More marijuana stores could be coming to the City of Sacramento. The city council plans to look into increasing the number of storefronts allowed to dispense marijuana in the area.
Daniel Conway began investing in the marijuana business early on. He’s helped co-found several companies and says additional storefronts in Sacramento are a step in the right direction.
“Sacramento has had retail dispensaries here for almost ten years now and so I think that speaks to the fact that those have been healthy sustainable businesses,” said Conway.
As of now, the city only allows 30 stores to operate. When one of those stores closes, the open spot is given to a new applicant, based on a lottery system.
“It’s important to be clear that of the 30 current dispensaries in operation now — none of them are Black-owned, none of them are Latino-owned,” said Malaki Amen, president of the California Urban Partnership.
The California Urban Partnership is an organization working to build economic security in communities of color. He says the discussion about increasing the limit of stores needs to expand into leveling the playing field and providing access to capital for minorities looking to get into the business.
Just this summer, Amen helped the city establish the Core Program which prioritizes residents or communities wanting to start marijuana-related businesses. These are people with past marijuana convictions and “communities impacted by the war on drugs.”
Amen says he’s eager to see if the city does indeed increase the limit on storefronts and how that impacts minority communities.
