“The loopholes of getting in, it requires a lot of capital. It gives people with money, capital, to get in to the front of the line,” said Narosmi Auguste, an Everett resident who is looking to open a marijuana cultivation, manufacturing and retail business in Boston.

The hearing, requested last week by City Councilors Kim Janey and Tim McCarthy, gave dozens of people a chance to voice concerns about the hurdles facing under-represented applicants in the marijuana industry.

Prospective business owners, activists, and community members met Thursday to discuss programs and opportunities that could help social equity applicants with the process of opening recreational marijuana facilities in Boston.


She said the requirements, both geographically and financially, can leave people of color behind.

“We’re almost trying to scramble to get on top,” she said.

Social equity programs, rolled out on a statewide level last spring and adopted separately on a municipality-by-municipality basis, create opportunities for people to enter the marijuana industry who have been traditionally adversely affected by the criminalization of cannabis. Applications are supposed to be prioritized if the company is led by or employs minority workers, people with past marijuana convictions, or people who live in low-income neighborhoods with high drug arrest rates.

“The question for Boston and wherever you’re from is ‘How do we roll this out in a fair, just, equitable way?’” Janey said at Thursday’s hearing, where she was joined by several other city councilors. “We have to be intentional about moving forward with some kind of equity program for the city of Boston.”

Janey said the committee plans to host other similar meetings in the future as they craft programs to help social equity applicants in Boston.

Jonathan Lau, a Brookline resident who owns two electronic cigarette stores in Brighton called The Vape Shop, said he’s been particularly concerned about the prospect of Happy Valley Ventures MA Inc. turning dive bar Mary Ann’s into a recreational marijuana shop in Cleveland Circle.


One of Lau’s stores is in Cleveland Circle, and he had hoped to do the same thing.

“They’re coming in and just piling their money on this bar and saying, ‘Hey we want this to be a recreational dispensary before anyone else,’” he said. ”If they got their permit before me, that would be a disaster. I would not be able to survive. That’s the end of my livelihood at that location.”

Others said even the state’s equity provisions have overlooked some people, and they hope the city can create programs and criteria to prevent that from happening in Boston.

“The immigrant and undocumented community in regards to economic empowerment . . . has been marginalized more than anyone else,” said Gabriela Cartagena, a community leader with the Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council.

“I think it’s really important to bring the immigrant community into the criteria of social equity.”

A man, who left the meeting immediately after he spoke, said he is a convicted felon and has not been given the opportunity to build wealth in the marijuana industry because of his criminal history.

“They want the recidivism. That’s what it seems to me,” he said. “Now they’re making it legal for all these people that are coming from outside of our community . . . [It’s] going to gentrify us even more.”


Felicia Gans can be reached at felicia.gans@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaGans.