A California county has awarded $40,000 in cannabis equity grant funding to a local dispensary operator just months after it criticized the same program for allegedly discriminating against white people.
John Loe, owner of Loe Dispensary in Sonoma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, criticized the county Board of Supervisors in October for what he said were “racist and anti-white tropes” in its report authorizing the grant program.
“The whites will stand up,” he said at the board meeting. “We will not be intimidated.”
In May, the county’s cannabis equity program awarded $635,000 to 20 local cannabis operators, including Loe. The grants ranged from $18,520 to $50,270 and were awarded to those determined to have been negatively or disproportionately impacted by previous cannabis prohibition and the war on drugs, officials said.
“This grant program is intended to assist socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals navigating the cannabis permitting process,” Supervisor David Rabbitt said in a statement announcing the funding.
The program requires that the beneficiary, or a family member, has been arrested or convicted of cannabis-related offenses between 1971 and 2016. The application does not require candidates to submit information about their race.
“The county does not take race into account when evaluating applicants for the cannabis equity program,” said county spokesman Matt Brown.
Loe did not respond to multiple requests for comment this week.
In its grant authorization report, the county noted that Latino and low-income populations have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs, and that “white, wealthy shareholders increasingly own the county’s licensed cannabis landscape, whose investments in land and resources result in limited opportunities for small cannabis operators.”
Loe called the language racist at the October board meeting and threatened legal action against the county after board members tried to cut short her time to make public comments. She also claimed the program used race as a factor in evaluating applicants, despite the county’s denial.
“You want diversity? What does that mean?” he asked. “White people can’t defend themselves? They’re racists.”
Sonoma County supervisors created an Office of Equity in 2020 and a “racial equity toolkit” the following year that requires proposed programs to describe how they will help advance racial equity in the community.
In Loe’s grant application, submitted Jan. 22, she called the racial equity toolkit illegal and wrote that “this racist policy will be exposed.” She also attacked the program for requiring applicants or a family member to have been arrested for cannabis-related activity, though she noted she qualified because of her brother’s cannabis-related arrest.
“I had to work hard [hard] “To avoid being arrested,” he wrote. “The idea that I was not harmed by criminalization is racist and I will not stand by while this county discriminates against white people and non-criminals.”
Loe requested $1 million to compensate for damage caused by the wildfires and a roughly four-year delay in aid due to problems with processing cannabis permits.
“We all hate you for good reason,” he wrote in his request to the board. “You will be held accountable… With the least respect, John Loe.”
