Arkansas’ five existing medical cannabis cultivators have filed a lawsuit to challenge the state’s decision to issue three additional cultivation licenses, according to an Arkansas Times report.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission voted last month to release the remaining cultivation licenses permitted by law, as well as four additional dispensary licenses.

The lawsuit, filed by Osage Creek Cultivation, Delta Medical Cannabis, Bold Team, Natural State Medicinals Cultivation and Natural State Wellness Enterprises, alleges that the new cultivation licenses violate rules that additional licenses should only be issued if it is determined that the existing cultivators are unable to adequately supply the state’s dispensaries, Arkansas Times reported.

The suit also claims that because regulators waited more than 24 months to issue the new licenses, a new application process is required by law, rather than choosing licensees from the pool of original applicants, according to the news outlet.

Defendants named in the lawsuit include the Arkansas Finance and Administration Department, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, the Medical Marijuana Commission and the three new cultivation licensees: Carpenter Farms Medical Group, River Valley Relief Cultivation and New Day Cultivation, Arkansas Times reported.

The lawsuit requests an injunction against the issuance of the new licenses, or that they be voided if they have already been awarded, according to the news outlet.

Portland’s Office of Community & Civic Life named Dasheeda Dawson as its new cannabis program supervisor earlier this month, in some ways ushering in a new chapter of the city’s Social Equity Grant program.

Portland voters passed a 3% tax on adult-use cannabis in 2016, and since then, more than $6 million of the tax revenue has funded infrastructure improvements, drug rehabilitation, small business support, economic opportunities and technical assistance for business owners from communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

Dawson, who has over a decade of business development, strategic management and brand marketing experience, as well as more recent experience as a cannabis industry educator and strategy expert, hopes to build on the city’s existing vision of equity to further strengthen the Social Equity Grant program.

Here, Dawson discusses her new role and her goals for expanding the program to support more underserved entrepreneurs.

Melissa Schiller: What is the Office of Community & Civic Life’s role in Portland’s cannabis program?

Dasheeda Dawson: Portland, or Oregon in general, was one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana and then adult-use, so the program’s been around since 2015. [I believe] where cannabis regulation happens is often the mindset in which it’s regulated. Portland has put the regulation of the program under the Office of Community & Civic Life, which also oversees liquor and noise and other community-based components. The cannabis program, since its inception, is the core licensing and compliance oversight for the cannabis industry in the city of Portland.

MS: What was your background and experience prior to joining the Office of Community & Civic Life?

DD: I am a former Fortune 500 senior executive. I spent some time at Target and Victoria’s Secret, so my expertise is more in consumer and retail strategy, business management, supply chain and the like . I transitioned into the industry [five years ago] as a strategy and management consultant. I’ve worked for and with a lot of different entities as it pertains to cannabis in the United States and abroad. I have been for a long time working with municipalities as a consultant as they roll out the regulatory frameworks.

Before becoming the supervisor, I have been the chief strategy officer for Minorities for Medical Marijuana. I’m on the board for Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, which is the first organization of physicians to support legalization, and I’m one of the only non-physicians on the board. I’ve been on the Oregon Cannabis Commission Subcommittee. The commission is put together to advise the Oregon state regulatory bodies of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and the Oregon Health Authority. I’m on a subcommittee of that Oregon Cannabis Commission around regulatory frameworks.

I’ve been talking for a while in terms of what we can do better to set up a policy and a regulatory structure that’s more equitable and successful for the cannabis economy. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past four years or so, and now I’m excited to be joining the city of Portland and really leading the charge with creating equity for cannabis, particularly given its history.

MS: What does the cannabis program supervisor role entail, and how will it allow you to accomplish your goals surrounding equity?

DD: The role is very similar to any other state’s cannabis regulatory oversight leader. I believe Toi Hutchinson is called a special advisor to the governor at the state level [in Illinois]. Cat Packer is another woman of color who’s doing it in L.A. for the [Department of Cannabis Regulation]. It varies because every market is different, but I’m the creative and strategic lead for the city as it pertains to cannabis regulations, compliance, policy recommendations, equity [and] education, [which is] 360 education [for the] workforce, consumers, general community and city.

I’m excited because I have the ability to take everything I’ve learned, the various experiences and learnings and insights, and build on the vision that’s already been in place in the city of Portland. In 2016, Portland was one of the first cities to vote on and begin to implement a social equity grant fund that was based on the cannabis tax revenue in the city. So, in some ways, Portland—although not a lot of people know about it because we talk a lot about California and Colorado as far as thought leadership on equity and creating an open market space—it’s certainly been at the forefront for our country.

MS: What is the Portland Social Equity Grant program? Who qualifies for the program, and what resources does it provide?

