You may have seen us in a few of these publications:
2021
Weedmaps & Black Enterprise | February 22
Women Leading the Cannabis Conversation
LA Update - What will 2021 licensing opportunities be in the biggest market in the world?
[Manzuri Law | February 10] The first Cannabis Commission hearing of 2021 was packed with information for LA operators and applicants. Here are the key takeaways from the Executive Director's Report impacting all applicants:
5 weed products Kika Keith can't live without.
[Weedmaps | February 5] For Kika Keith, tackling the beast of reforming cannabis social equity in Los Angeles has been a long journey, one she never expected would last for as long as it has.
Keith is a single mother to three girls, serial entrepreneur, cannabis advocate, founder of Life Development Group, co-founder of the Social Equity Owners and Workers Association (SEOWA), and now a Social Equity cannabis retail license owner. As a South-Central Los Angeles native, she was raised in a household and community where there wasn't much of a stigma around cannabis.
L.A. social equity marijuana retailers allowed to apply for state licenses
[Marijuana Business Daily | February 3] Roughly two dozen of 200 upcoming social equity marijuana retailers in Los Angeles got the greenlight from city regulators to apply for the required state permits, marking slow but steady progress in the municipality’s march toward industry expansion.
2020
WebJoint | September 3
Social Equity: Up in Smoke – Accela is the second installment of WebJoint’s documentary series highlighting Los Angeles’s Social Equity Program.
The fallout stemming from the DCR’s Phase 3, Round 1 retail licensing process left many applicants confused; their application status was left at an indefinite standstill. With over 800 applicants waiting for answers, the Department of Cannabis Regulations (DCR) has faced scrutiny, a third-party audit, and an applicant-led lawsuit in the last 6 months. To ameliorate its relationship with the community, the DCR proposes several policy reforms to ensure a more equitable retail licensing process moving forward.
But how did we get here?
This documentary delves deep into the fallout of Phase 3, Round 1 of LA’s Social Equity Program through the journeys of Jumane Redway (the first application to be submitted), Evelyn Scott (who would’ve received a license had it not been for the normalization process), and Kika Keith and Madison Shockley (applicants and community leaders who took the fight directly to the city). This episode also features expert witness, Jason Frankovitz, who analyzed the technical faults of the licensing process.
Their stories, collectively, shine a light on what is often left in the dark: the policy shortcomings of LA’s Social Equity Program, the severity of Accela’s technological mishap, and the DCR’s Normalization Process to ensure fairness.
Black Entrepreneurs Work To Fix LA’s Cannabis Equity Program, Root Out ‘Sharecropper’ Investing
[Forbes | September 2] For more than a year, Los Angeles entrepreneurs Kika Keith and Madison Shockley III have been waiting to see the city’s new equity program for cannabis retail licenses help put Black-owned businesses on the path to success — as was intended.
As a new documentary released this week shows, Keith and Shockley have also spent this time trying to remedy the failures of that equity program, on both the individual and legal level — and those legal efforts paid off in a big way this summer, according to the pair.
Weedmaps | September 2
Episode Three
Those who have the most to lose in an overtaxed and over-regulated cannabis marketplace are disadvantaged communities negatively impacted by the War on Drugs. There is a consensus that the economic value of cannabis legalization will bring forth an opportunity for an equitable industry.
But making that happen isn’t easy — local lawmakers and would-be business owners must navigate a complex web of regulatory challenges. The high cost of owning and operating a cannabis business is out of reach for too many. Members of the communities that were supposed to benefit from legalization find themselves in limbo, struggling to succeed in a market that’s stacked against them.
Lawmakers and regulators are working to create a more functional framework for cannabis in their communities, but the fight is not yet won. Prohibition in California persists despite the passage of Prop 64. It will take a lot of people working together to manifest the market Californians envisioned when they voted to legalize cannabis.
5 Questions With Antonio Javiniar, Alvaro Wong, & Kika Keith:WebJoint / Social Equity
[Forbes | September 1]
About WebJoint:
WebJoint is a METRC-certified eCommerce and inventory management software provider for over ⅓ of California's cannabis delivery services, providing automated driver dispatching, geofencing, real-time delivery tracking, compliance features and much more.
About SEOWA:
Social Equity Owners & Workers Association (“SEOWA") is a collective of Social Equity Applicants that share a passion and commitment to making sure the cannabis industry provides a chance to repair the destruction caused by the War on Drugs to minority communities through inclusion and ownership within the industry.
MJ Unpacked | August 24
Excerpt from MJ Unpacked - California conference program.
Cannabis entrepreneurs agree to drop lawsuit over ‘flawed’ licensing process
[Los Angeles Times | July 8] Cannabis entrepreneurs have agreed to drop a lawsuit over Los Angeles’ bitterly contested process for handing out licenses, after the city agreed to process more of the applicants vying to open new shops.
