Sheepdogs: Dems & NAACP oppose legalization with Republicans - for different reasons..

When I was last in St. Louis speaking with the proponents of legalization in 2021, I noticed a trend among the business owners of newly minted cannabis licenses. They were all very proud of owning a valuable license they feel they merited winning, they prided themselves on importing experts to help them grow, manufacture, and sell to the new market, and most happened to be (for the most part) well-to-do white men without a lot of history in cannabis.

Knowing my audience, I presented on the importance of paying attention to compliance as they transitioned from "kumbaya" with the regulators to operationally accountable and what it meant for the future of their State and their business. Its a common cycle I've seen happen in many other markets and speak to often.

But as I tried to predict the future, I noticed the industry was not meaningfully engaging any people of color on the upcoming legalization initiative in Missouri.

When I asked why, the campaign informed me that they would be expunging records and ending prohibition - a common narrative that is a bare minimum these days - and seemed to completely miss the point of what social equity meant.

As I stated in my presentation, Missouri has a history in which black people are 13x more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white folks (or more) in many areas. I urged them at the time to take a moment to consider the possibility of a bill that ignored such a history. Especially given industry trends toward social equity and given the optics of the initiative clearly favoring the existing privledged operators who contributed and backed it with donations in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

With no opposition, it seems Missouri thought it would be a safe bet to create a secondary marketplace with secondary citizen privledges for social equity folks as an afterthought by clearly stating the existing market did not desire more competition from social equity - they spun it as a "salvation consideration" to carving out a special space for social equity to compete over 144 smaller licenses and do business among one another.

A literal revival of segregation.

I was not surprised at the social equity colonialism inherit in this "well intended" clause in the initiative. A political move - clearly meant to satiate the concerns I initially warned the campaign of. I was also not surprised when the Republican Attorney General's office and police opposed the measure - for their own "anti-drug" agenda.

What DID surprise me was to see Watchdogging by the Democratic Party and NAACP in calling out the wolf in sheep's clothing: The industry, its blind privledge, and its greed.

A wolf that barely acknowledges or does the bare minimum for those most impacted by prohibition. Specifically, those people who sacrificed and built the original industry and its culture that the privledged benefit from.

As reported by MJ Business Daily, the initiative got called out and is being publicly opposed by both parties - but for different reasons. In this case, major players are calling out the inequity and harm inherit in this colonization measure and its second-class clauses disguised as equity.

As we approach the upcoming election, as the White House refers to cannabis legalization federally as a social justice issue, and as we bring organizations like the NAACP, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Urban League to the table on cannabis and social equity as restorative justice, I'm hopeful that the narrative is rounding the corner and changing direction.

Just as the lies about cannabis came to light and led the world into a new age, cannabis social equity may very well be the means by which States and the Federal government seriously consider the harms of prohibition and that relationship to race relations, the injustice system, and its impact on systemic poverty, crime, and society.

Sadly, given the State by State movement around cannabis, too often the industry falls short of creating equity. Lip-service is producing failed results in many states and powerful players and people are noticing. The industry has a unique opportunity to recognize its failures, the reasons it places profit above people, and to account for the cost of creating inequity, instability, and unsustainability.

As the Biden Administration, Congress, and the Senate look toward legalization - we must ask ourselves, how - and not if - cannabis will be legalized. Federal reform on social equity and interstate commerce may very well be the silver bullet that kills the wolf and allows the flock some equity to thrive.