a referendum to legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older and is expected to generate earnest debate about what the billion-dollar industry should look like. The planned launch of the new market comes on the heels of a botched rollout of the state’s medical cannabis industry that initially shut out Black applicants.
by the War on Drugs, a decades-old U.S. government campaign to reduce illegal drug use that led to the mass incarceration of Black people.Since 2012, when Colorado and Washington passed ballot measures to legalize marijuana, 19 other states and the District have taken similar steps. But none, according to lawmakers, has appropriately addressed the impact of the War on Drugs on minority communities., have left buyers and sellers operating in a gray area with no legal market in place.
“It’s a complex topic. There’s a lot of different pieces. No state has gotten it right,” said Senate President Bill Ferguson of creating a system for legal sales with a social equity component. “I thinkLawmakers will be racing against a clock as they try to implement a plan before legalization takes effect.
The bill also sets up an avenue for someone who has lived in an area that was impacted by the War on Drugs for five of the last 10 years, attended a public school in the geographic area for five years or meets another criterion created by the state commission and based on the state’s disparity study to obtain a license. The “social equity” applicants would be part of the first round of applications to be considered.