Worcester Business Journal

Still not valuing diversity L ast June, Worcester had five operating cannabis dispensaries, including both adult-use and medical options. A little over a year later, that number has more than doubled, with 12 cannabis retail shops now open for business in the city proper. "Every time I look at our news clips, it's about another retailer opening in Worcester, and it's great to see," said Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commissioner Bruce Stebbins. at growth has taken place alongside criticism from cannabis and equity activists who say the state's industry continues to push out those the state's legalization program is expressly mandated to support: those from communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs. Inequalities in the industry persist, and large multistate operators continue to dominate the cannabis market, even in the face of several Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission programs designed to give certain groups of people a leg up in entering the industry, including those who are Black, African American, Hispanic, or Latino, children or spouses of someone with a drug offense on their record, or someone who has a drug offense on their own record, among other criteria. Aside from programs intended to help minorities and other groups enter the cannabis market across a variety of PHOTOS/MATT WRIGHT As they try to help the legal cannabis industry achieve its stated goals of benefitting disaffected communities, cannabis regulators and smaller operators are finding owners and executives don't make it a priority F O C U S D I V E R S I T Y & I N C L U S I O N BY MONICA BENEVIDES Worcester Business Journal Senior Staff Writer Ulysses Youngblood and Laury Lucien, co-founders of the Worcester dispensary Major Bloom, are one of the few businesses in the industry to hit their diversity targets. 12 Worcester Business Journal | September 13, 2021 | wbjournal.com

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