CHICAGO (CBS) — Questions of equity continue to surround the billion-dollar Illinois marijuana industry.
Starting Monday, an activist group plans to stage a weeklong sit-in outside a dispensary, demanding reparations for ex-convicts who were put away for a drug that has now been made legal.
READ MORE: 7 People Rushed To Hospital After Crash On DuSable Lake Shore Drive Near North Avenue
As CBS 2’s Marissa Parra reported Sunday, it has been a blockbuster year for recreational marijuana in the Land of Lincoln. But indeed, not everyone is celebrating.
“It’s wrong for them to benefit off the same product that they incarcerated us with,” said Tyrone Muhammad, a founder of the group Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change.
Muhammad and Greg Sherman, also of the organization, plan to camp outside a specific cannabis dispensary for the next week.
“To highlight the inequities and injustice of the cannabis industry,” Muhammad said.
It is no secret the state is lagging when it comes to social equity in the billion-dollar pot industry. CBS 2 has repeatedly covered the delays and lags with the <a href=”https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/05/26/jefferson-park-marijuana-dispensary-expansion-city-council/program meant to fight that.
So far, out of nearly 100 dispensaries in the state, none of them are minority-owned.
Meanwhile, sales in Illinois topped $115 million last month, and a record-setting $116 million the month before. Muhammad and Sherman say that feels like a slap…
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CHICAGO (CBS) — Questions of equity continue to surround the billion-dollar Illinois marijuana industry.
Starting Monday, an activist group plans to stage a weeklong sit-in outside a dispensary, demanding reparations for ex-convicts who were put away for a drug that has now been made legal.
READ MORE: 7 People Rushed To Hospital After Crash On DuSable Lake Shore Drive Near North Avenue
As CBS 2’s Marissa Parra reported Sunday, it has been a blockbuster year for recreational marijuana in the Land of Lincoln. But indeed, not everyone is celebrating.
“It’s wrong for them to benefit off the same product that they incarcerated us with,” said Tyrone Muhammad, a founder of the group Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change.
Muhammad and Greg Sherman, also of the organization, plan to camp outside a specific cannabis dispensary for the next week.
“To highlight the inequities and injustice of the cannabis industry,” Muhammad said.
It is no secret the state is lagging when it comes to social equity in the billion-dollar pot industry. CBS 2 has repeatedly covered the delays and lags with the <a href=”https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/05/26/jefferson-park-marijuana-dispensary-expansion-city-council/program meant to fight that.
So far, out of nearly 100 dispensaries in the state, none of them are minority-owned.
Meanwhile, sales in Illinois topped $115 million last month, and a record-setting $116 million the month before. Muhammad and Sherman say that feels like a slap…
