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Convicted pot felons that want to own a legal marijuana business in Oakland will now be prioritized under new, radical permit rules designed to make amends for the United States’ war on drugs.

The city’s new Equity Permit Program calls for 50 per cent of all licenses for medical marijuana facilities to go to Oaklanders imprisoned for a pot offence in the last 10 years, or to residents of six neighbourhoods that police have excessively targeted for drug arrests.

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“Communities of colour have been negatively and disproportionately impacted by disparate enforcement of cannabis laws,” reads the ordinance introducing the rules.

Oakland city council voted unanimously to approve the program — the first of its kind in the U.S. — last month.

“I believe it’s an attempt not to perpetuate some of the inequities we’ve seen here locally and also in other states,” said Greg Minor, the assistant to Oakland’s city administrator, whose office is working to implement the rules.

Minor said a revised application process — open to any Oaklander seeking to grow, manufacture, transport or sell marijuana for medical use — will go live later this year.

Possessing and distributing medical marijuana has been legal in California since 1996, but the 2004 adoption of another law gave cities the power to introduce licensing regulations of their own.