DD: It’s still in its infant stages in that it’s only been three cycles that we’ve delivered against. In the statute, it’s very clear there are three areas where the cannabis tax revenue needs to go. Over the last [few] years , 80% of the cannabis tax revenue has actually gone to the police department. In light of the recent climate, the [Portland] City Council voted for a divestment of those funds from the police department, so whereas we’ve only really historically been able to give out a half a million in grants, going into this new fiscal year, that has been increased to a million.

RELATED: Oregon Cannabis Association Demands Portland Cannabis Tax Not Be Used on Law Enforcement

The grants are really global as far as equity—they’re not directly for cannabis companies or people of color, Black or indigenous folks who want to open a business in cannabis. There are a lot of different programs, so these are educational and development initiatives, meaning that the devastation related to prohibition has been very global and intergenerational, so our goal is to give support to the cannabis industry directly, for sure, as part of it, but our grants have really gone the distance on expungement and more wraparound reentry services around housing. We’re supporting some cannabis workforce educational development. Grants have been utilized to also provide support to nonprofit organizations that are helping POCs enter the cannabis industry. So, again, it’s a portfolio that we’re hoping to balance and expand as we get more access to the cannabis tax revenue.

MS: What are some of your broader goals for the Social Equity program going forward? Are there any specific areas that you’re looking to expand with the additional funding?

DD: Of course, we’d love to give out more grant funding, so we’re excited about that opportunity. I keep calling it SEED initiatives, and SEED stands for social equity and educational development initiatives. I think that they are more inclusive of a broader perspective of what we believe equity is. People are so focused on: How many owners do we have in the industry? And that’s the start of a broader conversation, but as a person who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, which is overpoliced and targeted for some of these same things we’re discussing, it’s been the community-based organizations that suffer the most, and their constituents. So, the initial goal will be to continue to identify community-based organizations on the ground in Portland that are working specifically with these communities that have been targeted. In Oregon and Portland specifically, that is definitely Black and indigenous populations. While we identify them, we’ll be identifying opportunities, perhaps, to fund their work further.

We’re also really in need of educational development for new and developing businesses that have never worked with government before, so we’re hoping to build a technical assistance program pilot that allows us to help facilitate folks as they’re trying to apply for a grant and then manage a grant. Some of the things I think we assume is that if we just give money, then there’s going to be some significant difference, and I think there’s more to the ecosystem of equity in order for us to impact it, so we have to start building out what that looks like.

I think it’s really important just to reiterate that any cannabis regulatory program, for the most part across the country, has a lot of the same core function or core competency. Ultimately, it’s to license businesses and then to ensure they’re in compliance. We’re doing that, and that is what we should be doing, but I think the vision of the program is really to be a leading industry framework that’s designed to capitalize on the reparative and restorative potential of this global cannabis legalization movement. In other states and other jurisdictions, I think the design is really to capitalize on what they believe the tax revenue will be, and in this case, I feel the vision of the program has always been, how do we take licensing and compliance that we do so well, which actually funds the program itself, and assure that we’re feeding it to the cannabis economy in a positive way that one, drives more cannabis tax revenue that can be used to support these cannabis SEED initiatives?

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for style, length and clarity.

Helping to build a brand-new industry is generally a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but for Michael Cohen, co-founder and president of The Pass, a vertically integrated adult-use cannabis operator in Massachusetts, the cannabis industry gave him a second opportunity to be at the start of something big.

Cohen launched one of the first internet ad buying agencies in 1996, when online advertising was in its infancy.

“I was part of this string of industry professionals where we were all true believers,” Cohen says. “People would say, ‘I don’t get online advertising, I would never click on one of those banners.’ We would tell people, ‘This is the future of marketing,’ and three years later, it was just booming.”

Cohen sold the company and turned to consulting and investing as he waited for his next business opportunity. Now, almost 20 years later, he’s found it in the cannabis industry.

Cohen and his partner, Chris Weld, have been building their cannabis business for nearly three years, and currently hold three licenses in Massachusetts for cultivation, processing and retail. They operate indoor and greenhouse cultivation facilities  in Sheffield, Mass., in Berkshire County, and have a provisional license for an outdoor grow site. The Pass opened its first dispensary location in the Berkshires July 17 and has the option to open two more storefronts with its current retail license.

“When we first started, when we were interviewing lawyers, our first question to our lawyer was, ‘What are the chances we’re going to end up in handcuffs?’” Cohen says. “That was an issue for us. It just felt like there was a lot more stigma three years ago. … We’re just really proud to be creating a product that provides people with inspiration, relaxation, relief and stimulation.”

