While everyone is celebrating the widespread legalization of marijuana throughout the country, I’m concerned that not enough is being done to restore the millions of lives impacted by the criminalization of weed.
- What about the Black people locked up for selling it? Since it is now legal, will they clear the records of those who are now and were in prison for selling? There are already states where lawmakers fell short.
- Now that it is legal how can those, especially in low-income communities, get jobs that require them to pass a urine test?
- With the high racial wealth gap, whites having at least 10 times the net worth of Blacks, Black business owners are far less likely to get loans and have the funds to overcome the high costs to get into the business. If we are going to do this, we MUST focus on this component so we can at least capitalize on this industry and not just get exploited by it.
The seventh thing destroying black America is reliance on a drug economy, the criminalization that accompanies it, and our lack of sophistication and power as it relates to capitalizing on these new marijuana financial opportunities.