The Social Equity Owners and Workers Assn. and one of its members sued the city in April, arguing that the application process to open new shops was fatally flawed. Hundreds of people flooded the first-come, first-served system within minutes, hoping for a shot at just 100 licenses.
California Cannabis Industry Association | June 29
**Disclaimer: The information provided in this video does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only.
L.A. Pot Stakeholders Give New City Permit Plan Mixed Reviews
[LA Weekly | June 26] The reports’ main objectives include a plan to get temporary approval for all applicants, allowing relocations and clarifying the process around requests involving Public Convenience or Necessity.
The other main objectives are geared toward the nuts and bolts of the social equity program. They would allow individuals to participate based on the original criteria or new criteria as supported by the Expanded Cannabis Social Equity Analysis. That new analysis is among the reports transmitted to the city council. It also includes recommendations like using police reporting districts as geographical markers for the program, as opposed to zip codes to make it more inclusive to a wider geographic area hit disproportionately by the drug war.
L.A. Sued Over First-Come, First-Serve Cannabis Licensing
[Ganjapreneur | April 20] The city of Los Angeles, California is being sued by the Social Equity and Workers Assn. over its cannabis licensing process, the Los Angeles Times reports. The organization argues that the city’s application process in September was “flawed” and unfairly implemented and the lawsuit seeks to force the city to vet every single application turned in or roll out a new process that allows “an equal, fair and transparent opportunity.”
Cannabis Retail Applicants Sue Los Angeles Over Licensing Process
[Cannabis Business Times | April 20] Cannabis retail applicants are suing Los Angeles, arguing that the city’s controversial process to award its latest round of dispensary licenses was “flawed,” according to a Los Angeles Times report.
The Social Equity Owners and Workers Association and one of its members filed the lawsuit to force the city to vet all the dispensary applications it received last fall under its first-come, first-served process, which has been met with backlash. Alternatively, the lawsuit asks the city to launch a new licensing process that gives all applicants an equal shot at licenses, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Lawsuit seeks to overturn Los Angeles’ cannabis social equity licensing process.
[Marijuana Business Daily | April 20] A lawsuit filed last week aims to have the results of Los Angeles’ social equity retail licensing round last fall thrown out and the entire process redone.
The suit, filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, is led by the newly formed Social Equity Owners and Workers Association and actor-turned-cannabis entrepreneur Madison Theodore Shockley III.
Pot entrepreneurs sue LA over process for approving shops
[AP News | April 19] Marijuana entrepreneurs who want to open new pot shops in Los Angeles are suing the city, arguing that the application process for licenses was unfairly implemented, according to a newspaper report.
The lawsuit by the Social Equity Owners and Workers Association asks a judge to require the city to vet each of the hundreds of applications submitted under a first-come, first-served process for licenses, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. Barring that, the suit seeks a new process that gives everyone “an equal, fair and transparent opportunity” to compete for a license.
Marijuana entrepreneurs sue L.A. over ‘flawed’ process for approving pot shops
[Los Angeles Times | April 18] Cannabis entrepreneurs who want licenses to open new shops in Los Angeles are suing the city, arguing that an application process flooded by hundreds of competitors was “flawed” and unfairly implemented.
The lawsuit, filed this week by the Social Equity Owners and Workers Assn. and one of its members, is pushing for the city to vet every one of the applications turned in under a first-come, first-served process for a limited number of licenses — or to roll out a new process that gives everyone “an equal, fair and transparent opportunity” to compete for a license.
Audit says L.A. took ‘reasonable’ steps to prevent unfairness in cannabis licensing
[Los Angeles Times | March 31] A newly released audit found that although some cannabis entrepreneurs got into Los Angeles’ application system ahead of time, the city took “reasonable and appropriate” steps to prevent them from having any unfair advantage.
An L.A. official is recommending, in light of those findings, that the Department of Cannabis Regulation press forward with processing and awarding licenses for new retailers, which had been suspended last year amid concerns about fairness.
WebJoint | February 28
Corey Rogan and Raheem Giddens share their stories as applicants of Los Angeles's Social Equity program for cannabis retail. From dealing with shady investors to attempting to submit their application on a malfunctioning portal, their stories are just a few of the many that reflect the current status of LA's social equity program. Community leaders, Kika Keith and Madison Shockley, join the documentary to explain the intricacies of predatory investors, a glitch-filled submission portal, and a massive coverup by the city of Los Angeles.
Cheddar News | February 11
A Los Angeles social equity program set out to help minorities adversely affected by cannabis criminalization. Activist and program applicant Kika Keith joins Cheddar to share first-hand what went wrong in the system.
'This was supposed to be reparations': Why is LA's cannabis industry devastating black entrepreneurs?
