Social equity advocates in Missouri are questioning the validity of numerous zip codes submitted by law enforcement that would qualify residents to apply for cannabis microbusiness licenses.
Leaders of the local and state NAACP are criticizing the inclusion of several zip codes that encompass government buildings, post office boxes and affluent suburbs, while omitting several others primarily in north St. Louis, where roughly half the city’s Black population resides.
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The microbusiness licenses were designed to allow “marginalized or under-represented individuals to participate in the legal marijuana market,” according to an April news release issued by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), the state’s cannabis regulator.
Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis City NAACP, told the Missouri Independent he was shocked to see certain zip codes, like suburban Clayton, included among the areas deemed with historic high rates of incarceration or arrests for
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