The equity program has similar purposes but that has more specific eligibility standards related to poverty, past non-violent convictions related to cannabis and also for people who might be subjected to discrimination.
DM: Well, it’s a ground-up, local approach and the campaign is going to be based on region-based models, like Napa Valley wine, and Colombian coffee.
And I think at this point, the idea is to differentiate Humboldt cannabis, but not only the product, but it’s culture and the roots of the industry, going back to homesteading in the “back to the land” movement of the 1960s.
Now, the state’s equity funding guidelines focus on racially diverse, urban areas, but no doubt many people and families in Humboldt were hurt by incarceration and forfeiture and sudden loss of their income.
The main challenges are protecting the brand and uniting the industry around it ,and then competing against the corporate-scale producers in other parts of the state.