entered into a lottery that will allow them to apply for a small number of cannabis licenses. If they are not selected, the money is refunded. The program was designed to increase opportunities for businesses located in underserved communities. It is part of the constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana , which voters approved in November.
Anwar Lee, a state marijuana regulator, said in an interview conducted at a St. Louis outreach event last month that there was always room for making money or maintaining a decent standard.
Abigail Vivas was Missouri’s chief equity officer and she explained all of the requirements to obtain a microbusiness licence. The Lees attended the event. She also held three outreach event in Jefferson City and Lee’s Summit last month.
Even if they meet the requirements for eligibility, the chances of them winning are slim.
The Missouri Lottery will select six winners in each of Missouri’s eight Congressional Districts in August. This totals 48 licenses.
Vivas, who oversees microbusiness programs through the cannabis regulatory agency within the Department of Health and Senior Services estimates that there could be as many as 5,000 applicants in the state. She’s also heard that there could be up to 1,000 applicants per congressional district.
When marijuana legalization supporters were making their case last year to voters, the microbusiness program served as the main retort to opponents who argued that the law would cement a unjust and distrusted business licensing system to ensure the wealthy just got richer.
Supporters boasted about the fact that the program would be the first in the country and help to diversify an industry dominated by whites.
Vivas, however, said that this goal was not exactly stated in the constitution.
Vivas stated that equity is not mentioned in the microbusiness plan, but I believe it is important to return to the spirit of the program.
Adolphus Pruitt of the St. Louis City NAACP, and one of those who drafted the microbusiness provision of the legalization amendment said that the word “equity”, which is in the definition of microbusiness in the constitution, does not need to be there.
Pruitt stated that “when you look at categories and qualifications, it’s clear that the qualifications are designed for people who have been impacted by unjustly enforced marijuana laws.” No one would deny that this population is overwhelmingly African Americans.
Pruitt stated that state regulators were “clear” in their conversations with DHSS and Vivas.
Categories
Seven categories are available for people to qualify for a license. These range from having a low income or living in a region considered to be impoverished, to past arrests and incarcerations relating to marijuana offenses.
Pruitt said that most people with whom he works will apply in the category where the applicant – their parent, guardian, or spouse – has been arrested, prosecuted, or convicted for a nonviolent marijuana offence. This does not include convictions for distributing marijuana to minors or driving while under the influence.
He said that the second category would be the areas where poverty and unemployment are high.
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DHSS has recently released ZIP codes that correspond to these two categories: areas where 30% or more of the residents live below the federal poverty line or where unemployment rates are 50% higher than state averages.
Pruitt encourages applicants to use the Census tracts in which they reside. Vivas encouraged people to use the Missouri Census Data Center to find their Census tract. This helped DHSS identify eligible ZIP codes for these two categories.
There is a grey area in the category of ZIP codes, where marijuana offenses are punished at a rate 50 percent higher than that for the state.
Cecil King of the cannabis advocacy group Norml St. Louis said that the program’s goal was to “rollback the war on drugs.”
When DHSS added ZIP codes, the agency thought that historic incarceration rate were correlated with courthouses and not neighborhoods. There is now a slim chance that someone living in downtown Clayton, one of the wealthiest suburbs in St. Louis where the average household’s income is $200,000, could apply for and win a Microlicense.
King explained that the microbusiness program was not to disseminate data to people in Clayton, but to help them.
Pruitt said that if this happens, the NAACP will challenge the license, because the courthouse addresses do not reflect the actual residence as required by the constitution.
He said that “any court would say the courthouse doesn’t represent the muster” of the amendment.
Vivas, who has a background in law enforcement, told an audience of St. Louis residents last month that this category “was going to be a big problem” due to the way criminal histories are documented.
She said, “It’s surprising that the Department of Corrections does not have data.” The other thing is that no one other than the Department of Corrections is required to work in this area.
She said that the Missouri Highway Patrol ultimately provided the data, but it took some time to obtain the data. She said that some ZIP codes for courthouses in rural Missouri may include the entire population of towns.
According to the Census, downtown Clayton and St. Charles are 90% Caucasian and have the lowest population density in St. Louis.
Vivas stated, “We’re not closing this door.” Vivas said, “But we felt that this was the best information available at the time and in the time frame to be able implement it.”
DHSS released a variation in June for this category, saying that they would accept other forms, such as elected officials who can attest to the historical incarceration rates.
Vivas acknowledged that the variance wasn’t entirely clear but said the department was committed to “flexibility as we can” to comply with the spirit of law.
She said that she was trying to find out what else there is.
The Missouri Independent first published this story.
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The post Missouri Holds Outreach Events As State Prepares for Marijuana Microbusiness Licensing Lottery first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
