The Boston Globe - 02.09.2019

A8 The Region The Boston Globe MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019

state’s economic empowerment
program for cannabis, who
hopes to open a pot cafe. “Our
ancestors, as black and brown
people, would laugh at the fact
that we put trust and faith in
the government to want to help
us.”
While the state has taken
steps to reach the voters’ social
justice goals, cities and towns
wield enormous power in de-
termining who gets to profit
from the booming industry,
which has raked in $260 mil-
lion since shops opened in No-
vember. Local governments de-
termine who receives a “host
community agreement,” re-
quired as a first step for a mari-
juana license.
No one tracks how many ap-
plicants for local approvals are
minorities, but only 4.6 percent
of the businesses applying for
state pot licenses registered as
minority-owned.
As a black entrepreneur
with a marijuana record from
Brockton, Ian Woods, 28,
thought he was precisely the
type of person Massachusetts
wanted to help open a cannabis
store after the state legalized
recreational use of the drug
nearly three years ago, with a
social justice mandate.
Brockton is one of the cities
most ravaged by pot arrests. Yet
Woods said he visited City Hall
for months seeking approval,
and he said he never received a
call back. The mayor, mean-
while, approved 10 wealthier
companies largely owned by
white men, citing their pros-
pects for viability as a key fac-
tor.
“It was a good idea,” Woods
said of the state’s plan, “but it’s
a failed program as long as they
give the cities full power.”
The state is struggling to
meet its goals for a variety of
reasons. Many cities and towns
haven’t prioritized social equi-
ty. Businesses owned by social
equity applicants face challeng-
es raising capital and navigat-
ing local approvals, while com-
peting with well-funded com-
panies with expensive lobbyists
and consultants. And many cit-
ies and towns are dragging
their feet in defining their pot
application process and ap-
proving businesses, making it
hard for entrepreneurs without
deep pockets to wait it out.
Banks aren’t lending be-
cause pot is illegal under feder-
al law. And only 1 percent of
venture capital investments go
to black startup founders, one
analysis found. Lawmakers de-
clined to approve a measure,
requested by the state Cannabis
Control Commission, to estab-
lish no-interest loans issued by
the state for disadvantaged en-
trepreneurs. Senator Sonia
Chang-Díaz plans to refile it.
Once lauded by progres-
sives, Massachusetts’ marijua-
na law is now seen as an exam-
ple of what not to do, with one
New York website describing it
as “The Clubby, Corporate Mar-

uMARIJUANA
Continued from Page A

ijuana Market NY Wants To

Avoid.”

“We strut around with our

chests out like, ‘We’re the first

state to do equity,’ but it’s far

from being the vision that we

thought it was going to be,” said

Horace Small, of the Union of

Minority Neighborhoods.

Scholars say Massachusetts’

equity goals are worthy, but the

state needs to be bolder in com-

bating deep-rooted societal in-

equities. Black people in Mas-

sachusetts were 3.3 times more

likely than whites to be arrest-

ed for marijuana possession in

2014, despite similar consump-

tion rates, according to the

American Civil Liberties Union.

And a 2015 report found the

median net worth for black

families in Boston was just $

compared to $247,500 for

whites.

“The state and the local gov-

ernment have to be really clear

that they know they’ve disad-

vantaged this group, and as a

result, this group may not have

those [capital] requirements,

so we’re going to give you a leg

up,” said Carl Hart, a Columbia

University professor who stud-

ies drugs and race. “If they

don’t do that, it’s kind of a

joke.”

To level the playing field, the

cannabis commission runs two

programs.

The commission’s economic

empowerment effort, with 123

potential applicants, offers a

faster licensing process for eli-

gible minorities, people with

drug records, residents of areas

with high pot arrests, and those

pledging to hire from those ar-

eas.

The social equity program,

meanwhile, has barely begun

due to delays in selecting train-

ers, but it will provide partici-

pants with training and men-

torship. So far, 143 people have

been accepted into the pro-

gram. It’s open to low-income

people from areas with high

rates of pot arrests, locals with

drug records, or locals with a

spouse or parent with a drug

conviction.

The state has also proposed

funneling all delivery and can-

nabis cafe licenses to small

businesses and people in the

social equity programs.

