Mikah Whitecloud prepares NativeCare, Red Lake Nation’s recreational marijuana dispensary, for the first day of sales on Aug. 1, 2023. NativeCare was the first adult use cannabis dispensary to open in Minnesota. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.
Between 30% and 40% of Minnesota adults could plausibly qualify as “social equity” applicants for cannabis business licenses, according to a Reformer estimate based on the new equity rules approved by the Legislature this year.
Lawmakers initially created the social equity category as a way to prioritize business applications from Minnesotans who have been harmed by marijuana prohibition in the past.
“It is the state’s responsibility to undo” the harm of prohibition, Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, told the Star Tribune in March. “That means we have to aim the benefits proportionally at the communities that were harmed,” said Port, a chief author in the Senate.
But the social equity criteria written into law now include a number of economic and social measures that go beyond individuals and communities who have been targeted for past marijuana enforcement. They encompass anyone who:
Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine, was the only Republican member of the conference committee that hashed out differences between the House and Senate versions of this year’s bill. He says many Republicans supported the idea of granting social equity status to individuals with prior cannabis convictions and military veterans, but “then they tried to loop in all these other groups that weren’t very well defined, and it’s because they really wanted to put race in the bill.”
Numbers for the first three items on the list above can be estimated using federal data from the Census Bureau and CDC. Residents of more than one-third of the state’s 1,504 census tracts, which are small subdivisions of cities and counties, likely qualify based on the poverty, income, food stamp and social vulnerability criteria, provided they’ve lived in those neighborhoods for at least five years.
Roughly 1.1 million people — 25% of the state’s 4.4 million adults — have lived at the same addresses within those tracts for more than five years, according to the U.S. Census data. Adding in the state’s 327,000 veterans, and then subtracting the roughly 100,000 veterans who live in the qualifying census tracts, brings the total up to 1.3 million adults, or a little over 30% of the total adult population.
This is a low estimate that doesn’t include prior cannabis convictions, which number at least in the tens of thousands and likely hundreds of thousands once family convictions are factored in. It also doesn’t include hundreds of small farm operators with revenue less than $100,000, or people living in neighborhoods that have experienced disproportionate cannabis enforcement, as the study to determine that hasn’t been released yet.
The estimate also uses a strict definition of time in residence that excludes an unknown number of people who move to a different home in the same census tract.
These numbers are hypothetical, and much will depend on how the Office of Cannabis Management interprets the language of the statute. Factors like poverty rate definitions, social vulnerability thresholds, and neighborhood delineations can all affect which geographic areas are ultimately included.
Other states have used similarly broad definitions in setting up their social equity programs, according to the Minority Cannabis Business Association, a trade group. The organization notes that living up to the promise of these programs has proven to be a challenge, and that “the use of non-race criteria in the social equity qualifications and definitions has not yielded diverse cannabis markets.”
by Christopher Ingraham, Minnesota Reformer
May 28, 2024
by Christopher Ingraham, Minnesota Reformer
May 28, 2024
Between 30% and 40% of Minnesota adults could plausibly qualify as “social equity” applicants for cannabis business licenses, according to a Reformer estimate based on the new equity rules approved by the Legislature this year.
Lawmakers initially created the social equity category as a way to prioritize business applications from Minnesotans who have been harmed by marijuana prohibition in the past.
“It is the state’s responsibility to undo” the harm of prohibition, Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, told the Star Tribune in March. “That means we have to aim the benefits proportionally at the communities that were harmed,” said Port, a chief author in the Senate.
But the social equity criteria written into law now include a number of economic and social measures that go beyond individuals and communities who have been targeted for past marijuana enforcement. They encompass anyone who:
Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine, was the only Republican member of the conference committee that hashed out differences between the House and Senate versions of this year’s bill. He says many Republicans supported the idea of granting social equity status to individuals with prior cannabis convictions and military veterans, but “then they tried to loop in all these other groups that weren’t very well defined, and it’s because they really wanted to put race in the bill.”
Numbers for the first three items on the list above can be estimated using federal data from the Census Bureau and CDC. Residents of more than one-third of the state’s 1,504 census tracts, which are small subdivisions of cities and counties, likely qualify based on the poverty, income, food stamp and social vulnerability criteria, provided they’ve lived in those neighborhoods for at least five years.
Roughly 1.1 million people — 25% of the state’s 4.4 million adults — have lived at the same addresses within those tracts for more than five years, according to the U.S. Census data. Adding in the state’s 327,000 veterans, and then subtracting the roughly 100,000 veterans who live in the qualifying census tracts, brings the total up to 1.3 million adults, or a little over 30% of the total adult population.
This is a low estimate that doesn’t include prior cannabis convictions, which number at least in the tens of thousands and likely hundreds of thousands once family convictions are factored in. It also doesn’t include hundreds of small farm operators with revenue less than $100,000, or people living in neighborhoods that have experienced disproportionate cannabis enforcement, as the study to determine that hasn’t been released yet.
The estimate also uses a strict definition of time in residence that excludes an unknown number of people who move to a different home in the same census tract.
These numbers are hypothetical, and much will depend on how the Office of Cannabis Management interprets the language of the statute. Factors like poverty rate definitions, social vulnerability thresholds, and neighborhood delineations can all affect which geographic areas are ultimately included.
Other states have used similarly broad definitions in setting up their social equity programs, according to the Minority Cannabis Business Association, a trade group. The organization notes that living up to the promise of these programs has proven to be a challenge, and that “the use of non-race criteria in the social equity qualifications and definitions has not yielded diverse cannabis markets.”
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and Twitter.
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Christopher Ingraham covers greater Minnesota and reports on data-driven stories across the state. He’s the author of the book “If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now,” about his family’s journey from the Baltimore suburbs to rural northwest Minnesota. He was previously a data reporter for the Washington Post.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell. We’re in the halls of government tracking what elected officials are up to — and monitoring the powerful forces trying to influence them. But we’re also on the streets, at the bars and parks, on farms and in warehouses, telling you stories of the people being affected by the actions of government and big business. And we’re free. No ads. No paywall.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website.
© Minnesota Reformer, 2024
More than one-third of adults may qualify for social equity cannabis licenses • Minnesota Reformer – Minnesota Reformer
