SAN DIEGO — San Diego is working to level the playing field for people wanting to work in the marijuana business or one day own a dispensary.
For the past month, the city has met with residents with past drug convictions and people disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.
"I've been organically in the cannabis industry early on as a kid," Armand King said. "I started selling as a homeless child."
Selling weed eventually caught up with him. King was 21 years old when he was charged with conspiracy to distribute and landed in prison.
"First time offense. I went from selling cannabis no priors straight to the pros. Stayed at nine different institutions, extradited from San Diego to Florida all for 10 pounds of cannabis," he said.
He's faced with barriers to legitimately get involved in the business. Getting charges expunged takes time and money.
The high price of getting into the marijuana industry poses another challenge.
"It's only set up for people with millions of dollars, already in position to win in the first place," he said. "Not for marginalized communities, people that come from communities like this."
The city is working to change that and held listening sessions around San Diego to hear from community members.
"They've gathered quite a bit of information from everyone in the community," he said. "Now it's on the city to actually listen to the people, listen to the information they're getting and to implement it."
The city has 10 dispensary permits left and is putting together a plan to distribute them more equitably.
"It should be the people most impacted by the failed war on drugs," King said. "People that were over criminalized for cannabis that's now legal they should be prioritized especially those that have convictions."
The final listening session was in City Heights Thursday evening. The city plans to meet in mid-July to go over what they learned and will have an official report this fall.
WATCH RELATED: San Diego works to level playing field in marijuana industry (May 2022)