The Social Equity Ownership Program under Proposition 207 allocated 26 “social equity” licenses to individuals from communities disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of previous marijuana laws. Partner Jimmy Cool was interviewed by Jimmy Magahern of PHOENIX magazine on his thoughts on the barriers faced by winners.

The article follows the stories of several individuals who, immediately upon winning the license lottery, were faced with numerous challenges including predatory investors looking to buy them out. Mr. Cool is quoted as saying “If the social justice goal was to remediate the harm that was done as a result of the war on drugs in mostly Black and brown communities, we didn’t do that. What we did was we created 26 Black and brown millionaires – or, in the case of many of them, 250-thousandaires.”

As featured in PHOENIX magazine on November 2, 2025. Read the entire article here.