Jay Weber Show transcript 2-16-21 7:40am
I mentioned this yesterday, but didn’t get a chance to talk about it: a J/S story quoting Black community leaders saying that legalizing pot is a good thing, so long as we address racial disparities, recognize that illegal drugs have harmed the poor Black community the most-and as payback-or reparations- let Black entrepreneurs be first in line for pot licenses.
This isn’t the first time this idea of legalizing weed can-help- the urban black community, in fact, it has become a standard. Another way for the pro-pot crowd to sell legalizing weed to gullible state and local leaders.
I have watched legal weed spread across more than half the country now. I believe about 35 states now have legal weed and we, in Wisconsin, are in the minority of holdout states now...
I have watched this spread since it started in Colorado, and can shoot down every myth and con game that the pro-pot crowd uses to get its way-and ‘racial parity’ has been part of the scam for years now.
And the truth is- Black and Hispanic leaders in other cities have played this same race card, and the pro-pot crowd is quite happy to add 'racial fairness' to their list of reasons to legalize it.
But then, once it is legalized, minority entrepreneurs get frozen out anyway.
And this has played out over and over again, coast to coast-state to state.
Folks-black business people were promised ‘first dibs’ on pot licenses from California, to Illinois, to Maryland...and in every instance...they got frozen out and screwed.
If you don’t believe me-google it.
Illinois’ legal pot industry is new enough that the first rounds of licenses were just recently issued...
And guess what? Black entrepreneurs flooded the licensing commission with submissions, but somehow virtually none of them ended up with licenses. Meaning- in Illinois, too, largely White, wealthy business people will profit off of pot sales-and the Black and Hispanic urban youth will just be victimized again.
This argument is-such crap- and yet, WI democrats and pot advocates will fall for it-because all they want is legal weed.
All this crowd wants is the ability to get high legally. And any excuse or promise or false claim that gets them there, is fine with them.
The lie that legalizing weed will somehow help ‘set things right’ in our black and brown communities. If black people could only get a promise to own all-or most-of the weed shops, it might be a blow to racial fairness and ending racial disparities.
I tell yah-this bologna has been sold in every state that wanted to legalize weed.
So when this was being debated and the pro-pot lawmakers wanted to ram it thru, their rhetoric was yes, yes, of course we will make minority dispensary owners a priority. Yes, it’s a wonderful way to ‘seed’ a profitable business into our minority business communities, yes, yes. Everyone can smoke pot legally and black and brown people-for once-will benefit most.
Yes, yes.
Now- look at the reality: nearly 90 pot dispensaries have been approved for Illinois. Most are up and running-and none. Zero. Are minority owned. And this was after a promise to give Illinois people of color ‘first dibs’ on the licenses.
Now-what the hell.
How, as a ‘woke’ Illinois socialist progressive, do you possibly explain that?
And the white democrats who run Illinois -their excuse is-well- that was just the first round of licenses- in may- we’ll dole out some more-and more of those will go to minority owners.
Meanwhile- the 11 to 15 big, conglomerate, white owned companies that got a jump on everything are honing their business models and building brand loyalty and cornering new markets.
And to add insult to injury- apparently Illinois’ White democrat lawmakers think that black people are too stupid to understand this. As one guy waiting for a license says:
A black Chicago alderman, Jason Ervin, said that, and has threatened to block any more pot sales until the new licensees- minority licensees- can set up shop.
That’s Chicago. In Maryland, they legalized weed and started doling out dispensary licenses in 2016.Fast forward four years and-oops- no black business owners there, either.
This is Maryland! Small state. Includes Baltimore. Folks- one third of Maryland residents are black.
It’s got six million residents and 1.9 million of them are black. Literally-one third of Maryland-is black residents.
It will be a successful industry in Maryland. Black owners just won’t get a cut of the profits, even though legalization was sold to them, too, as some great ‘racial leveler’.
And the fact is- its’ only going to get worse as the industry matures and consolidates. Already in the states that have had legal weed for a while-bigger conglomerates and large investors have moved in to take over. Buy up, consolidate, control. It’s the age-old story of capitalism, but with a totally fresh, new start-up industry like this one-the aggressive efforts to make the most profit can really be seen.
The pot heads and their willing pro-pot accomplices promised that Black and Hispanic communities were going to profit-the most- from legal weed.
Black and brown owners were going to be the first in line for licenses to grow and dispense. This was doing to -like a miracle- address long time racial disparities.
Do left wing activists lie? Do democrat lawmakers cheat and lie right to your face just to get what they want passed?
Folks-this is the least shocking development of the last ten years in the legal weed saga; that largely white liberal lawmakers -in states all across America-are not keeping their promises to the minority communities.
And clearly never intended to.
photo credit: Getty Images
story credit: J/S online- 'This is an opportunity': Community leaders in Milwaukee say marijuana proposals must do more to address racial disparities