New Jersey’s cannabis law was partly designed to remedy wrongs in a criminal justice system that disproportionately ensnares Black and Latino people. But the hurdles for small-business owners are high.
NEWARK — Bessie White is 78 and determined to cash in on cannabis.
Dreaming of financial independence, Ms. White, the matriarch of a tight-knit extended family, had considered starting a bail bond business.
But after New Jersey legalized marijuana, she, her sister and five of their relatives pivoted.
The group is now among the hundreds of entrepreneurs racing to be ready to apply for a retail license to sell marijuana in New Jersey when the application window opens next month.
“You can pass it from generation to generation, so that they don’t have to work for somebody else,” Ms. White, who lives in Newark and retired from the accounting office of a school district, said of owning a business.
Laws passed in the last year legalizing cannabis in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut were designed in part to remedy wrongs within a criminal justice system that disproportionately ensnares Black and Latino people.
And acquiring generational wealth is only part of the motivation for Ms. White and her family as they begin the slow and thorny process of establishing a business from scratch in a brand-new market. [Read More @ The NY Times]
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