Members of the state’s Social Equity Council planning for adult-use cannabis sales in Connecticut on Tuesday stressed the need to focus on business opportunities for neighborhoods hurt by the failed war on drugs by making it easier for lower-income people to get into the business..
Fees alone to enter the cannabis business range from the thousands of dollars to the millions, council member Joseph Williams, a Hartford business owner associated with the Connecticut Small Business Development Center in the School of Business at UConn, told the group as he pushed for a new bank.
“They need to source capital,” Williams said. “One of the biggest things around social equity that has eluded us is the lack of capital and I find we really need to address that as quickly as possible.”
Another council member, Edwin Shirley, a financial adviser, predicted that as the retail sales program starts, “I do believe that there will be significant interest from the private sector in providing capital.”
Williams also warned that the rollout of the new industry also needs to make sure that too many producers, retail and delivery licenses do not saturate the potential market when it starts. The target date is late 2022.
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