Arizona awards highly sought social equity pot licenses

PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona’s public health agency has awarded more than two dozen social equity dispensary licenses under the state’s voter-approved law legalizing recreational marijuana. Don Herrington, Arizona Department of Health Services interim director, announced in a blog post Tuesday that all 26 licenses were issued in a drawing that was live-streamed.

More than 1,500 applications had been submitted. The licenses are potentially worth millions of dollars. They were established under a 2020 ballot measure’s provision that ensured there would be licenses for “people from communities disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of previous marijuana laws.”

In February, a judge dismissed a lawsuit saying the rules for assigning the licenses lacked provisions.

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