Flaws exposed

While a cannabis equity program flounders in Oakland, San Francisco is plowing ahead with its own strained version. The latest step shows just how unwieldy a well-intentioned idea can be.

Mayor London Breed is promising free one-on-one legal advice for cannabis business applicants who were caught up in the misguided war on drugs. Under the equity program ground rules, a San Francisco resident with an arrest record on marijuana charges would be given priority in opening a weed dispensary as a way to make amends for harm caused by the drug crackdown dating to the Nixon era.

It’s an appealing idea, but as Oakland found out, it’s complicated and politically fraught. Defining a resident, an income level or even the crime at issue is tricky. Other qualifications such as whether an applicant was displaced by eviction or foreclosure have surfaced.

There’s a backlog of some 200 equity applicants, who may not be equipped financially or professionally to work through this maze. That’s what the city’s latest brainstorm aims to fix by finding lawyers to navigate a world of rules and regulations that the city is still etching.

The mayor wants to pair applicants with pro bono lawyers supplied by the Bar Association or nonprofits, an idea that doesn’t impose any city costs for now. But her Office of Workforce and Economic Development will expend staff time on carrying out the plan. Other small business first-timers don’t qualify for the same loving attention.

Legalizing cannabis should be straightforward and clear. Adding the hazy topic of years-later social compensation will only tangle this task further. Adding in attorneys won’t help.