in the Upper Valley // Scott Johnson
A friend sent Jim Kenyon’s report from Vermont’s frontiers of social equality to Valley News columnist Jim Kenyon. Vermont has seen some great legal changes. On October 1, Vermont’s Cannabis Control Board issued licenses to cannabis retail stores (a/k/a recreational dispensaries). Kenyon celebrates Miriam Wood’s license to open a store at Hartford, Vermont, just a few miles from White River Junction.
Wood, who is Black is one of five “social equity” applicants that have been approved by the cannabis board. The board has approved 29 applications.
The groundbreaking legislation allows Black and Hispanic shop owners to avoid paying the $10,000 annual licensing fee. They are eligible for a discount on their fees up to the fifth year of business.
Pew Charitable Trusts reported that “Left-leaning states and city leaders across the country have adopted social equity marijuana licensing programmes, which aim to make amends and help low-income, minorities people thrive in the multibillion dollar legal pot industry.”
Vermont officials don’t apologize for giving Wood and minority business owners a leg-up, and they shouldn’t.
Kenyon has no right to sell the usual slop supporting racism based statistical disparities — see my series ‘Deep secrets racial profiling’ — so he continues in this vein:
“It’s well-documented, that the war on drug and the prohibition of cannabis has disproportionately affected people of color, nationally and in Vermont,” Nellie, spokeswoman for a cannabis board spokesperson, stated in a telephone interview.
A state-by-state American Civil Liberties Union analysis found that Black people were 6.1x more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, despite similar use rates in Vermont. Only five states had higher arrests rates.
Therefore, the racially discriminatory assessment and payment of license fees. It all makes perfect sense if you are actually taking the substance in question.
