Councilor: Give minorities a stake in pot biz – Boston Herald

City Councilor Ayanna Pressley wants the marijuana legislation now churning its way through the State House to include language that helps minorities take part in the states nascent pot industry.

The single word is equity, Pressley said on Boston Herald Radio yesterday. If you take away the word cannabis and all that might go along with that, ultimately, this is about industry. And I want to make sure that everyone has an equitable opportunity to have full inclusion and participation in our economy, she said.

What we know is that a rising tide does not lift all boats, unless you are intentional about it. Im lobbying to ask the conference committee the equity provisions in the house and senate bill that we not have a one-off, that we include all of them to ensure that those who have been disproportionately impacted would have an opportunity in licensing, in ownership, and in workforce, and also that we have specific goals to minority business enterprise.

Pressley has said that there are prohibitive startup costs in obtaining a marijuana license, and that criminal checks may prevent some in Boston neighborhoods from getting jobs at facilities that sell marijuana.

It is a very blunt tool to introduce any industry by ballot measure, as we saw with medicinal marijuana, she said.

We were not ready, and we also saw zero equity in the medicinal marijuana industry. There were 182 applicants.

There were eight provisional licenses awarded, and not one went to a person of color. In the 20-plus states that have decriminalized and legalized marijuana before us, less than one percent of those dispensaries are owned by people of color.

Pressley said she opposes giving communities the power to ban marijuana dispensaries at the local level.

Im actually not in support of city councils having the jurisdiction, the authority to ban dispensaries, she said.

Ultimately in order to ensure real equity in the industry, this needs to be state-wide. I dont think that any one industry should be concentrated. Were not looking for folks to have a monopoly. This is about equity. ... Whats exciting about this, is that we have the opportunity by being intentional, and by being proactive, and being thoughtful about this to be the national blueprint, and the model for equity in the cannabis industry. No one has been able to get this right.

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Councilor: Give minorities a stake in pot biz - Boston Herald