“We’re nowhere near where

we need to be, but we’re doing a

lot,” said Steven Hoffman,

chairman of the Cannabis Com-

mission. “We need some help

from the state [Legislature]

and the municipalities and

from private industry — and

I’m confident that’s all going to

come together — but it takes

time, and it’s hard.”

Boston and Cambridge are

debating whether to grant

smaller, locally owned busi-

nesses and those with equity

status exclusive access to their

cities for two years. In Cam-

bridge, medical marijuana dis-

pensaries are fighting that ini-

tiative. Somerville passed an

ordinance requiring that, for

every pot business approved for

a non-equity company, an equi-

ty company must also move

forward. Neither Cambridge

nor Somerville has approved

any cannabis shops yet.

Equity entrepreneurs say

these efforts are helpful, but it’s

still a challenge to compete be-

cause officials are moving slow-

ly and, amid the uncertainty,

would-be pot shop proprietors

have to pay for the storefronts

where they’re hoping to do

business.

“A lot of equity applicants

across the state are in this lim-

bo waiting — you’re paying

rent, you have no idea when

it’ll end or what it’s going to

look like,” said Kobie Evans, 47,

the first economic empower-

ment applicant to win a prelim-

inary license, for a store in Dor-

chester. Since January, he said,

he has paid $5,500 monthly

rent for a planned shop in Med-

ford but has struggled to ad-

vance in the city’s approval pro-

cess.

Medford officials said the

city hasn’t approved anyone

but hoped to promote social eq-

uity.

Cities and towns do want di-

verse business ownership, but

they also have to consider ap-

plicants’ access to capital and

business experience because

they want viable companies,

said Geoff Beckwith, of the

Massachusetts Municipal Asso-

ciation.

Those requirements, howev-

er, can feel to equity applicants

like a sign saying: Not wel-

come.

Brockton, one of the state’s

most diverse cities, also had

one of the highest marijuana

arrest rates. But two local black

entrepreneurs, Woods and Van-

essa Jean-Baptiste, said then-

Mayor Bill Carpenter ignored

their meeting requests for sev-

en months and quietly signed

host agreements with better

funded, more connected com-

panies.

Carpenter said at the time

that Jean-Baptiste did not re-

quest a meeting until it was too

late and that he picked busi-

nesses that seemed viable, but

his choices frustrated his diver-

sity commission.

“This is our social justice

reparations,” said chairman

Tony Branch.

Carpenter died in July.

Councilor Moises Rodrigues be-

came mayor and reopened ap-

plications only for equity entre-

preneurs because he felt they

deserved a chance. Woods and

Jean-Baptiste applied.

“To have this opportunity,

it’s just the right thing to do,”

said Jean-Baptiste, 28. “The

[racial] wealth gap alone is ri-

diculous, and the war on drugs

played a big role in that.”

For now, Jones, the Marlbor-

ough entrepreneur, refuses to

visit a pot store.

“None of the current dispen-

saries represent the people that

I want to support,” she said,

“which aremypeople.”

Naomi Martin can be reached

at [email protected].

Follow her on Twitter at

@NaomiMartin.

protect his sons’ identities, is
furious at state officials for not
warning him who lived next
door.
“This is sickening,” said the
father. “You don’t move two
children next to a sex offender
when you are trying to keep
people safe.”
The alleged assault on his
son is cited in a scathing new
state audit, which found that
the state’s housing department
was not warning families and
pregnant women when plac-
ing them in shelters where
registered sex offenders were
living or working.
The report by State Auditor
Suzanne M. Bump’s office
found that the Department of
Housing and Community De-
velopment from July 2016 to
June 2018 didn’t routinely
check the Sex Offender Regis-
try Board before making emer-
gency housing placements to
determine whether offenders
were staying there, even in
shelters where families live in
close proximity and share
common areas.
As part of the audit, Boston
police ran eight shelter ad-
dresses through its sex offend-

uSEX OFFENDER
Continued from Page A

er database and discovered

Level 2 or 3 sex offenders list-

ed at all of them. Two had

been convicted of child rape.

In an interview, Bump said

that people seeking emergency

housing assistance, including

domestic violence victims with

young children, would hardly

be in a position to search the

state sex offender’s online reg-

istry or ask local police depart-

ments whether sex offenders

are living nearby.

