Law360 (August 5, 2021, 6:36 PM EDT) — A Black-owned pot dispensary in Washington state is suing various state agencies, claiming that it has been discriminated against through denied licenses, raids and audits that the shop owners say other, white-owned facilities have not faced.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board and its chair and director, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the U.S. Department of Justice are all named defendants in the suit, which claims that the state’s marijuana permitting and licensing system discriminates against African Americans.
The plaintiffs, who are Black and of African American ethnicity, claim that they have suffered “invidious racial discrimination”…
