BOSTON (WHDH) - State legislators are working on a paycheck protection program for small businesses that had to shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, and advocates say pot shops need to be included to limit the damage to a vulnerable industry.
The State Senate is considering a bill that would include recreational pot shops, which were not included in essential businesses allowed to remain open during the pandemic. Advocates said that has hurt the chance for minority and small business owners to be part of the industry, and they need relief.
“This order may have been well-intentioned but it will have the disastrous effect of destroying any chance the state had of creating equity in an industry that was already and is already deeply inequitable,” said Segun Idowu, Executive Director of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts.
“Among the other challenges that these cannabis businesses face, they also face an enormous tax burden both at the federal level and the state level,” said Mitzi Hollenbeck Co-Leader of Citrin Cooperman Cannabis Advisory Services.
The national Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses doesn’t include adult-use pot shops.
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