“That is clearly not top of

mind for a family that is home-

less and being placed in an

emergency setting,” Bump

said. “The state really has an

obligation to take these pre-

cautions on behalf of the peo-

ple we are serving.”

Auditors found that the

housing department’s policy

was limited to checking on

whether anyone seeking emer-

gency housing was a regis-

tered sex offender. Yet even

when they were, the agency

didn’t share that information

with shelter residents or inde-

pendent contractors who han-

dle emergency placements for

the state.

That failure may create un-

necessary risks for shelter resi-

dents, the audit found. Audi-

tors recommended that offi-

cials notify shelters when they

were placing sex offenders

there and at least once a year

compare the addresses of the

shelters with those of regis-

tered sex offenders, then noti-

fy the shelters if they find

matches.

When confronted by audi-

tors, housing officials initially

took issue with the audit’s

findings, saying they routinely

notify shelter contractors

when placing sex offenders

there and are not obligated to

check the state’s registry to de-

termine whether other offend-

ers are living or working there.

But in May, they amended

their response, saying they

had recently learned a parent

who was placed at an apart-

ment complex where scattered

units were used as shelters

had alleged that a registered

sex offender molested one of

his children. It was the same

father who was interviewed by

the Globe.

“They initially pushed back

saying they felt their policies

and procedures were ade-

quate,” Bump said. “Unfortu-

nately, it took a reported act of

child molestation to get the

agency to recognize that it

needed to strengthen the pro-

tections for these pregnant

women and families.”

In its response to the audit,

the housing agency wrote that

the alleged incident reaf-

firmed the department must

be vigilant about the safety of

children.

A spokeswoman for the De-

partment of Housing and

Community Development said

Thursday that the agency re-

cently adopted some of the au-

dit’s recommendations.

Staff will compare shelter

addresses with those listed by

sex offenders on the state reg-

istry at least twice a year and

notify shelter providers by e-

mail if matches are found, she

said.

In addition, shelter provid-

ers will alert families “at initial

safety orientation” if level 2 or

3 sex offenders “could be pres-

ent at the shelter site/build-

ing,” the spokeswoman said.

Bump said her office will

conduct a review in six

months and ask housing offi-

cials to detail what steps it has

taken to address problems.

The father and his two boys

were placed in the Plymouth

apartment complex in Febru-

ary.

At that time, Lebaron’s

name wasn’t publicly accessi-

ble on the sex offender website

because he was classified as a

Level 2 sex offender prior to a

July 2013 law that added Level

2 offenders to the website, ac-

cording to Felix Browne, a

spokesman for the Executive

Office of Public Safety and

Homeland Security. His name

was added in May when he

was reclassified as a Level 3

sex offender, Browne said.

The state contractor that

placed the family, Neighbor-

Works Housing Solutions, de-

clined to comment, citing pri-

vacy laws.

Lebaron has pleaded not

guilty to the current charges

and is being held on $100,

cash bail.

The father said Lebaron

knocked on his door after

learning he had just moved in

with his sons and appeared

sympathetic and friendly.

“He seemed genuinely con-

cerned that I was struggling

with two kids,” said the father.

“This guy made me believe he

was somebody to help me. I’ve

had nobody to help me in two

years.”

But after a month, the fa-

ther said, he warned Lebaron

to stay away from his family

because of concerns he had

molested his son, who is autis-

tic and doesn’t speak.

He did a Google search of

Lebaron and a story popped

up from a decade ago, detail-

ing his 2008 arrest for failing

to register as a sex offender.

Shelley Murphy can be

reached at

[email protected].

Follow her on Twitter

@shelleymurph.

Audit denounces agency after family placed near sex offender

‘Thestatereallyhasanobligationto

taketheseprecautionsonbehalfofthe

peopleweareserving.’

SUZANNE M. BUMP,state auditor

Minorities frustrated over lack of progress in pot sector

NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

For several months, Vanessa Jean-Baptiste said, she and a business partner sought meetings with Brockton officials over their plan for a pot license.

‘Itwasagoodidea,

butit’safailed

programaslongas

theygivethecities

fullpower.’

IAN WOODS,a would-be

marijuana license-holder,

speaking about the state’s call to

ensure that those hurt by the

war on drugs get a chance to

benefit from the cannabis

industry.