Comments420 FILE--I have a vested interest for the Los ANGELES Department Cannabis Regulation ( LA DCR) ‘social equity’ licensing process to work and ACTUALLY licensing cannabis operators for retail storefronts.
As a commercial real estate broker hired by operators in the Phase 3/Round One to procure compliant zoned real estate, I was fortunate that five clients qualified in five separate council districts/community plans for the 100 highly coveted licenses originally “up for grabs” last September 3rd 2019.
These “golden tickets” meant Landlords and operators could move forward in “the process”. It also validated the narrative that generational wealth, promised by Mayor Garcetti & Councilman Herb Wesson when they created the department with activist Cat Packer as its Executive Director in August 2017, was possible for those most deeply effected by the “War on Drugs”.
It felt good fighting the illicit market in my community through the licensing of legal operators, and helping LA raise millions of dollars in new general fund revenue with the taxation of legal marijuana. The thought that City services could be expanded and improved with the extra revenue created by the LA DCR ‘social equity’ was awesome.
However, Packer’s ‘social equity’ licensing process has been interminable and ever-changing, sprinkled with an internal audit of the initial process, lawsuit and subsequent ordinance revision thrown in for good measure. After three years, not a single ‘social equity’ cannabis license has been issued under Packer, who’s netted north of $750,000 in salary and benefits during the same timeframe.
Mayor Garcetti’s is now the co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign & with the Jose Huziar FBI scandal at City Hall PLUS the $1 billion dollar budget shortfall expected to hit the City in 2 years-hoping to catch the first bus out of town. Councilman Herb Wesson’s ’swapping seats’ with LA County Board of Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas.
The Los Angeles real estate market has changed due to covid-19, riots & continued civil unrest, Rental rates locked in last year reflect a different world than the one we are all living in now.
Operators that bought property or leased space, on the pretext that licensing would be issued within in a timely fashion, collectively have paid millions of dollars for space that cannot be used until licensing occurs. However, there is no consideration given to this issue by Cat Packer or the Los Angeles Cannabis Regulation Commission.
Their response has been to cancel all debate. This point is exemplified by the LA Cannabis Regulation Commission cancelling 16 meetings in 2020 alone, and focus on superfluous window dressing of hiring PR hacks and redesigning the website.
With allegations of favoritism included in the SECOND lawsuit the department is facing, the Executive Director’s lack of urgency and careless disregard for the money wasted on this process and alleged propensity for punishment against applicants for raising concerns about flaws in the licensing system, underscores a need for change.
The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.
The world’s largest legal cannabis market deserves better.
(Gary Mittin is a commercial real estate broker, specializing in cannabis real estate.)
-cw
