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Lessons from California’s Pot Industry Bailout
- State money aimed at speeding up slow licensing process
- Aid comes as industry struggles to compete with illegal market
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Getting cannabis regulations wrong comes at a high cost, as California’s $100 million fund to help floundering marijuana businesses has made clear.
The largest U.S. state earmarked money last week to aid companies that are struggling financially in large part because of bureaucratic delays and missteps in transitioning them from temporary licenses into more stringent permanent ones. It’s a cautionary tale for other states that are figuring out how to balance social-equity provisions, tax rates and competing with an illicit market valued at $66 billion last year, according to New Frontier Data.