Far too often, unscrupulous business and investors take advantage of minorities and create disproportionate advantage over the general public. We need to make a stand to ensure that those benefiting from the social equity program designed to help those who have been ostracized by the government have a chance to build economic engines for their community.

Support House Bill 5545 which sets stronger evaluation standards to accurately define who qualifies as a Social Equity Qualifier (SEQ) and their role in a cannabis dispensing organization.

When evaluating whether SEQ’s are the bona fide owners of at least 51 percent of an application, the following factors should be considered:

• SEQ’s should be immediately vested in their ownership interest
• SEQ’s should have an opportunity to share in the profits of the dispensary and in the gains from the sale of the business
• Non-SEQ owners should not be entitled to preferential returns to profits
• Should 3rd party investors agreements subject SEQ’s to sell their stake in the business or be forced into repurchase of their share of the business
• How restricted are sales or transfers of ownership for SEQ’s
• Should SEQ’s be subject to no-compete clauses

Join us in fighting for real bonified social equity in the Illinois cannabis industry.