Councilors: Legalization biz boon for pot peddlers
Pot dealers who were busted for selling weed illegally should be allowed to peddle legal marijuana over the counter if Question 4 passes this November, two city councilors said yesterday, pushing it as a business opportunity for minorities.
“This market already exists in the area I live in, let’s allow people to come out of the shadows,” said District 7 Councilor Tito Jackson at a council hearing last night to discuss how legalized marijuana could benefit minority businesses and communities.
“Let’s give people an opportunity who have experience and transferable skills in this space to actually make a decent living for themselves, take care of their families,” Jackson said.
At-Large Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who called for the hearing, said councilors would ultimately use testimony to send recommendations to the proposed Cannabis Control Commission if Question 4 passes. Pressley said she supports the law allowing people with marijuana convictions to take part in a regulated industry, but said legalized marijuana offered broader opportunities for minority businesses and communities that have been shut out of other industries.
“We care about leveling the playing field for those that were unjustly and unfairly and disproportionately criminalized and incarcerated, but this is not about singularly creating an industry just for those folks,” she told the Herald before the hearing. “This is about equity of enterprise.”
Jackson said blacks are three times more likely than whites to be arrested for possession of marijuana and seven times more likely to be arrested for dealing, and agreed with Pressley that legalization would create an opportunity for minorities who had been harmed by the war on drugs.
The legislation requires the Cannabis Control Commission to include policies that encourage people from communities “disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition” to participate in the new industry, but Jackson said those policies needed to be far reaching.
“There are individuals that are currently in an unregulated market who would have an opportunity now to participate in a regulated market,” Jackson said. “I think the critical component is that communities of color not only work in the cannabis industry, they should own and have an equity stake in the industry from cultivation to retail.”
Ballot Question 4 calls for legalizing marijuana and creating the Cannabis Control Commission to regulate the new industry. Proponents say it could be a $1 billion business in five years.
While other states have more restrictions on who can sell legal marijuana, Question 4 would bar only people who have been convicted of selling pot to minors from working at or owning recreational pot shops. The ballot measure says other marijuana offenses — as well as possession of any drug, including heroin or opioids — cannot disqualify applicants or employees. People convicted of dealing heroin or any drugs other than pot would be barred from legally selling pot.
Jackson said the proposal prevents people with past pot convictions from being branded by the “scarlet letter” of a CORI check if they try to sell marijuana legally, but opponents of Question 4 said the language was too broad.
“It says a lot about Question 4’s priorities that they chose not to include basic consumer protections or potency limits for edibles, but instead found space to specifically include protections for marijuana traffickers and those convicted of fentanyl or cocaine crimes,” said Safe and Healthy Massachusetts campaign manager Nick Bayer.