Things We Saw Today: New York State Reserves First 100 Retail Marijuana Licenses For Those Most Affected by War on Drugs

New York governor Kathy Hochul has announced that in the rollout of retail marijuana licenses, the first 100 to 200 licenses would go to those convicted on a marijuana-related offense before legalization and those who have a parent/guardian or dependent who was convicted.

Despite the fact that evidence showing no particular race engages with cannabis more than another, Black and brown users and dealers overly represent the people with these offenses. In addition to the first hundred or so licenses, Hochul proposed a $200 million plan to support newer businesses and help renovate storefronts. When the state voted to legalize marijuana last year, this included a section noting half of all licenses would go to those whose communities have been “disproportionally impacted” by the war on drugs. This includes people of color, distressed farmers, and veterans.

According to The New York Times, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, Kassandra Frederique, said of this initiative, “I think they’re trying to solve for the hard things first, and I think that’s admirable… If you were the first to get to hurt, you should be the first to benefit.”

This effort departs from other states that have legalized marijuana, by allowing those most negatively impacted by its criminalization to get a chance to compete in the market they helped build. However, this boost-up isn’t going to mean smooth sailing, because a criminal record still haunts people years later in terms of accessing loans, housing, and more. Still, it’s a great start and shows that some lawmakers are learning from the mistakes of others who legalized first without these sort of provisions in place.

(image: Paramount)

Here are some other bits of news we saw today:

• ABC’s Abbott Elementary teams up with Scholastic to set up free book fairs tochildern and teachers at Title I schools. (Variety)
• Highlighting the importance of Asian women’s sexual agency in Ali Wong’s comedy specials. (NBC News)
• Trailer for final season of Better Call Saul releases. (AMC YouTube)
• Thousands of people LARP as volunteer cops in VRChat. (Input)
• Isabela Merced to star in movie adaptation of John Green’s book Turtles All the Way Down. (@literallyjohngreen via TikTok)

What did we miss today, Mary Suevians? Let us know what you saw in the comments below!

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