Community criticizes CCB social equity efforts and industry prices during public comment
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Summary
At the July 17 Cannabis Compliance Board meeting, public commenter Ron Baker criticized the agency's social equity efforts, said consumption lounges have failed to attract residents, and warned that the licensed market is losing customers to lower prices in informal markets.
Ron Baker, speaking during two public‑comment periods at the Cannabis Compliance Board meeting on July 17, urged the board to do more to support social equity and criticized the licensed market’s pricing and community presence.
"I'm here representing the cannabis community, not necessarily the industry," Baker said at the start of his comment. He told the board he has attended meetings and reached out repeatedly over several years with ideas—such as state‑run consumption programming and cannabis cooking classes—that he said received no response.
Baker said he had spent recent weeks talking with people across Las Vegas and Henderson and concluded that many residents do not use consumption lounges. "People go into a dispensary [and] wanna pay $20 for an eighth. So where is the money going?" he asked. He said licensed dispensaries charge prices that push consumers toward the unregulated market and that, in his view, social equity efforts have stalled since a prior staff member, Ayesha Goins, left. "What social equity program have we really done? Is that just a name to throw in it?" he asked.
Baker also criticized tourist‑oriented retail that sells hemp products on the Fremont Street corridor. "Planet 13 is the biggest one…you guys got people over there thinking that that's real weed. They're over there paying $70 for a 3 5 and throwing that in the trash," he said.
At the start of the second public comment period Baker returned and reiterated his view that many licensed businesses are not serving community needs and that legacy market sellers—what he called the “black market”—continue to serve a price‑sensitive customer base. "We buy weed and go home and smoke," he said.
The board did not respond with substantive commitments during Baker’s remarks; Chair Guzman Freilich thanked him and offered to connect him with staff for follow up.
Speakers: Ron Baker — identified himself as representing the cannabis community; Chair Guzman Freilich also addressed him on the record and arranged a staff follow up.
Context: Baker’s comments came among multiple licensing, settlement and transfer items on the CCB agenda. He framed his criticism as a community perspective about pricing, lack of visible social equity programming and limited public engagement by some licensees.
