Nearly six years ago, the Florida Legislature set aside a medical marijuana license known as the Pigford Black Farmer License (BLF), which stems from the 1997 Pigford v. Glickman class action lawsuit, which alleged sustained and ongoing discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
This license has still not been issued by the Florida Department of Health, which regulates the industry.
John Allen is one of twelve applicants for Florida’s Medical Marijuana Treatment Center License and the owner of Black Mule Coffee, and the president of FTG Development, a licensed nursery for over 36 years.
According to Leafly’s 2021 Job Report, Despite an 89% increase in first-time Social Equity customers and 72% increase in value of goods sold, offering important lessons to brands, investors, and regulators, BIPOC cannabis ownership is 2%.
Black Mule Coffee owner John Allen is tirelessly working to be included among just 2% of Black Americans who own a cannabis company. Even though marijuana is medically legal in many states, the barriers to obtaining a license are unjustly greater for Black farmers! pic.twitter.com/mb77DhgF7C
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) September 8, 2022
Allen and the other applicants competing for the Black farmer license had a $146,000 application fee – that’s more than twice the amount required from the initial applicants.
“You have to secure the land,” he says. “You have to be able to have proof of funds. You have to be able to come up with a ($5 million) performance bond. Audited financials. So there’s a ton of work that has to go into it, and that can easily take you to $500,000 to $1 million just to be in a position to have a winning application.”
The winner of the Pigford Black Farmer License will instantly be worth 50+ million dollars which can be seen with the recent sale of MedMen Fl.
Green Sentry’s recent acquisition was closing on $63 million (plus the assumption of lease liabilities in Florida) purchase of MedMen’s Florida assets, including MMTC license, 14 Premium Retail Dispensaries, 30,000 square foot Cultivation Facility, inventory and other assets.
Source:
🐦: Ben Crump Twitter
🎥: Spectrum
📷: Mitch Perry/Spectrum Bay News 9
