Public Act 21-1, An Act Concerning Responsible and Equitable Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis, legalized the adult use of cannabis in Connecticut. The bill established a Social Equity Council, which will promote and encourage the full participation in the cannabis industry by people from communities disproportionately harmed by cannabis prohibition. The bill targets its equity measures at "disproportionately impacted areas" (or DIAs), census tracts in the state that meet certain statistical thresholds, as determined annually by the Social Equity Council. 

The map below shows census tracts that are approved for identification as disproportionately impacted areas, according to Public Act 23-79, An Act Concerning Cannabis Regulation. "Disproportionately impacted area" means on and after August 1, 2023, a United States census tract in this state that has been identified by the Social Equity Council by using (1) a poverty rate metric and (2) ranking of historical conviction rates for drug-related offenses by census tract.

Based on these statutory criteria, a list of census tracts for identification as disproportionately impacted areas has been identified in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The 2021 tracts have been published on the Connecticut Open Data Portal here. The 2022 tracts have been published on the Connecticut Open Data Portal here. The 2023 tracts are available on the Connecticut Open Data Portal here. 

The map below displays the 2023 approved disproportionately impacted areas.

The list of the 2023 disproportionately impacted areas was approved by the Social Equity Council on August 1, 2023. 

"Disproportionately impacted area" means on and after August 1, 2023, a United States census tract in this state that has been identified by the Social Equity Council by using (1) a poverty rate metric and (2) ranking of historical conviction rates for drug-related offenses by census tract.

To identify these census tracts, arrest and conviction records from the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) were geocoded to calculate the count of cannabis-related convictions in Connecticut from 1982-2020 by census tract. Geocoding refers to a process for converting street addresses into spatial data (latitude and longitude) that can be displayed as features on a map. 

The address records from DESPP were cleaned and then geocoded. The geocoded address points were then assigned to census tracts using the TIGER/LINE shapefile from the U.S. Census Bureau that defines Connecticut census tracts. The conviction rates for each tract were calculated using the 5-year estimated population from the 2017-2021 American Community Survey (ACS), a product of the Census Bureau. 

A more detailed technical memo describing the geocoding process is available here.

For more information about adult-use cannabis in Connecticut, visit ct.gov/cannabis.