Black communities have been disproportionately policed and convicted for drug offenses. The CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) used its Marshal Plan of 2018 to formally advocate for the decriminalization of marijuana use and possession.
In doing so, the CBC aims to free scores of incarcerated Black people.
Criminal justice reform is one way to right the wrongs imparted by the failed War on Drugs but let’s talk about the millions to be made...
If your state has the nerve to pass out coveted business permits to a mostly-if-not-all white-owned cohort, make your elected officials do what Chicago Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. did.
As reported by Block Club Chicago, the alderman plans to deny any permits to open up shop in his ward unless they have a Black business partner.
“All I’m trying to do is make sure that the African-Americans get a piece of this pie,” he declared.
Another option some communities (like Evanston, Illinois’s city council members) are employing is to direct recreational marijuana sales tax revenue to a reparations fund, which would provide restorative investments into Black neighborhoods.
Black politicians believe people should not have to suffer today for previously-illegal behavior that is now allowed in their community, and we agree.