For drug-burdened areas, pot shops not a blessing
I am all for equity in the marijuana business and opportunities for communities of color. I congratulate new pot shop owners Kobie Evans of Dorchester and his business partner Kevin Hart on getting their license to open Boston’s first recreational marijuana shop, Pure Oasis, in the Grove Hall neighborhood.
I welcome business opportunities for folks of color because I know they don’t come easy. And these legal cannabis retail opportunities are a kind of compensation for the fact that minorities received particularly harsh sentencing for marijuana-related crimes before it was legal here. But like many of my neighbors, I am concerned about how a legal drug business opportunity and a community hard hit by illegal drugs can co-exist.
Like many of my neighbors, I am concerned about the proliferation of pot shops here. At one time every open storefront from Roxbury to Mattapan was in consideration. Forget about how close they were to schools, or that many were not true minority-owned ventures. What we have here is a gold rush.
What we live with and can’t forget is that Roxbury (and neighboring South End) is ground zero in the opioid crisis. At various times Roxbury was ground zero in a number of epidemics — the crack crisis, the heroin crisis, you name it. The underground economy worked overtime dumping dope into our community.
Now that marijuana has been deemed legal for use and sale, this neighborhood should definitely be concerned about impact. And there will be impact for sure, such as public safety. Police and community have worked hard to do better with public safety initiatives here, thanks to the ongoing efforts of Project RIGHT and the many neighborhood groups that actively opposed proposals to open a multitude of pot shops. Absolutely no consideration was given to the burgeoning underground operators at work undercutting the prices of pot shop weed. These are the guys who don’t play by the rules. They see their very existence dependent upon “street level” competition that usually incorporates other criminal activities that continue to destabilize communities.
So how does this community benefit from pot shops? We know that the landlords get a cut through the rent, the owners definitely profit and so does the city — but what is the giveback to those communities who bear a host of unfair burdens from displacement to drug addiction and alcoholism, to infant mortality and on and on?
Equally important is who has accountability and oversight over pot shop operations and the requirements of shop owners — especially with regard to public safety. I think the task of accountability should be borne by the City Council since Council President Kim Janey has already created a landmark structure that will surely be tweaked. How is the money derived from the pot shops that goes to the city and state dispensed? I believe any money set aside to offset issues brought to this community by the operation of any pot shop should go to combating the existing drug epidemic in communities hardest hit, like Roxbury and the South End.