Keeping Weed Away From Corporate Vultures

How activists are building a more equitable green market. Plus, DeSantis's own goal

Welcome to a premium Thursday edition of Progress Report!

I’m writing to you from Washington, DC, a city that was definitely not founded by people with severe seasonal allergies. This is a town run by pharmaceutical companies, and while political donations are often seen as the source of that power, I’m beginning to think that tight control over the local supply of Claritin and Allegra might also contribute to their clout.

Tonight we’ve got a great story by Natalie Meltzer on the nitty-gritty details of marijuana legalization that help determine who profits from this new multi-billion dollar industry and whether this new era will deliver some modicum of justice to the communities devastated by the War on Drugs.

Before we get to that piece, I just wanted to highlight a few updates on stories that we’ve been tracking:

1. While President Biden has been publicly and privately very stubborn about forgiving any significant amount of student debt, a new report suggests that he’s beginning to warm to the idea. Despite weeks of bizarre coverage by wealthy journalists unable to pinpoint just why Biden is struggling with young voters, I’m heartened to see that the White House is beginning to figure out the actual source of the problem.

2. Disney finally broke its silence on Ron DeSantis’s supposed attack on the company’s self-governance, confirming that suddenly ending the special status the company enjoys without a larger plan would actually dump a huge amount of debt obligation onto middle-class communities.

3. Speaking of DeSantis’s pseudo-populism, someone wrote a letter to the editor of the Tampa Bay Times that seems ripped right from this newsletter. Seeing the “Republican War on Freedom” frame catch on is just glorious:

   Republicans have always touted that they were the party of less government. When did they become the party of more government? All about banning or limiting? Limit Disney, limit books, limit voting rights, limit masks, limit vaccines, limit women’s rights, limit gay rights, limit teachers’ rights, limit Black representation, limit local government control, limit school boards’ rights and limit solar energy. Republicans want to make our personal medical decisions for us, police whom we love and what we learn, and attack people striving for a better future instead of focusing on the real issues facing the people of our state like lowering the cost of housing and health care, increasing wages, fighting for equal rights for everyone ensuring Floridians freedoms.

   Put it all on a series of billboards!

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by Natalie Meltzer

Black Americans have borne the brunt of marijuana criminalization in the U.S. over the past 40 years. They’re nearly four times as likely as white people to be arrested for pot violations, even though the two groups use at roughly the same rate. 

The devastation wrought by the War on Drugs has led states across the country to make social justice a priority in their rollout of marijuana legalization. But despite states’ commitments to prioritize impacted communities when awarding licenses to grow, process, distribute, and sell recreational marijuana, they have consistently failed to adequately implement social equity programs around cannabis legalization. 

New York’s 2021 Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act includes some of the strongest provisions in the country to prioritize and provide resources to members of communities who have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.

The state has committed to awarding 50% of all adult-use licenses to social equity applicants, including individuals who have lived in communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs as well as minority- and women-owned businesses, distressed farmers, and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. 

But there’s an important catch that could severely curtail actual opportunity, equity, and equality in the marijuana space, shortchanging the advocates for justice and community activists that were such a big part of winning legalization in the first place.