Oakland councilwoman calls on state to expunge pot-crime records

Oakland Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan speaks to journalists and community members during a press conference at Oakland City Hall in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, May 3, 2016. Oakland Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan speaks to journalists and community members during a press conference at Oakland City Hall in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, May 3, 2016. Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Oakland councilwoman calls on state to expunge pot-crime records 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan is calling on the state to expunge all marijuana-related criminal records, a move that she says will open the door for people of color who have traditionally been shut out of a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry.

“I think it’s important to keep in mind the racial disparity here,” Kaplan told The Chronicle on Wednesday. “Over the past decade, it’s been black people who’ve been locked up — had their freedom taken away, their families taken away, their jobs taken away — for something that white people mostly don’t get punished for.”

She said that people who were convicted years ago may still be denied jobs, affordable housing or student loans. “So they’re punished over and over again for something that society now doesn’t think is a crime.”

Kaplan has authored a resolution, which goes before its first council committee on Thursday, and may be the next political maneuver by a city intent on correcting the racial injustices of the U.S. war on drugs. On Tuesday, the council unanimously approved new marijuana laws that included a controversial equity program that supporters say will help right some of the wrongs, but that critics say will cause the city’s pot trade to sputter.

‘This is a travesty’

“This is not equity, this is a travesty,” said Jake Sassaman, a member of the city’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission. Sassaman, who is white, said he knows several African American pot entrepreneurs who would not qualify for an equity permit because they do not meet the requirements.

Oakland’s new equity permit program will set aside half of the city’s cannabis business permits for applicants who fit a narrow set of criteria: Residents who have lived for at least two years in a designated police beat in East Oakland where marijuana arrests were highly concentrated in 2013, or individuals who were incarcerated for marijuana-related crimes in Oakland over the past decade. Equity permit holders must sustain at least a 50 percent ownership stake in their businesses.

Opponents of the program say it will create huge backlogs on permits because the rules stipulate that the city must award at least one equity permit for each general permit. While the city’s eight currently licensed dispensaries will be grandfathered in, its mom-and-pop cannabis businesses — many of which are run by African Americans and Latinos — could get caught up in the jam.

Among the critics who spoke out at Tuesday’s council meeting was Andrea Unsworth, the black owner of a delivery service called StashTwist. Many of her suppliers are moms who grow pot plants in their garages.

Risk for entrepreneurs

“We know this is about those who have been arrested and impacted by the drug war, but it’s also about those of us who have taken the immense risk of opening businesses,” Unsworth told the council.

But on the other side of the debate were Oakland residents who see themselves as victims of a drug policy that disproportionately punished people of color. Some who spoke at the council meeting said they’ve been left behind as the state inches toward legalizing recreational marijuana.

“The war on drugs has criminalized black and brown communities, and now that (marijuana) is becoming legalized there’s a whole line of white men that are about to get rich,” said a speaker named George Galvis.

Councilwoman Desley Brooks pushed for the equity program by tacking on last-minute amendments to ordinances that had taken the city’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission 18 months to write. Councilwoman Annie Campbell Washington added to a provision extending equity permits to people with criminal records.

“If you’re serious about equity, show us you’re willing to share this big pie,” Brooks said to the pot business owners who challenged her amendments.

May need to tweak laws

Kaplan acknowledged on Wednesday that the laws might need a few tweaks before they can fully achieve the council’s vision of a more inclusive marijuana economy.

She’s confident that eventually the state will get on board with the idea to expunge records for marijuana crimes.

“There’s an open question as to whether this is something that (Gov. Jerry Brown’s) administration just launches, or whether it will take legislation,” she said. “But I do think we are likely to win in the end.”

A spokeswoman for the state’s newly formed Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation said she thinks the decision about whether to toss records will be left to the courts.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com