Roll Up for Cannabis Equity – A Monthly Column
By Terrie Best
By now there have been many articles written about political operatives Jesus and Andrea Cardenas alleged shenanigans with a Federal PPP loan. These alleged actions led to a criminal indictment against the siblings but not enough has been said about Jesus’s connection to the cannabis lobby.
I’m not an expert on the politics of cannabis but articles from local news outlets gave us some insight and I have many more questions.
A detail which concerned me was the disclosure that as late as 2021 March and Ash, the largest cannabis retailer in San Diego county, was paying Cardenas for consulting work through the Cardenas’ organization Grass Roots Resources while Cardenas was Chief of Staff for Councilmember Stephen Whitburn (he was asked to resign in April). Further, more emerged about his December, 2021, attempt to introduce an agenda item to the land use committee aimed to reduce some of the restrictions around retail cannabis outlets. Was this to benefit March and Ash?
One local article mentions a lobby session where a Riverside cannabis company discussed this loosening with Cardenas and quoted March and Ash as saying they were “uncomfortable” with the Cardenas move. So my question is what consulting did Jesus do for the fees March and Ash paid him while he was employed by Whitburn?
Also in December of 2021, some colleagues and I who are and were working on cannabis social equity (a social justice program to prioritize licensing for those harmed by the War on Drugs) were invited to meet with Cardenas at Grassroots Resources offices. Another question: why not at Whitburn’s office?
Cardenas wanted to discuss civic engagement with us for his plans to push these mysteriously- originated land use changes through. We asked him not to propose changes to the land use restrictions until after the city had a grasp on their plans for social equity licenses. To me this move seemed like a ploy by the industry to secure more of the market in advance of the looming social equity program.
The cannabis industry is very well represented and this meeting Jesus asked us to attend also seemed like an attempt to get social equity proponents to back these concessions. It was insulting.
Even more insulting was discovering Cardenas still had a relationship with March and Ash, per the financial disclosures mentioned in the recent articles. We had been very clear to Cardenas at the time that we felt March and Ash was unsupportive of social equity and we didn’t want to tangle with them or their agents. Now here we were in the Grassroots Resources office with this dude trying to get us to go against our own interests in furtherance of his and what may have been that of March and Ash’s. Yikes.
Just this week, I heard that March and Ash’s General Counsel, Bret Peace, left his position. I had a hard time getting anybody besides the dispatcher on the phone but did get email confirmation that Bret IS still March and Ash’s GC and the CEO of Groundwork Holdings. Clearly rumors are flying around Cardenas and what he did for March and Ash’s 2021 consulting fees.
I’ve met Bret Peace several times as we tried to get March and Ash and their lobbyists onboard with supporting social equity. When we found out they were coordinating with cannabis prohibitionists to keep the market small (and frankly, to themselves), doing some questionable muscling of the local UFCW to tank a cannabis retail ballot initiative in Imperial Beach (which Cardenas let slip in the December meeting with us) and generally trying to tamp down enthusiasm for equity or even an expanded market, we stopped trusting them.
Now, we are seeing a chilly reception for cannabis social equity at the Mayor’s office. Even after the city received grant money to move forward and all the work was done, social equity stalled when the Mayor moved the program out of Development Services and under his complete control through the Department of Race and Equity. This change was not announced and the surprise move didn’t sit well with Monica Montgomery Steppe, then-Council’s only Black member. She spoke out against it from the dias after the fact.
San Diego has an opportunity to increase tax revenue, mitigate harms of the War on Drugs and increase wealth in underserved communities but they have stalled. Why?
March and Ash is one of the largest donors to the San Diego County Democratic Party. What did Jesus do for cannabis lobbyists?
Thank you Terry! This is a great summation of Cardenas’ troubles and a list of important questions that need to be answered.
Thanks for the opportunity, Frank! The neighborhoods over policed and the formally incarcerated folks deserve better than a bunch of land-owning rich men fighting to keep social justice out of San Diego.
There’s no wonder many of the best growers and manufacturers won’t allow M&A to sell their products… they don’t play nice in the sandbox.
Thanks for staying on top of this, Terrie! Your tenacity is inspirational, and your memory is impeccable.
Reeeaallly? Nobody likes March and Ash? We will have to have a meeting about this, Marcus. Lol. Thanks for reading and commenting.
This is a very well written article that is extremely sensitive to the realities of adult-use cannabis law and regulation. Sadly what the Cardenas indictment represents is a run away pay-to-play environment that will, i.e. must, cost some in government who benefitted from the financial underpinnings of their preferential treatment of certain applications where, indeed, rich white men benefitted from having a guaranteed seat at the low fixed limit number of licenses table. There are things going on that will create this change. Expecting change out of the current recreational cannabis masters is a monumental waste of time, money and energy. I do applaud your what appears to be, new sense of purpose.
At last, these people are getting called out for their ill gotten market share across the county and its jurisdictions. The daddy’s must be livid.
Most excellent of reporting in this space in this town. ?
Big kudos to the reporter.
Thanks for reading, Becky! If you know more, let’s talk!