[ad_1]
Would-be partners have offered Abel Ochoa “crazy amounts of money” for the social equity marijuana license he and his cousin own.
“I had somebody offer me $17 million,” he said, laughing. “If I would’ve just took the money, like yeah, that would’ve been nice. But what, what would’ve been the purpose behind it?”
He and his cousin, Diana Pineda, turned them all down. Ochoa instead borrowed a nominal amount of cash from his parents, who own a small restaurant. He and Pineda are now the only social equity license holders, out of 26, who both own and control their own dispensary.
The other 25 are controlled, and in many cases owned outright, by partners — mainly multistate cannabis companies.
Arizona voters created the social equity license program by approving the state’s recreational marijuana law in 2020. It defined the program as aiming “to promote the ownership and operation of marijuana establishments and marijuana testing facilities by individuals from communities disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of previous marijuana laws.”
Advocates of legal marijuana and social justice activists warned at the time the program only would add to the tally of dispensaries owned by wealthy corporations. And that’s just what happened.
[ad_2]
Source link