Photos courtesy of The Pass

Cohen describes the Berkshires as “an intersection of nature and culture,” a place where families visit to connect with nature and art, and he has worked to make his dispensary an extension of that.

“The Pass brand we also believe is representative of the cannabis experience,” he says. “The Pass stands for ‘permission.’ We’ve been given the pass to consume—this is now legal. It represents communal sharing. It represents passing from one state to another. It represents the mountain passes in which we live … and getting from one hard-to-reach place to another.”

Preparing for Opening Day

Leading up to the dispensary’s grand opening on July 17, Cohen and his team were busily training retail staff, setting up merchandising displays and, of course, grappling with the necessary precautions to keep employees and customers safe during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pass hired 25 new retail employees for its Berkshires store, and Cohen says he became emotional walking into the conference room this past week to give a presentation to the new hires.

“You have this idea, then you start pursuing it, and I’ve had so many of these over the years just not come to fruition, and this one really has,” he says. “We’re so proud to be working in the cannabis industry.”

The Pass has 40 total employees for its vertically integrated operations, and Cohen hopes to expand his staff to 50 by the end of the month as it hires for cultivation, manufacturing, logistics and sales positions.

The Pass operates indoor and greenhouse cultivation facilities in Sheffield, Mass.

“It’s so amazing to be able to provide a full range of jobs and career opportunities for people in the Berkshires, which is a place that has been hard hit by COVID, like others,” he says. “It’s historically a beautiful place to raise a family, but a hard place to make a living. We have jobs for people who need to feed themselves and we have serious career opportunities in an industry that is a generational business opportunity.”

“I just remember building a team back in the ’90s and how amazing it was to be a part of a team of people who really believed in what they were doing,” Cohen adds. “We were doing something really exciting, and it’s like the same thing all over again, 20 years later. We’re really trying to build a culture—we’re building a diverse culture of people that really want to be here and I’m totally thrilled.”

The Pass cultivates 40 different varieties of cannabis, and its cultivation team has completed its first harvest at the indoor facility  in Sheffield. The greenhouse has been planted, with some rows just beginning to flower.

“The guys who grow [the plants], they talk about it like a sommelier talks about wine,” Cohen says. “They’re just in love with the plants.”

With final inspections recently completed by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, The Pass’ packaging operations are now in full swing to package the vape cartridges, concentrates, edibles, tinctures and topicals produced at the company’s processing facility.

The Pass is also in the process of launching its marketing efforts, which include a billboard and a print ad in Berkshire Magazine.

The Pass produces and sells vape cartridges, concentrates, edibles, tinctures and topicals.

When Massachusetts reopened after shutting down nonessential businesses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, adult-use cannabis dispensaries could reopen for curbside service only, and The Pass set to work creating SOPs for curbside pickup.

Now, the dispensary is permitted to offer in-store sales with a limited number of people allowed in the store at any given time, and the Pass requires all staff and customers to wear masks at all times.

“One of the nice things about our space is it’s really lofty,” Cohen says. “It’s a big open barn, a modern barn. The ceilings are really high, and it feels spacious, but obviously, we have the stickers on the floor to mark 6 feet. … We’re taking it seriously.”

Upcoming Plans

Now that the dispensary has officially opened, Cohen is most excited to learn who The Pass’ customers are and which products they are most interested in.

All aspects of the company’s supply chain maintain constant communication, so the processing team can design its products around the specific genetics produced by the cultivation team. In addition, the retail space is located adjacent to the lab, which allows the processing team to answer the dispensary staff’s questions or address concerns about specific products.

“Education and listening are a really big part of the process from a retail standpoint,” Cohen says. “We’ll have all these different consumers who will be coming for all these different needs and many will have a lot of questions, so we want to educate them.”

Although The Pass’ specific sales analytics remain to be seen, Cohen has been studying the sales data in Massachusetts and has found that flower comprises 50% to 60% of the market, whereas vape cartridges and edibles make up 10% to 15% of all cannabis sales.

“I think that with COVID, which attacks the lungs, it’s reasonable to think that edibles and tinctures will probably be a product group that grows in this current environment,” he says. “I think that flower is king, and I think for us, we’re creating a full range of products, and we’ll probably want to expand on that over time.”

The Pass plans to sell its products in other dispensaries throughout Massachusetts, and it already carries other brands’ products in its store, as well.

“Our short-term goals are to be a viable, successful business, to provide a full range of experience, to enhance our consumers’ lives [and] to broaden a higher level of consciousness,” Cohen says. “We are committed to education. We are committed to inhibiting underage consumption. … We want to provide people with career opportunities and development opportunities. We want to make a positive impact on our community and our environment. We want to be responsible stewards of the plant and of our products."