Run the Numbers : Data, Diversity and Doing Better in the Cannabis Industry
It is the start of a brand-New Year-2022! The cannabis industry is still open for business, growing, and new opportunities are available to All. Maybe….Yes….Don’t Know….No…..Can’t See It…... Let’s review:
In 2013, the move began to legalize recreational use of the cannabis plant. Two states, Colorado and Washington, sowed the seeds to loosen the grip of America’s 80-year prohibition on cannabis. The shift mimicked in some capacity or another by 38 states continues to be controversial.
Lawmakers, such as New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a proponent for legalization, championed social justice as the cornerstone of the state’s legalization campaign. At face-value this is a clear solution. It is also the right thing to do: lift the ban on cannabis; benefit groups targeted for generations by unfair policing, judicial and other legal tactics. Yet as 2022 rings in: Why have social justice claims proven hollow? Why do we feel like past wrongs are being supplanted circuitously? How can we all benefit if age-old disparities are merely redressed in new attire?.
The once wildly-trending Netflix series, Squid Game, shed light on the underbelly of a capitalist system, parallelling unfortunate realities in sectors akin to the growing cannabis industry.
Indeed captivating and startling, the show stands as a severe reminder of the vulnerability of those at the bottom of the economic scale when the proper checks and balances aren’t instituted to fend off rampant greed and exploitation from the top. There are numerous shortcomings limiting the intended scope of the social justice ambitions allegedly fueling the end of prohibition, which include racial and economic barriers restricting inclusion, and data collection and data sharing. Traction in a direction towards credible progress will not be realized until states ditch the quick-fix solutions and pledge to address specific concerns in a more comprehensive manner.
Regardless of stated purposes for ending bans on cannabis purchase and use, the historical context surrounding prior stances on the drug cannot be overlooked during this time of ideological revolution and progress. Ignoring the plight of disenfranchised groups, namely African Americans who have been disproportionately impacted and are up to 4-times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession, only reallocates the discussion from one medium of oppression to another. Fine print contained in legalization bills varies considerably from state to state, and hardly has a free-for-all been achieved in terms of who is legally sanctioned to grow and profit from cannabis. The popular marijuana site Leafly, in their literature titled Seeds of Change: Strategies to Create an Equitable Cannabis Industry, by Janessa Bailey, has detailed an “equity score” for all 19 states who have passed laws permitting recreational marijuana. Taken into account are 8 bullet point agendas the site deems essential towards promoting inclusive, indemnifying cannabis policies. Admittedly, even the highest graded state, Colorado, must show improvement in particular areas and has been late in passing key legislation to further social development. A majority of states are failing altogether, highlighting the urgent need for emphasis on points such as record expungement, tax revenue distribution, fair licensing, and career development.
The central, underlying theme in Squid Game dealt with inclusion in a capitalist system, or lack thereof, as all were allowed to play the game but were coerced into grueling competition for a lucrative yet extremely limited resource.
Social equity in the cannabis industry, which Leafly states is the fastest growing industry in America, must especially focus on inclusion for communities of color who have endured systemic hardships as a direct result of the fatally flawed War on Drugs. Anything less would only contribute to undermining the golden opportunity before us, that of dissolving away outdated cycles.
Much can be gathered symbolically from Squid Game and applied socially and economically to the pitfalls of a free-market system. In her YouTube video reviewing the Netflix series, “For Harriet” channel founder and content-creator Kimberly Foster astutely encapsulates the intense desperation of Squid Game players, maintaining that people placed under compromising circumstances are willing to go to extreme measures (to make it out). Furthermore, she connects this to the “hyper-carcerality” endemic throughout America; to which it beckons to ask, why is it that such a developed and prosperous nation, Land of the Free, imprisons so much of its population? If we are to trust that social justice is at the forefront of the legalization movement, then surely legalized states are keeping transparent demographic records distinguishing who is partaking in the cannabis industry and to what extent.
According to Leafly, Massachusetts is the only state keeping a viable data log of cannabis sales figures, information that sets the record straight on whether marginalized groups such as minorities and women are represented adequately in the field. In lieu of this insight, it’s difficult to understand how states can monitor the effectiveness of their novel marijuana regulations, and whether a level playing field is truly being established in place of traditionally corrupted networks of old. Without freedom of access to all, history shows us that the proverbial slice of the American pie that so many strive for may be hoarded by the few who have the largest appetite, subjecting the majority to a melee-scrum for leftover crumbs. Perhaps policing and incarceration for minor possession and other weed-related charges decrease over time, but this does little to combat desperation and fleeting opportunity which correlate with high levels of poverty and crime. In a nutshell, it seems that the game may be changing with many instances of legalization, but the circumstances may prove no less treacherous than before.
“Nearly every contestant perished while falling painfully short of winning the game; never as close to achieving financial prosperity as they appeared to be…”
Subsequent seasons of Squid Game may offer viewers the storybook, Hollywood ending that we covet and have grown accustomed to, however, it is a grim outlook we are left with at the conclusion of season 1.
Nearly every contestant perished while falling painfully short of winning the game; never as close to achieving financial prosperity as they appeared to be, their tragic fate but a whisper in the wind, as the world unconsciously toiled onward. If we are to take anything from the show’s cryptic message then it is incumbent upon policymakers to intervene and work in the best interest of the people, ensuring that the decades-long fight for legalization does not succumb to an all too familiar fate.
In a Brookings Institution article by Makada Henry-Nickie and John Hudak, It is Time for a Cannabis Opportunity Agenda, the two authors offer in-depth analysis of ways Congress and other elected officials should structure a more fair and sustainable drug policy going forward which offers restitution for those most victimized by prior drug enforcement. Despite the booming business of the legal cannabis industry, various hurdles have kept African-Americans on the outside looking in, and past wrongs have yet to be righted. Makada Henry-Nickie and John Hudak propose solutions to avoid repeating sins, in the way of widespread record expungement, alleviating constricting enforcement in and allocating community development funding to “disproportionately impacted areas”, in addition to safeguards against erecting retail locations in underserved or impoverished neighborhoods. To stimulate the entrance of underrepresented business into the market, it is necessary to improve access to financial resources such as banking loans, assist with license fees, regulatory fees, as well as career placement, and topple barriers which have routinely deterred participation by groups such as women, minorities, and veterans.
Even among states who have recently ceased cannabis prohibition, minorities remain targeted by undue policing and enforcement, to compound the prevalence of exclusion from legal enterprise.
As the For Harriet synopsis of Squid Game highlighted, the tournament of death the series depicted, unjust as it was, at least afforded a clearly defined set of rules unlike our present system.