Denver City Council on Monday night approved a new medical marijuana research and development license, marking the first phase of updates to the city’s marijuana regulations.
The vote came 12-1, with Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca in opposition. She said she could not support the ordinance due to a lack of equity built into the new licensing plan.
Currently, she said, there are less than 10 minority marijuana business owners across the state of Colorado.
“We have a major equity problem,” CdeBaca said. “We must delay this license type until we have an equity plan in place.”
Denver’s Department of Excise and Licenses has commissioned a disparity report, expected to be completed in the coming weeks, to help inform how the city’s social equity plan should work.
The plan will be used to help identify ways to provide more opportunity for people of color to enter the city’s marijuana space.
The cost of application and license fees for medical marijuana research and development facilities is about $5,000.
As of now, CdeBaca said, only one person of color is waiting to apply: Alberto Gutierrez, who is Latino and the CEO of MedPharm.
The company will reportedly apply for the R&D license to study the effects of marijuana on Alzheimer’s disease.
To apply for a new R&D license, according to the ordinance, all applications must provide a social impact plan, which includes a description of the applicant’s strategy to ensure diversity and inclusion among staff, an outline of sustainability practices, and a detailed plan to “foster participation in the regulated marijuana industry by people from communities that have previously been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement in order to positively impact those communities.”
In February, the city sent a bulletin to marijuana business owners to announce an updated timeline for a forthcoming marijuana business location lottery for new dispensaries and expanding cannabis operations.
The lottery will launch in 2021, marking the first time since 2016 that Denver will welcome new applications after the council placed a limit on the number of marijuana dispensary and grow houses.
The new system will set a cap on the number of dispensaries and cultivation spots each year. The lottery will be used to hand out any remaining opportunities.
The lottery ordinance was approved by City Council on April 6. It changes the date for the first location lottery from 2017 to 2021 to give the city “time needed to create a comprehensive marijuana licensing equity program that spans all license types prior to the first lottery,” according to city documents.