URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n699/a05.html
Newshawk: Herb Couch
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 12 Dec 2016
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2016 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:
Website: http://www.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.
Page: 14
FALSE PROMISE ON POT
Massachusetts voters legalized the sale and recreational use of marijuana when they passed Question 4 in November. Folks who work in the cannabis industry, who authored that legislation, want to squeeze as much as they can out of the Bay State market even if it means exploiting minority communities.
Oh, they wouldn’t describe it that way. The authors of the legislation instead called for regulators to encourage “full participation” in the new industry “by people from communities that have previously been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement and to positively impact those communities.”
In practice, though, that could lead to a concentration of pot shops in minority neighborhoods, which has been a concern in other states that have legalized pot.
Meanwhile some of the ideas floated to ensure “full participation” seem quite simply nuts.
At a meeting with members of the Boston City Council last week industry representatives went beyond urging set-asides for pot shop licenses, which some members of the City Council have already said they support, for neighborhoods that have seen the most pot-related arrests.
They want to offer financial incentives to ensure that the new businesses in those neighborhoods aren’t overwhelmingly owned by whites and franchises. Depending on how those “incentives” are structured that could effectively put the city of Boston in the business of subsidizing pot shops. Isn’t that terrific.
Another suggestion discussed at the council meeting is to develop a direct pipeline for inmates who are released from incarceration on drug charges to enter training programs to work in the pot dispensaries. When it comes to “full participation” apparently job fairs aren’t enough.
We understand that councilors want to ensure equity in the new marketplace. But what happens when the effort to encourage pot shops in neighborhoods most affected by drug arrests leads to a boom along, say, the Methadone Mile? The city must avoid taking steps that lead to unintended consequences.
MAP posted-by: Matt