Los Angeles Business Journal

Recently, the Los Angeles Business Journal featured Katchko, Vitiello & Karikomi, PC founder Yelena Katchko in a hard hitting article on the state of the Los Angeles Social Equity Program. Read the article here.

The Social Equity Program is the third phase of cannabis licensure in Los Angeles, and is designed to bring cannabis industry opportunities to those disproportionately affected by the enforcement of drug laws, including minorities and low-income households.

From the Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation:

“Cannabis criminalization and its enforcement has had long-term, adverse impacts to the City of Los Angeles, particularly for low income and minority community members.

“The City of Los Angeles is one of the few jurisdictions in the United States attempting to address the impacts of past cannabis policies and their inequities by developing and implementing cannabis policies that seek to center equity in cannabis policy reform.

“The Social Equity Program (SEP) is one tool the City of Los Angeles is using to begin to acknowledge and repair the harm caused by the War on Drugs and the disparate enforcement of cannabis prohibition. The goal of the Social Equity Program is, ‘to promote equitable ownership and employment opportunities in the cannabis industry in order to decrease disparities in life outcomes for marginalized communities, and to address the disproportionate impacts of the War on Drugs in those communities.'”

Offering her thoughts on the timing for final processing and actual operation of Social Equity Program Licensees, Yelena Katchko commented: “The best-case scenario for these businesses to get operating is early fall,” “[t]hat’s assuming the business already has a fully ready-to-go facility,” she said, adding that this scenario was unlikely for many applicants.

Read the Los Angeles Business Journal’s original article here.

By GianDominic Vitiello, April 28, 2020

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