Black Lawmakers to Block Legalized Marijuana in N.Y. if Their Communities Don’t Benefit
 At a recent conference in Brooklyn on marijuana legalization, Jacob Plowden, left, spoke about the lack of diversity and inclusion in the cannabis industry.
(Credit Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times)
[OCS: It appears that the Times overlooked the fact that Jacob Plowden is not some jamoke off the street, but an activist seeking to legalize marijuana … “Jake Plowden is the deputy director and a co-founder of The Cannabis Cultural Association, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that provides resources for disenfranchised communities to get into legal cannabis and hemp. Growing up in Brooklyn and Harlem, he has witnessed firsthand the destructive components of the Drug War and its socioeconomic effects on African American/Latinx communities.” <Source>]
Black lawmakers are blocking a push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York, warning that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposal could perpetuate the racial inequality fostered under current drug laws.
The lawmakers say that unless people of color are guaranteed a share of the potentially $3 billion industry, there may be no legalization this year. They want to be assured that some of that money will go toward job training programs, and that minority entrepreneurs will receive licenses to cultivate or sell the marijuana.
[OCS: Anyone who has studied politics, New York politics in particular, know that it will be the politically-connected individuals and companies who will be profiting from the legalization, even if they have to hire minorities to front the enterprise. And, as one might suspect, the minority gangs will still play a major role in the drug distribution trade as marijuana will be heavily taxed to pay for ego-stroking and vote-getting projects.]
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, and as lawmakers elsewhere consider their own laws, they seem intent on not repeating what they see as other states’ mistakes.
They say one misstep, in particular, stands out: None of the 10 states or Washington ensured that minority communities would share in any economic windfall of legalization — missing out on an opportunity to redress years of having a disproportionate number of African-Americans arrested on marijuana charges.
[OCS: If one wants to rely on the old debunked canard that the percentage of crimes committed by minorities must be in proportion to the minority’s representation in the general population else it is systemic racism, let us take the opposite view. What is the cost in dollars and lives taken by drugs pushed by the drug dealers before they were incarcerated. Knowing full well that the police and prosecutors rarely went after low-level offenders and concentrated on dealers who sold the harder drugs (heroin, crack cocaine, cocaine, crystal meth to mention a few) along with marijuana. I am positive that these costs greatly outweigh any profit potential to the “community” from affirmative action for drugs.]
In New York, the question of economic return for those communities has emerged as a defining issue.
[OCS: It is only a “defining issue” for those who will personally, politically, and commercially benefit from the passage of a law designed to benefit the people; else why would a law be needed?]
“I haven’t seen anyone do it correctly,” Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the first black woman to serve as Assembly majority leader, said of legalization.
“They thought we were going to trust that at the end of the day, these communities would be invested in. But that’s not something I want to trust,” she continued. “If it’s not required in the statute, then it won’t happen.”
[OCS: I wonder what oath the Assemblywoman swore to uphold; you know the one, where there is equality under the law and that people have a right to bring their grievances before a court of competent jurisdiction. Remember, we are not talking about poor individuals, but business people who can afford licensing and operational requirements. Corruption in New York politics is a given, so why pretend otherwise.]
Critics say marijuana legalization has fostered an inequitable system in which wealthy, white investors often reap the profits of the fledgling industry.
In Colorado, black entrepreneurs said they were banned from winning licenses because of marijuana-related convictions. Black people make up just a handful of the thousands of cultivation or dispensary license holders there, and continue to be arrested on marijuana-related charges at almost three times the rate of white people.
[OCS: It makes sense that a person who was charged and convicted of a crime would not be eligible for licensing under the law. Again, citing disproportionality without analyzing the individual circumstances – like selling harder drugs along with marijuana or committing other non-drug related crimes.]
In California, several cities introduced equity programs retroactively. Oakland now requires at least half of licenses to go to people with a cannabis-related conviction and who fell below an income threshold.
[OCS: Why am I not surprised? The progressive socialist democrats in California coddle illegal aliens and criminals – and in Oakland one finds a disproportionate amount of criminal activity in the normal course of events. As a businessperson, I cannot understand why one’s household income is a factor. If they do not earn enough to qualify normally for the license, one might assume they could also not afford renting a fixed location, paying for the various insurance policies required to do business with the public, and meet other non-household expenses.]
The black New York lawmakers include some of marijuana legalization’s most vocal supporters, but they want to make their state the first to tie legalization directly to an economic equity program. And that has meant seeking changes to Mr. Cuomo’s proposal, which though it provides for a “social and economic equity plan,” does not specify how much weight would be given to minority license applicants, or how much money would be invested in communities ravaged by the war on drugs.
Alphonso David, the governor’s counsel, said that those provisions would be written in regulation after legalization was passed. “Some people are looking for a level of detail that may not be appropriate for legislation, and we have to be careful how we implement the legislation so we don’t have to change it every few years,” he said.
But opponents say those omissions undercut Mr. Cuomo’s efforts to frame legalization as a way to right the wrongs that decades of criminalization had wrought on communities. He called for sealing some drug-related records and funding substance abuse treatment.
[OCS: The new civil rights movement now embraces criminal justice – or should I say no justice for victims?]
Even as Mr. Cuomo has pressed for speed, urging the Legislature to include legalization in the state budget in April, crucial lawmakers have shown little interest in rushing his proposal through.
Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the Democratic majority leader, said New York must ensure that marijuana legalization would bring an economic return for people of color, or “it won’t happen.”
“It’s not going to go the way it looks now,” said Ms. Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat who represents a district that includes Buffalo. She has introduced her own bill, which directs half of all marijuana revenue to a community fund supporting job training, and prioritizes licenses for people from communities most affected by criminalization.
[OCS: The poverty pimps and racist activists all want their share of the pie – preferably without working too hard. The issue of job training seems dodgy to me when New York schools have a staggering drop out rate and would be the proper venue for training in the manual or industrial arts. As for reserving licenses from communities victimized by their own people, that is another matter for discussion.]
Mr. Cuomo seemed to acknowledge as much on Monday, telling reporters that he was “no longer confident” that marijuana would be in the budget.
Of particular concern in New York has been the influence of wealthy medical marijuana corporations, which are overwhelmingly led by white people and may be well positioned to capitalize on the recreational industry.
[OCS: The medical profession appears to be capitalizing on selling indulgences, I mean prescriptions, for medical marijuana. I see not reason that medical marijuana operations should have any privileges or benefits when marijuana is available for all without prescription. Perhaps one should demand reparations for the number of individuals suffering in pain because their physicians have been scared to prescribe the necessary amount of opioid analgesics for fear of winding up on some list and possibly jeopardizing their Medicare golden goose.]
That concern has made itself so clear that the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association, worried that legislators might seek to shut them out of the new industry, sent a letter to Mr. Cuomo and legislative leaders on Monday promising to set up a $25 million “Cannabis Economic Opportunity Fund” to provide zero-interest loans to companies led by women and people of color. (The association recently asked the company MedMen to resign from the group amid allegations of racism among top executives.)
[OCS: Perhaps there should be an investigation about the true ownership of companies that claim to be minority- or women-owned?]
The medical companies have sought to shape the bill in other ways, too: Their executives and people tied to them have donated more than $600,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign account.
[OCS: Again we find legalized bribery, I mean lobbying, that will ultimately influence the way the legislation is crafted and sold to the public.]
More of the Times’ twaddle, in full and in context, can be found at The New York Times.
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