The equity lottery

On January 31st, 2018 Oakland, California made history with a bunch of bingo balls and a crowd full of hopeful dispensary owners. The city had invited 36 equity applicants from over-policed communities to come and watch their fates unfold in a televised “lottery.” As the hour-long spectacle unfolded, city clerk LaTonda Simmons drew numbered balls from a gilded cage at random, slowly chipping away at the dreams of hopeful business owners one by one. When the last number was called, four applicants were awarded licenses to operate adult-use dispensaries in the city of Oakland. One of them was Alphonso Blunt, aka Tucky, founder of Blunts and Moore, the first and only equity dispensary open for business nearly two years later.

In the lead-up to legalization, activists like Amber Senter of Supernova Women, worked closely with the city of Oakland to create a program that would reincorporate people of color into the industry they shaped. Supernova Women would go on to help San Francisco and the state of California build equity programs that would influence state and city cannabis policies across the US. But back at home, Oakland’s pioneering program was facing a harsh reality: out of four licenses granted over two years, only one dispensary was up and operational. Lack of funding, resources, and training have crippled this grand experiment in bringing justice to those most affected by The War on Drugs. In Oakland, social justice in the legal weed industry is a game of chance and some believe the cards are stacked against the very people the city’s equity program was built to serve.