Denver signs weed supply for social equity firm

Denver City Council passed a measure Monday aimed at strengthening the city’s cannabis delivery services and doing the right thing for people adversely affected by the War on Drugs.

Axios reports that the city legislature has “authorized a measure that will make permanent supply exclusivity for social justice carriers or business owners deemed disproportionately harmed by the War on Drugs” and also “the royalties for social justice delivery companies and the Retailers they work with will cut with.”

The new regulation is a kind of lifeline for struggling delivery companies. As Axios explains, Colorado’s capital city “launched its weed delivery program last year — which requires dispensaries to ship via social justice carriers by July 2024 — nine of Denver’s 206 cannabis stores are offering the service.”

“With few companies to service, licensed social justice carriers face ‘serious challenges’ to avoid going out of business,” reports Axios.

City officials in Denver last year passed a measure allowing cannabis shipments in the city and making licenses exclusive to Social Justice candidates for a three-year period.

Since that rule is scheduled to expire in 2024, the ordinance passed by City Council on Monday makes it permanent.

Molly Duplechian, the executive director of the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses, said last year there was word on the street that a number of cannabis dispensaries were waiting for the end of the three-year exclusivity period for Social Justice applicants before entering into supply Business.

“What we’ve heard is that some of the existing industry may have been waiting for exclusivity or invested in a social justice van and then planned to move in two years to do their own delivery,” Duplechian said.

But supplying weed in the Mile High City has been a slow burn so far. As Axios reports, the Denver cannabis market could be “so oversaturated with dispensaries that delivery may be difficult to break through,” and the “reality is that many people would rather pick up their weed than pay extra for delivery.”

Eric Escudero, a spokesman for the city’s Excise and Licensing Administration, said Denver’s cannabis delivery services have been slow to take off.

“It’s easy to see that Denver, by preventing stores from doing their own delivery for social participation companies to make the first leap into this type of business, is leading the industry to prioritize profit over supporting fairer access to the industry.” , Escudero told local news channel 9News.

The channel reported that Escudero “said only 1 in 20 pharmacies in Denver offer delivery services,” compared to “80% of stores in Aurora where pharmacies can do their own delivery.”

According to the station, social justice requirements “mandate delivery services must be owned by people who live in disadvantaged areas, earn less than 50% of the state’s median income, or who have a personal or family history of marijuana charges or arrests.” , and Escudero claims that “extending this requirement will forever encourage pharmacies to strike a deal with the delivery drivers.”

“[It] gives the market regulatory certainty, so any stores waiting for the opportunity to make their own delivery in two years have no reason to wait,” Escudero said, as quoted by 9News.

The newly passed regulation could be enough to keep struggling delivery companies in business.

The broadcaster highlighted Michael Diaz-Rivera, owner of Better Days Delivery, who “said his company probably wouldn’t make it through without city council intervention.”

“It’s been difficult to get pharmacies to work with us, and we can’t do anything without pharmacies getting involved,” Diaz-Rivera said. “Business was sluggish.”