A California county has awarded a $40,000 marijuana equity grant to a local dispensary operator, just months after a local dispensary operator blasted the program for allegedly discriminating against white people.
John Loe, who owns Loe Dispensary in Sonoma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, lashed out at the county Board of Supervisors in October over concerns in his grant program authorization report “Racist, anti-white tropes.”
“White people will stand up,” he told the board meeting. “You won’t threaten us.”
In May, the county’s cannabis equity program awarded $635,000 to 20 local cannabis operators, including Loe’s. Grants, ranging from $18,520 to $50,270, are awarded to those determined to have been negatively or disproportionately affected by previous marijuana prohibition and the war on drugs, officials said.
“This grant program is designed to serve socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals in the cannabis licensing process,” Supervisor David Rabbitt said in a statement announcing the funding.
The program requires recipients or a member of their household to have been arrested or convicted of a marijuana-related crime between 1971 and 2016.
“The county does not consider race when reviewing applicants for the Marijuana Equity Program,” said county spokesman Matt Brown.
Lowe did not respond to multiple requests for comment this week.
The county noted in its grant authorization report that Latino and low-income populations have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs and that “affluent white stakeholders increasingly own the county’s licensed cannabis landscape and have a vested interest in the land and The investment of resources results in limited opportunities for small cannabis operators.
Lowe called the language racist during an October board meeting and threatened legal action against the county after board members tried to cut short his public comments. He also claimed the program does use race as a factor in evaluating applicants, although the county denies it.
“Do you want diversity? What does that mean?” he said. “Can’t white people stand up for themselves? You’re a racist.”
Sonoma County supervisors created an Office of Equity in 2020 and a “Racial Equity Toolkit” the following year requiring proposed plans to outline how they would help advance racial equity in the community.
In the grant application submitted by Lowe on January 22, he called the racial equity toolkit illegal and wrote that “this racist policy will be exposed.” He further attacked the program’s requirement that applicants or one of their family members have been arrested for marijuana-related activity, although he noted that he qualified because his brother had a marijuana-related arrest.
“I have to work very hard [hard] To avoid arrest,” he wrote. “The idea that I was not harmed by my criminal conviction is racist and I will not stand idly by while this county discriminates against white and non-criminal people.”
Loe is asking for $1 million to cover losses from the wildfires and about a four-year delay in relief caused by issues with the processing of marijuana licenses.
“All of us hate you, and for good reason,” he wrote in his application to the board. “You will be held accountable…with all due respect, John Lowe.”
