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In many places around the U.S., the legal status of cannabis has changed dramatically in recent years. In some states, like California, wealthy consumers are now treated to a fully-legal dispensary experience, with smiling sales associates on hand to guide you to the strain or gummy flavor of your dreams. But beneath the veneer of gleaming display cases and $950 bongs being peddled at Barneys, the flourishing weed industry is once again becoming a powerful driver of inequity.




Cannabis policy has long been enforced disproportionately on communities of color, which have been hit with high arrest rates, widespread criminalization, deportation and seizure of property with little or no due process, to name just a few disastrous effects of the so-called war on drugs. Now that cannabis is slowly being decriminalized, it’s tempting to think that the moral and legal issues around it are winding to a close. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that.



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What does ethical weed consumption mean?

As weed achieves legality in more and more places, it’s also giving rise to a very lucrative industry. In 2018, legal weed was worth $10.4 billion; up an entire billion from the year prior. By 2022, revenue is expected to hit $23.4 billion. And as the market floods with newly-minted weed entrepreneurs, some are interested in righting the wrongs of the past, ensuring that this new economic engine also benefits those who have been historically harmed by anti-drug policies. Others are... not.



“Increasingly, we’re encountering corporate marijuana entities that are operating in favor of their own narrow interests,” said Jag Davies, director of communications strategy at Drug Policy Alliance. These entities are basically operating the same way as most aggressively profit-driven corporations: By doing what they can to control market share, maximize profits, and in some cases, block measures that would help regulate the industry—including measures that would help foster a market not exclusively dominated by large, often white-owned firms.




But few industries have seen such rapid transformation as cannabis, which not so long ago was successfully weaponized against people of color and blew incarceration rates through the roof. As many like Davies and the DPA see it, consumers now have a responsibility to not only mitigate future harm, but also create policies that remedy wrongs of the past. These should include both legislative efforts, like expunging criminal records extending from marijuana convictions, but also regulatory, like removing barriers to entry to those impacted by racist drug laws to now participate lawfully in the burgeoning weed industry.



So what does this mean for me, a weed buyer?

As a consumer, you have considerable power in the form of consciously choosing which businesses to support.



“One of the most important questions is, does the company support a free and fair marijuana market that doesn’t give it disproportionate advantages?” Davies asked.



In one instance, an industry group called the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association helped successfully lobby New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to include a ban on home cultivation of recreational weed in his proposal for legalization. While the group claims its interest is tethered to looking out for public safety, critics see it as a transparent effort to quash competition.




“From our perspective, it’s really hard to see any real reason—other than individual and corporate greed—to be against home cultivation at this point,” Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, told Marijuana Moment.



If that’s not enough, one of the businesses that comprise the NYMCIA was, until recently, a California-based company called MedMen. Known as “the Apple store of cannabis” for its 2,000-foot 5th Avenue storefront and sleek touch screen displays, MedMen was recently booted from the association after its top executives were caught using racial and sexist slurs. So sure, MedMen may have a swanky address and futuristic purchasing process, but do you want your weed money going to the coffers of a guy who allegedly referred to an LA city councilman as a “midget negro”?



How can I tell the good actors from the bad?

Put simply, you have to do your homework. “People should do research, and people should pay attention,” said Adam Vine, founder of the advocacy group Cage-Free Cannabis. Specifically, consumers should look at the entire supply chain, regardless of whether they’re buying from a dispensary or a delivery service. “Who greets you when you walk in the door? Who shows up to your door with the weed? Who’s the budtender?” Vine asked. “Who owns the shop? How do they pay their employees? Are they employing people who have been harmed by the war on drugs? What products are they stocking? How do those companies operate? Are members of their ownership team coming from directly impacted communities? And and so on.”



As Davies at DPA put it, “This isn’t like any other industry. There are millions and millions of people in the U.S. who have had their lives irreparably harmed by these policies, and in many parts of the country, still are.”




Wow, that sounds like a lot of work. Are there any shortcuts?

As of now, no. The hodgepodge nature of marijuana laws across the country makes it impossible to standardize guidelines, in addition to the fact that marijuana is, on a federal level, still illegal. That fact alone eliminates the possibility of easily classifying good and bad actors. “If I were to make a list of all the people of color operating the cannabis industry, that puts all of those people at risk,” Vine points out. “So it’s not not really possible right now.”



Unfortunately, the relatively high level of effort required to ensure that cannabis is ethical means that most people don’t bother. Amber Senter, Executive Director of Supernova Women, which supports women of color in the cannabis industry, told GQ last year that despite the uniquely detrimental way in which cannabis has been policed among black and brown populations, consumers haven’t done a great job of holding the industry accountable.



“Does the consumer have a responsibility?,” Senter asked. “Well, I mean, do consumers typically support black and brown businesses in any other industry? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. You know? I’d say largely they don’t. So is it going to be any different in cannabis? I highly doubt it.”



But if there is hope for a more equitable future, consumers should begin more actively identifying as consumers, in order to “create their own sort of political and economic power,” Vine said.




“That’s been difficult in the past, because of course it was illegal to self-identify as a consumer. But now as the stigma and the legal risks are lessening, it’s crucial for consumers to self-identify and become a powerful force in and of themselves.”

And finally, don’t forget to advocate

In addition to your personal actions as a consumer, there are also legislative actions that you can support. In February, for instance, Sen. Cory Booker reintroduced the Marijuana Justice Bill, which would automatically expunge convictions related to marijuana use, as well as reinvest in impacted communities through a community fund.

For now, as states continue to pursue legalization, it’s imperative that restorative provisions are baked into the law. To that end, the non-profit Minority Cannabis Business Association produced a model for state legalization, which focuses on eliminating barriers to entry like stiff application fees and caps on licenses. While such practices are already the rule of law in some places, like San Francisco and Oakland, it’s important that the rest of the country follows suit.