Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | June 22, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 15 industry nationally, but that's a low bar." Moving forward, Title said she'd like to see the CCC's equity program specifically target people of color, women and other marginalized groups, not just communities impacted by the War on Drugs. She highlighted the CCC's president and executive director penned a letter to the Massachusetts legislature, voicing support for a public loan fund for small cannabis businesses to avoid the problems with financing, and asking municipalities be required to have an equitable local approval process. "e process of hiring with diversity goals in mind means hiring where all kinds of people can thrive," Title said. "is is in contrast to determining whether an applicant is a 'good fit,' which [is] an outdated concept fraught with unconscious bias." Maintaining control Bradshaw went through the CCC licensing process as an economic empowerment applicant, a program meant to promote equity among cannabis businesses. He was one of the first nine people approved for the program in the state, according to CCC. ose eligible for the status must meet certain criteria to demonstrate the business is being run by people who have lived or worked with communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs, and/or who are part of those communities themselves. e CCC lists six possible criteria; eligible applicants must meet three. But the challenges Bradshaw has faced in moving New Dia toward an opening date exceed basic priority applicant eligibility thresholds. A main reason for his two-year wait is because of how hard it is for small cannabis companies to acquire the capital needed to get their businesses off the ground. Because cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, would-be entrepreneurs are unable to secure traditional bank loans and have to seek funding elsewhere, like private investors and wealthy family and friends. is is a particular challenge for people like Bradshaw who prioritize maintaining majority control of their company. "A lot of people like myself want to raise funds, but you don't want to lose control of your operations," he said. Retaining control is important to many small businesses, but especially to Bradshaw, who is building New Dia with the mission of supporting social justice and equality in the community. "It took a while… to find investors that were willing to work with us and share that same vision," Bradshaw said. Bradshaw retains 95% control of New Dia, which he said is unheard of. If the state were to reform the Economic Empowerment program to ensure it actually does what it is intended, Bradshaw said there needs to be support for helping its applicants access capital. Specifically, that means pushing through state legislation establishing a Social Equity Loan Fund culled from the cannabis excise tax. e bill is currently with the state's Senate Ways and Means committee, where it was sent on April 23. Secondly, Bradshaw said, license applications should be more meaningfully expedited for Economic Empowerment applicants. In other words, he said, if an applicant has all their ducks in a row, they should have their applications processed more quickly. Typically, he said, a would-be business owner needs to collect more capital as time wears on, effectively creating a cycle of challenges ultimately perpetuating themselves. Medical cannabis barriers Although adult-use cannabis oen takes up a lot of the public conversation, the state's medical marijuana business is fraught with a range of inequities. "Very few minorities, women, and veterans make up the medical cannabis license holders," said Nichole Snow, president and executive director of Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, in an email. Unlike for adult-use businesses, the CCC does not compile data on the medical marijuana program, as the medical side was established in 2012 before the CCC's creation in 2017 and was run by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health before it was transferred under the CCC's purview. Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance is pushing for reforms to encourage a more diverse applicant pool for medical cannabis licenses, Snow said. One of the greatest challenges toward promoting diversity again came back to access to capital. As it stands, medical marijuana companies in Massachusetts must be vertically integrated. is requires new business owners to have significantly more cash on hand when starting operations, because they have to cover everything from growing, manufacturing and selling their products, she said. MPAA is currently advocating for a state bill to eliminate the vertical integration requirement, as recreational cannabis businesses have no such requirement. e bill was referred to the Senate Ways and Means committee on April 21. Working toward racial equity in the Massachusetts cannabis industry will require a sustained, multilateral approach, as evidenced by advocates and officials already working in the field. But it will require more than rules and regulations, said Bradshaw. In his view, it will require not just policymakers, but community members, too, to commit to the effort from the top down. E N T R E P R E N E U R S & I N N O V A T I O N F O C U S W Knowledge + Experience + Trusted Advice. It all adds up. Large enough to serve the needs of most businesses and individuals; small enough to offer the personal attention you expect and deserve. Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull & Bitsoli, PC Certified Public Accountants 306 Main Street, Suite 400 • Worcester, MA 01608 508.791.0901 • www.grkb.com Marijuana employees, by race The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission requires all people who work at a recreational marijuana business to register. Among the information the CCC asks for is the employees' race and ethnicity, to determine if the industry is meeting its stated diversity goals. Source: Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission Race/ethnicity of employee White Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Black or African American Identified as two or more ethnicities Middle Eastern or North African American Indian or Alaska Native Other race or ethnicity Declined to answer % of all recreational marijuana employees (January 2019) 73.0% 6.4% 4.2% 1.5% 0.1% 0.1% 1.5% 11.9% % of all recreational marijuana employees (June 2020) 75.0% 6.6% 5.1% 1.8% 0.2% 0.1% 1.2% 8.7%

• Cover