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Black-owned pot shops are rare in WA. Can a task force fix that?
A plan to bring social equity to the state s mostly white marijuana industry was delayed by COVID-19. Now, things are inching forward.
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Cannabis flower at Botanica Seattle s headquarters and production facility in Seattle, Washington on Monday, March 12, 2017. (Matt Mills McKnight/Cascade Public Media)
Even before this year’s Black Lives Matter protests, Washington state’s legal cannabis industry had a well-known problem with race.
About 4% of the state’s population is Black. But Black people have a majority stake in only 1% of Washington businesses that grow and process marijuana, according to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, while roughly 3% of retail cannabis shops are majority Black owned. Some remain skeptical of those figures and say the picture is actually worse.