[The Guardian | February 3] A Los Angeles government program set up to provide cannabis licenses to people harmed by the war on drugs has been plagued by delays, scandal and bureaucratic blunders, costing some intended beneficiaries hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
Black entrepreneurs and activists across LA told the Guardian that the city’s embattled “social equity” program has left aspiring business owners on an indefinite waiting list, causing potentially irreparable damage to their families’ finances and preventing them from opening marijuana shops they have been planning for years.
She embodied the hopes for L.A.’s cannabis program. Can she overcome its stumbles?
[Los Angeles Times | January 12] When Cat Packer was chosen to head a Los Angeles city department that would help usher in the legalization of marijuana, then-Council President Herb Wesson billed her appointment as a bold example of what Los Angeles stood for.
Packer had been an activist with the Drug Policy Alliance who was firmly focused on how the war on drugs had battered communities of color. She was young, black and openly gay, with tailored suits, hair cut in a fade, and the cool, deliberate speech of a lawyer, and she had wowed Wesson at City Hall when she laid out statistics about racial inequity.
2019
L.A. officials say system for pot licenses was open early. Cannabis activists call foul
[Los Angeles Times | December 16 ] Hundreds of cannabis entrepreneurs rushed to turn in applications in September, eager to snap up the limited number of licenses that Los Angeles was offering up for new pot shops on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The hotly contested process soon came under fire: After the Department of Cannabis Regulation revealed that two applicants had gotten into the application system early after their passwords were reset, City Council President Herb Wesson called to suspend the licensing process and Mayor Eric Garcetti sought an independent audit.
WebJoint | December 13
The WebJoint Team covered the Los Angeles Cannabis Regulation Commission's December 6th, 2019 meeting. We followed Antidote, a social equity applicant, who sheds light on the trials and tribulations of the program as it proceeds with a city-wide audit. The audit is expected to stall the licensing process for hundreds of social equity applicants, who have been paying rent on their properties for over 18 months without a single retail license being issued by the city.
LA pot business hopefuls cry foul over investor's social equity success
[Politico | December 4] The cannabis social equity program in California's largest city was designed to give communities most impacted by drug laws the first shot at acquiring new dispensary licenses, but the rollout has instead left community leaders questioning how one well-connected firm managed to dominate the process.
Some social equity advocates are crying foul after the city’s first-come, first-served application system resulted in the company 4thMVMT landing at least 11 spots in the first 100 on track to obtain licenses. They say the intended individuals hoping to overcome their past struggles never stood a chance.
Should Neighborhood Councils Have More Oversight On Local Cannabis Issues?
[University Times | November 20] Of 14 neighborhood councils throughout Los Angeles, just one has a cannabis committee.
Some folks who are part of the South LA Alliance of Neighborhood Councils –– which is made up of 14 neighborhood councils –– say that should change because the 2016 legalization of recreational marijuana in California affects local residents, who should have a say in what happens.
Life Development Group | November 6
WebJoint | November 6
It's no secret that the application process for social equity applicants in Los Angeles has been disorganized. Accela, the technology company that built the application platform, and the DCR admitted that there were two applicants that had early access to the application platform. When applicants selected "forgot password" and followed the prompts, they were able to submit their application before the enrollment window even opened putting others at a disadvantage. Cat Packer discusses the "normalization" procedure the DCR agreed to along with other hiccups in the application process. Many are calling for a do-over of the application process. What do you think?
As cannabis entrepreneurs vie for L.A. licenses, politicians could have big sway
[Los Angeles Times | November 3] Los Angeles politicians vowed that neighborhoods would not be overrun with marijuana businesses after the city started regulating and licensing pot shops.
They imposed limits on how many pot shops and other cannabis businesses could open in each area, aiming to prevent an “undue concentration” of marijuana enterprises in each part of L.A.
L.A. City Council President Calls for Retail Cannabis Licensing Redo
[Ganjapreneur | November 1] Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson this week called on city regulators to not approve any new retail cannabis licenses, suggesting the latest licensing round — which kicked off in September — has been flawed from the start, the Los Angeles Times reports.
High-ly suspect: LA Council president wants to halt pot shop licensing; calls process “unfair”
[The Real Deal | October 30] Los Angeles’ efforts to introduce cannabis retail stores through licenses has been far from pain-free, with blackmarket sellers popping up faster than law enforcement can crack down.
L.A. should suspend vetting applications for pot shops amid concerns, Wesson urges
[Los Angeles Times | October 29 ] Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson has called on the city to suspend the approval process for new shops selling cannabis products, arguing that the latest round of the licensing process was “compromised” by some people gaining early access to the application system.
Turmoil abounds over Los Angeles’ latest marijuana business licensing and its social equity program.
[Marijuana Business Daily | October 25] Los Angeles’ latest marijuana business licensing round – which opened last month and has yet to award any retail permits – has many hopeful applicants outraged and threatening to take drastic action if major changes aren’t made.
Hundreds reportedly appeared Thursday for the city’s Cannabis Regulation Commission meeting, where allegations of corruption, incompetence, and basic unfairness were leveled at city officials, including Cat Packer, the head of the L.A. Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR). Packer defended the agency.
Los Angeles’ Cannabis Commission seeks to improve social equity program amid complaints
[Los Angeles Daily News | October 24] The Social Equity Program is open to people who are low-income status and/or have a low-level criminal history related to cannabis and operate in a "dispensary-impacted area," most of which are located in South Los Angeles and Hollywood.
Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation Partners with Accela to Launch Online Application Submission Capability for Innovative Cannabis Social Equity Program
[Cision PR Newswire | October 16] Accela, the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for government, today announced the successful launch of Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR)'s new Social Equity Program license application, powered by Accela technology. The trailblazing Social Equity Program provides priority application processing and other business development services to individuals impacted by past cannabis enforcement and the war on drugs.
Accela Online Submission Failure
[Marijuana Business Daily | October] After nearly two years of delays and setbacks, the City of Los Angeles Social Equity Program has succumbed to public corruption. first round of Phase 3 Commercial Cannabis Licensing for 100 Social Equity retail storefront dispensaries. This phase of licensing was intended to prioritize victims of the failed War on Drugs.
Advocates Stress Need for Equity in Cannabis During Museum of Weed Panel
[Weedmaps | October 1] Members of the diverse communities that were savaged by the war on drugs are working together to be sure that they will not be cast aside in today's cannabis industry.
Whether they're politicians, pastors, entrepreneurs or activists, social equity advocates are united in ensuring that the predicted economic boon of legalized marijuana will not leave them behind.
In LA Visit, Beto O’Rourke Discusses Homelessness and Legal Cannabis.
[Courthouse News Service | September 17] The same day President Donald Trump hosted a $100,000 a plate fundraiser in Southern California, 2020 Democratic candidate and Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke met with women living on Los Angeles’ Skid Row.
O’Rourke’s visit to the Golden State coincided with multiple fundraising events on behalf of Trump’s re-election campaign. While Trump was in the Bay area for his morning fundraiser, O’Rourke began his day with a visit to the Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles.
KJLH | July 29
Today, July 29th is the last day to register for Pre-Verification as a Social Equity Applicant. Kika Keith goes on the Domonique Diprima show KJLH to inform Black residents of Los Angeles about the Social Equity Program.
Enticed by promises they could start cannabis companies, people of color are still waiting
[Los Angeles Times | July 20] Marcy Lyles, a single mother of three boys, has been trying to break into the cannabis business for a while now.
She is black, low-income and a resident of the Crenshaw area, which makes her a perfect candidate for the city’s cannabis social equity program, designed to give the people and places most affected by the misbegotten war on drugs a piece of the potentially lucrative cannabis business.
'Social Equity' Applicants Are Still Waiting For Their Cannabis Licenses
[LAist | April 30] When California legalized recreational cannabis at the start of 2018, the city of Los Angeles wanted to use the opportunity to right some of the wrongs inflicted by the War on Drugs.
Under the city's rules, people from low-income neighborhoods with disproportionately high prior cannabis arrests would be among the first to get approval to launch new cannabis businesses.
Pot entrepreneurs are running out of patience and money while waiting on L.A. permits
[Los Angeles Times | February 17] For Kika Keith, a dream deferred looks like a bare, brightly illuminated room in South Los Angeles.
After California legalized recreational cannabis, Los Angeles leaders had vowed that entrepreneurs such as her — with roots in communities hit hardest by the war on drugs — would get an upper hand in L.A.’s potentially lucrative marijuana market. Keith, a single mother of three, snapped up a lease on a Leimert Park storefront and lined up an investor.
2018
Hold Your Horses: Los Angeles EMMDs Will Soon be Prevented from Relocating
[Harris Bricken | November 5] Los Angeles’s existing medical marijuana dispensaries (“EMMDs”) under Measure M will soon be precluded from relocating from their current operations unless and until they receive their local annual licenses from the City of Los Angeles. Movement post-initial application to L.A. has been a common practice for EMMDs for some time, and has apparently caused a rift with other potential commercial cannabis licensees who were effectively “zoned out” based on buffer requirements when an EMMD moved into their planned licensed territory (non-EMMD storefronts have to be no less than 700 feet from each other). The new requirement goes into effect soon—but just how soon remains to be seen.
Los Angeles scraps marijuana tax ballot measure
[Marijuana Business Daily | July 31] The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday abruptly changed course and yanked a proposed cannabis tax ballot measure that was poised to go before voters in November.
The tax measure, dubbed the Cannabis Reinvestment Act, would have established a further 1% tax on all gross receipts for commercial marijuana activity, a $5 surcharge for tickets to MJ events and a $5 surcharge on cannabis tests performed by labs.