California officials are accepting another round of applications for grants to support local efforts to promote equity in the marijuana industry.
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) announced on Monday that it is accepting grant solicitations for the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, with plans to use cannabis tax revenue to fund new and existing equity programs for those who have been disproportionately impacted by the drug war.
Eligible cities and counties can apply for the grants through December 14.
“Offering technical support, regulatory compliance assistance, and assistance with securing the capital necessary to begin a business will further the stated intent of [legalization] by reducing barriers to entry into the regulated cannabis industry,” GO-Biz said. “Offering these types of support will also aid the state in its goal of eliminating or reducing the illicit cannabis market by bringing more people into the legal marketplace.”
The fiscal year 2022-23 grant solicitation for the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions is now available!
The grant solicitation, online application portal, application user guide & required documents can be found here: https://t.co/KUC7Spg2VT
— GO-Biz (@CAGoBiz) October 4, 2022
GO-Biz started accepting applications for an earlier round of grants under the program around this time last year, with a total of $35 million made available for localities across the state. This year’s funding cap is set at $15 million.
The department separately distributed a round of community reinvestment grants earlier this year totaling $35.5 million with tax revenue generated from recreational marijuana sales.
GO-Biz announced in July that they’ve awarded 78 grants to organizations throughout the state that will support economic and social development in communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. The amount of funding and number of recipients for that program increased from last year’s levels, when the state awarded about $29 million in grants to 58 nonprofit organizations through the CalCRG program.
Meanwhile, the state is also taking steps to bring more marijuana businesses above board as it continues to mitigate the illicit market.
California started granting provisional marijuana business licenses as a way to more quickly stand up the adult-use market. That temporary licensing category was set to expire last year, but it was extended to give localities more time to complete the permitting process and meet environmental requirements.
Since then, the state has identified a number of jurisdictions that may need additional support to get those provisional licensees into the traditional, annual license category. A separate grant program run by the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) is providing that licensure funding.
Ensuring that localities are able to effectively stand up a regulated industry is especially important in California, where more than half of the state’s jurisdictions have banned cannabis businesses from operating in their area, which has helped sustain the illicit trade.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), along with regulators and lawmakers, have attempted to resolve the issue through different means.
The governor has signed about a dozen pieces of cannabis reform legislation in the past month, including one proposal that will prevent localities from blocking medical cannabis deliveries, along with measures on interstate cannabis commerce, employment protections for consumers and record sealing of past convictions.
The legislature delivered numerous cannabis bills to Newsom near the end of the session, and he acted on the majority of them in one fell swoop last month. The governor said the reforms were necessary to help fulfill the promises of legalization and continue to address the collateral consequences of prohibition.
Newsom as a long record of supporting marijuana reform and backing the state’s market, so he’s generally been expected to sign reform measures delivered to his desk. But despite his record, he recently vetoed a key piece of drug policy reform legislation that would have authorized a safe drug consumption site pilot program in the state—a move that’s prompted widespread criticism from the harm reduction community.
San Francisco officials have since signaled that they’re prepared to defy the governor and launch an overdose prevention program regardless of the veto.
In another disappointment for reform advocates, a separate bill that would have legalized possession of limited amounts of certain psychedelics was recently pulled by the sponsor after its main provisions were gutted, leaving just a study component that advocates say is unnecessary given the existing body of scientific literature on the subject.
Here’s an overview of other recent drug policy developments in California:
In July, California officials awarded more than $1.7 million in grants help promote sustainable marijuana cultivation practices and assist growers with obtaining their annual licenses. A total of $6 million will be allotted through the program, which was first announced in August 2021 and will remain open for applications through April 2023.
Regulators also recently announced that they are soliciting input on proposed rules to standardize cannabis testing methods in the state—an effort that they hope will stop marijuana businesses from “laboratory shopping” to find facilities that are more likely to show higher THC concentrations that they can then boast for their products.
California has taken in nearly $4 billion in marijuana tax revenue since the state’s adult-use market launched in 2018, the Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) reported in July. And for the first quarter of 2022, the state saw about $294 million in cannabis revenue generated from the excise, cultivation and sales tax on marijuana.
The state collected about $817 million in adult-use marijuana tax revenue during the last fiscal year. That represented 55 percent more cannabis earnings for state coffers than was generated in the 2020-2021 period.
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