Pubdate: Thu, 05 May 2016
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Ryan Coonerty
Note: Ryan Coonerty is a member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR EQUALITY IN NEW GOLD RUSH

As California moves toward completely decriminalizing our 
multibillion-dollar marijuana economy, one cannot help but notice 
that many of the regulations are being written of wealthy white 
people, by wealthy white people and for wealthy white people.

This is sadly not surprising, but it is both wrong and a lost 
opportunity, given the history of the disproportionate impact of 
criminalization on minority communities.

As a county supervisor striving with my peers to craft sensible 
policy in the midst of a modern-day gold rush, it is my goal to 
ensure that the huge economic potential for legalization is shared 
equally with the communities who have suffered excessively during 
marijuana's criminalization: Latinos and African Americans.

In the failed, decades-long "War on Drugs," racial minorities have 
endured the majority of collateral damage.

According to data from the Drug Policy Alliance, in 2014, a little 
over 700,000 of the 1.5 million drug arrests in the U.S. were made 
for the possession and distribution of marijuana - with Latinos and 
African Americans arrested and incarcerated at alarmingly higher 
rates than whites. Racial disparities in arrests are even increasing 
over the years in some cases, according to studies by the ACLU.

Surveys conducted in my home state of California have shown that 
although whites consume marijuana at higher rates, they are much less 
likely to be arrested and imprisoned for possession and distribution 
of cannabis than Latinos - with the arrest rates 30 to 300 percent 
higher than whites, depending on the locale.

The price of being charged for possession of even small amounts of 
marijuana can lead to rippling effects in the lives of those charged. 
Young people of color are targeted most frequently. A criminal charge 
for possession can mean the loss of federal financial aid for college 
and public benefits, and a scarlet letter that could hinder a young 
person from accessing education or a better-paying job.

One remedy to this inequity could come in the form of a program that 
is as old as the drug war, and was ironically created under the same 
president, Richard Nixon. The Minority Business Development Agency, 
which operates under the U.S. Department of Commerce, gives benefits, 
guidance and access to capital and government contracts to businesses 
that are owned and operated by people of color.

The U.S. Small Business Administration and local governments across 
the country, including my own, also have their own organizations and 
systems in place to assist minorities in creating and building their 
businesses.

In my county, I am proposing that we give minorityowned businesses 
preference when we allocate licenses to cultivate, manufacture, 
research and sell marijuana - a policy that I hope will be replicated 
and implemented by other counties and states. These preferences will 
bring capital and business opportunities to minorities in a 
fastgrowing sector, which in turn could create more evenly 
distributed wealth in the long run.

Although these incentives don't provide even a fraction of the 
reparations owed to minority communities for the injustices that 
occurred during the past 50 years, they would give a sense of 
fairness and new economic opportunities to people of color moving forward.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom