Minority business opportunities sought if pot is legalized
LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 19: Various types of marijuana are on display at Private Organic Therapy (P.O.T.), a non-profit co-operative medical marijuana dispensary, on October 19, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Attorney General Eric Holder announced new guidelines today for federal prosecutors in states where the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is allowed under state law. Federal prosecutors will no longer trump the state with raids on the southern California dispensaries as they had been doing, but Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley recently began a crackdown campaign that will include raids against the facilities. Cooley maintains that virtually all marijuana dispensaries are in violation of the law because they profit from their product. The city of LA has been slow to come to agreement on how to regulate its 800 to 1,000 dispensaries. Californians voted to allow sick people with referrals from doctors to consume cannabis with the passage of state ballot Proposition 215 in 1996 and a total of 14 states now allow the medicinal use of marijuana. ( David McNew/Getty Images) David McNew/Getty Images
BOSTON (AP) — A Boston city councilor wants to make sure minority-owned businesses get a fair shot if retail marijuana sales become legal in Massachusetts.
Councilor Ayanna Pressley has scheduled a hearing for Monday evening at Boston City Hall to discuss ways of providing equitable access to licensing opportunities and jobs in the commercial marijuana industry.
Question 4 on the November ballot would legalize recreational pot in Massachusetts.
It includes a unique provision that would require marijuana regulators to develop policies aimed to help “communities that have previously been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement.”
Pressley says in the 25 U.S. states where recreational or medical marijuana has been legalized so far, less than 1 percent of pot dispensaries or retail stores are owned and operated by people of color.
