Media Report: A California woman’s lawsuit may throw Rhode Island’s equity cannabis law into “chaos”

Header Illustration: Headshots of Justyna Jensen and Jeffrey Jensen from a 2019 California cannabis retail application.

( source https://outlawreport.com/maryland-is-the-next-victim-caught-in-california-lawyers-web-of-social-equity-cannabis-lawsuits/ )

The Providence Journal

Rhode Island’s fledgling social-equity cannabis law may be thrown into “chaos” because of a lawsuit filed by a California woman, an industry analyst says.

The lawsuit, filed by Justyna Jensen, contends that the law, which was written specifically to diversify the marijuana industry and help minority groups hurt by the war on drugs, is unconstitutional because it favors one group of prospective business participants over another.

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The law “deprives individuals, including plaintiff, of equal protection by preventing her from qualifying as a social equity applicant based on her area of residence,” Jensen says in her lawsuit, filed last week against the state Cannabis Control Commission in U.S. District Court, Providence.

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Jeffrey Jensen has partnered with his wife, Justyna, on the latest lawsuit, which follows the modus operandi of other challenges.

A Beverly Hills attorney who has filed lawsuits against cannabis social equity programs in California, Maryland, New York, and Washington state has a new target: Rhode Island’s nascent marijuana social equity license structure.

The latest lawsuit apparently follow’s the modus operandi of the attorney, Jeffrey Jensen, who’s filed at least six other similar lawsuits across the country, all with basically the same argument: provisions in law designed to repair harms by the war on drugs are unconstitutionally discriminatory to those left out.

Jensen typically takes a 49% stake in the cannabis companies he’s represented, often with a partner sporting a criminal marijuana record. That’s typically just enough for eligibility in social equity programs so the company has standing to sue, according to court filings by the New York attorney general’s office in one of Jensen’s lawsuits.

That’s precisely Jensen’s line of attack in Rhode Island, according to The Providence Journal, which reported that this time Jensen has partnered with his wife, Justyna, who filed suit against the state’s Cannabis Control Commission last week in federal court.

The Jensens argue in the suit that the state’s marijuana social equity program “deprives individuals, including plaintiff, of equal protection by preventing her from qualifying as a social equity applicant based on her area of residence.” They assert that the limitation violates the U.S. Constitution’s Dormant Commerce Clause.

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