MORE Act: Congress Votes on First Marijuana Legalization Bill -

 

 

"At the federal level, cannabis is still a Schedule I narcotic, a distinction it shares with heroin. The gaping discrepancy between federal and state law has led to a frustrating if not nonsensical set of complications, namely that the financial assistance available to typical small-business owners is not available to prospective cannabis entrepreneurs — even if cannabis is legal at the state level. The result is a burgeoning industry controlled almost entirely by wealthy white people. Studies have shown that black Americans have an ownership stake in only around four percent of cannabis-related businesses.

Meanwhile, black Americans are 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis-related offenses than white Americans, despite similar usage numbers, according to a study released earlier this year by the ACLU. “People in directly impacted communities of color have been left out of the conversations around marijuana legalization,” Perez says. “They’ve been left out of relief and pushed out of the regulated market, and yet they continue to bear the brunt of criminalization.”

read newstory by RYAN BORT

 MORE Act: Congress Votes on First Marijuana Legalization Bill - Rolling Stone