California Bureau of Cannabis Control Reports on Equity Grant Funding to Legislature

The report compiles information from numerous California cities and counties that altogether received $40 million in funding—outlining demographics, cannabis arrests and other statistics as well as plans to create equity programs.

The California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) has sent a report to the state legislature on equity grant funding.

The $40 million in grants were “authorized by the California Cannabis Equity Act of 2018 (Equity Act) and the Budget Act of 2019,” according to a notice the BCC sent to its email subscribers about the report.

“To date, the state has awarded $40 million to local jurisdictions in equity grant funding to support local equity programs,” according to the report. “The Bureau was initially appropriated $10 million in equity grant funding. In October 2019, the Bureau awarded those equity grant funds to 10 local jurisdictions.”

According to the report, BCC distributed the $10 million as follows:

• City of Coachella – $500,000.00
• County of Humboldt – $1,338,683.13
• City of Long Beach – $913,991.77
• City of Los Angeles – $1,834,156.38
• City of Oakland – $1,657,201.65
• City of Palm Springs – $100,000.00
• City of Sacramento – $1,197,119.34
• City and County of San Francisco – $1,338,683.13
• City of San Jose – $560,082.30
• County of Santa Cruz – $560,082.30

The other $30 million, awarded by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) on behalf of GO-Biz and BCC, was split in the following way:

• City of Clearlake – $98,890.43
• City of Coachella – $93,783.26
• County of Lake – $150,000.00
• County of Monterey – $150,000.00
• County of Nevada – $149,999.95
• City of Palm Springs – $149,397.90
• City of San Jose – $149,300.37
• City of Santa Cruz – $147,666.75
• City of Stockton – $60,000.00
• County of Humboldt – $2,459,581.02
• City of Los Angeles – $6,042,014.23
• City of Long Beach – $2,700,000.00
• County of Mendocino – $2,245,704.40
• City of Oakland – $6,576,705.76
• City of Sacramento – $3,831,955.93
• City and County of San Francisco – $4,995,000.00

The nearly 500-page report includes documents submitted from the city and county officials that express the need for equity programs and plans for creating them.

Data showing racial and income disparities in police arrests are abundant throughout the report.

In the city of Los Angeles, from 2000 to 2016, every police reporting district with either a “very high” or “high” number of cannabis arrests, based on standard deviations from the city average, saw arrests of people of color made up at least 63% of total arrests. People from low-income households accounted for at least 51% of people arrested for cannabis in each of these districts.

Also in Los Angeles over the same period, according to the city, data show that 44% arrests over the same period were of Hispanics or Latinos, 40% of Black or African American people and 16% of white “not Hispanic or Latino” people.

BCC included in its report plans Los Angeles provided regarding an equity program, though the information is dated “October 2017,” and like other cities, the city has implemented changes since then.

The report also shows that, in 2017, the city of Oakland provided cannabis arrest rates. Despite white and Black/African American people making up 31% and 30% of the city’s population, respectively, the percentages of total cannabis arrest figures for those groups in 2015 were 4% and 77%, respectively.

In rural Mendocino County, though the population is 0.7% African American, according to city officials, arrests of Black people accounted for 3.5% of total arrests between 1980 and 2018.

The report also outlined other ways law enforcement has disproportionately impacted specific areas.

Mendocino County officials reported the Emerald Triangle counties of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity were those with the highest shares of cannabis plants eradicated by the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), respectively, between 1984 and 1995. Between 2004 and 2009, Mendocino saw the third-highest share of plants eradicated by CAMP, behind Lake with the highest and Shasta with the second highest.

The report is available to view here.

First posted on Cannabis Dispensary Magazine