WATSONVILLE — Seven years after adding a chapter to the Watsonville Municipal Code regarding the regulation of medical cannabis cultivation and manufacturing within the city, the City Council will consider amendments regarding the cannabis equity program at its Tuesday meeting.
According to a staff report by Community Development Director Suzi Merriam and Associate Planner Ivan Carmona, added a new chapter to the municipal code providing regulations for medical cannabis cultivation and manufacturing in the city in 2017 and repealed its prohibition on recreational cannabis businesses a year later. In 2019, the council adopted an ordinance establishing a cannabis equity program “to provide opportunities for those who have been negatively impacted by the War on Drugs to enter into the legal cannabis marketplace,” Merriam and Carmona wrote.
However, the city did not undertake a cannabis equity assessment until 2022 when the council voted to amend the municipal code to align it with recommendations outlined in the assessment prepared by the California Center for Rural Policy at Cal Poly Humboldt, which allowed the city to apply for state cannabis equity grant funding, Merriam and Carmona wrote.
Once the assessment was completed and Watsonville became eligible for state grant funding, the city received a $767,436 grant to support businesses eligible for the cannabis equity program in the 2022-23 fiscal year. A total of $690,699 was issued to local cannabis businesses.
However, the Cannabis Equity Program grant was modified at the state level in 2023 as more cities developed their own programs, making the grant more competitive. Despite going through an equity assessment the previous year, Merriam and Carmona wrote that the state found two deficiencies in Watsonville’s program. One was a subsection of the municipal code that violated the Equal Protection Clauses of the U.S. and California constitutions, which guarantee equal treatment under the law for people of all genders. The subsection reportedly violated these clauses it allowed businesses at least 50% women-owned to be eligible for the program.
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