The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, introduced by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler. D-N.Y., advanced out of the House Judiciary Committee Nov. 20 on a 24-10 bipartisan vote. The bill is a critical step towards helping minority-owned cannabis businesses thrive in a legal economy.

The MORE Act would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act. It would also correct many banking and legal issues, and allow minority-owned and small cannabis businesses access to federal Small Business Administration loans.

As Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee pointed out at a news conference on the MORE Act, “less than one-fifth of the cannabis industry is owned or operated by people of color.” She added, “that’s why this … is a testament to … ensuring our cannabis laws are rooted in equality, justice and fairness.”

The journey to legal cannabis has benefited from an aura of diversity and the approval and political will of people of color. (Cannabis is currently legal for recreational purposes in 11 states, including California, and Washington, D.C.) But the industry struggles with a lack of access to capital, which has rendered it overwhelmingly white.

Minority access to financial services has long been an issue in the United States. For decades, institutionalized financial services favored white borrowers at the expense of nonwhite Americans, while all levels of government turned a blind eye towards the destruction of minority property and the arrest of their American dream.

A few examples: After the Civil War, governments in the South were permitted to institute the “convict-lease” system, effectively sustaining slavery through exceptions to the 13th Amendment. During the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921, police allowed white rioters to destroy “Black Wall Street” through ground and aerial assault. In the 1930s and 1940s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal housing authority redlined black and Latino neighborhoods, promoting urban segregation and artificially increasing the cost of lending to African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

Blocking minority borrowers from access to capital for generations has bled communities of jobs, opportunity and the power of ownership.

Systemic economic suppression makes it difficult for minority entrepreneurs to accumulate and access the intergenerational wealth that provides a significant portion of the financing necessary to enter today’s cannabis markets. Current banking laws codify the disproportionally high cost of financing for minorities and create inequitable barriers to entry and success. The prohibitive cost of starting a cannabis business leaves entrepreneurs looking for angel investors, who tend to be white and favor majority ownership.

Some states and municipalities have attempted to facilitate black and Latino participation in the cannabis industry through equity programs aimed at those most impacted by cannabis prohibition. (Oakland is one example.)

But these programs are undermined, if not rendered moot, by the lack of access to capital.

Traditional funding sources are unavailable to cover the extraordinary startup costs of these businesses. License application fees commonly exceed tens of thousands of dollars, along with initial capital requirements of millions of cash in escrow or bond.

These obstacles leave state equity licensees vulnerable to predatory lending and business practices. Equity applicants and owners give up the rights and benefits of ownership for a chance at success. Instead of success, they often receive a one-off payment insufficient to build personal wealth or address the systemic effects of cannabis prohibition.

Final passage of the MORE Act would be a critical first step to ensuring that minority-owned businesses have access to the capital they need to compete in a federally legalized cannabis marketplace.

Federal cannabis prohibition will end. The federal government must ensure that it does not allow generational financial inequities to shape and color the face of the cannabis industry built on the backs of the individuals and communities currently shut out of participation.

The MORE Act is an opportunity to take a corrective step on racial injustice and stimulate the American economy — particularly for those most in need of it.

Rezwan Khan is president of the Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce, a California trade organization, and vice president of Global Corporate Development for DNA Genetics. Will Senn is the founder of Urbn Leaf, a California cannabis business.