Residents of 19 Michigan cities who are seeking to open a recreational marijuana business could qualify for a new discount on their license and application fees.

The agency selected 19 communities that have above-average rates of marijuana arrests and high rates of poverty to participate. They include Detroit, Flint, Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Saginaw and East Lansing.

The discount was announced by the Marijuana Regulatory Agency Thursday, July 18, as a part of a social equity program for the adult-use marijuana industry.

Under the law voters approved in November 2018 that legalized marijuana, state officials had to create a plan to help communities that have been disproportionately affected by marijuana prohibition.

Agency Director Andrew Brisbo said the social equity program would benefit those communities.

“We want to provide an opportunity to get in to the business, through a number of perspectives, to individuals that might not of otherwise had that opportunity,” Brisbo said.

Business license applicants who live in one of the chosen communities and are trying to start an adult-use marijuana business there may qualify for fee reductions, under the state’s social equity plan. State officials have released emergency rules for the adult-use marijuana industry, and will start accepting business license applications Nov. 1.

State officials chose the 19 communities by first determining which counties had marijuana-related conviction rates above the state average -- and then chose communities in those counties who had had poverty rates of 30 percent or higher.

Albion

Benton Harbor

Detroit

East Lansing

Ecorse

Flint

Highland Park

Hamtramck

Inkster

Kalamazoo

Mt. Morris

Mt. Pleasant

Muskegon

Muskegon Heights

Niles

Pontiac

River Rouge

Saginaw

Ypsilanti

The communities aren’t limited to the specific cities and also include other municipalities that are indicated on a mailing address, Brisbo said.

Some of the chosen communities, including Albion, Mt. Morris Township, Niles and Pontiac, have banned marijuana businesses. Officials won’t remove them from the list, Brisbo said.

“Some of our focus is not just on licensure -- which might not be feasible in the community if the community decides to opt out -- but they can still achieve licensure,” Brisbo said.

It’s the state’s goal to have 50 percent of the adult-use marijuana business licenses in the 19 communities to be owned by participants in the social equity program, Brisbo said.

That could prove to be a challenge, as the first year of the adult-use marijuana industry will be mostly limited to existing medical marijuana license holders. State officials don’t know how many of those license holders would qualify for the social equity program. For at least the first year of the program, only small-scale business licenses will be available to those who don’t hold a medical marijuana license.

“I would presume with the number of licenses we have issued already in some of these communities that there are undoubtedly some participants who are already licensed on the medical side,” Brisbo said.

(L-R) Michella Marshall, Anastasha Franco, Kortnee Richardson, Jacob Nevin, Thomas Dillard are members of the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency social equity team, seen at a press conference July 18, 2019, in Lansing. (Amy Biolchini | MLive.com)

State officials have a five-person team dedicated to overseeing the social equity plan. They’ll be holding specific outreach events in each of the 19 communities this August. Brisbo hopes that 10 percent of the people that attend those outreach events to gain jobs in the marijuana industry.

Applicants whose businesses will be located in the 19 communities will have their fees reduced, based on the following criteria:

-Applicants who have lived in the community for at least the past five years will get a reduction in fees of 25 percent

-Applicants who have a majority stake in a company, who have lived in the community for at least the past five years and have a marijuana related-conviction will get an additional reduction in fees of 25 percent

-Applicants who have a majority stake in a company, who have lived in the community for at least the past five years and have been a registered primary caregiver for at least two years from 2008-2017 will get an additional reduction in fees of 10 percent

Brisbo said the criteria were developed using input from a series of industry stakeholder sessions the agency held earlier this year, as well as an online survey.

“We’re trying to open the door through the allowance for majority ownership to ensure that our social equity participants aren’t just token representation within a business entity,” Brisbo said.

-- Amy Biolchini is the marijuana beat reporter for MLive. Contact her with questions, tips or comments at abiolch1@mlive.com. Read more from MLive about medical and recreational marijuana.