MONTPELIER, Vt. (WFFF) — Vermont’s Cannabis Control Board has been meeting for several weeks, and along with the task of creating and regulating a retail market, the board is figuring out how to address issues of racial equity in the emerging industry.
The board is focused on better representation in ownership and employment, well as using tax revenue from retail sales to further address inequities. On Thursday, Nader Hashim, a former state lawmaker, offered his perspective.
“I was a state trooper for seven and a half years. I was a drug recognition expert during that time, and part way through my career, I started really seeing the impact of the war on drugs on people, and started seeing how those disparities were playing out,” Hashim said.
The board is also taking advice from neighboring Massachusetts. Shaleen Title, the first commissioner of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Board, aid the most important thing is to emphasize equity from the beginning.
“Anything you can do to make sure it’s the equity businesses that open first, even if that takes longer, is really going to help,” Title said. “It’s a matter of a few months, and a matter of future generations that are counting on us.”
The board is considering who should benefit most from an equity-based approach,…
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MONTPELIER, Vt. (WFFF) — Vermont’s Cannabis Control Board has been meeting for several weeks, and along with the task of creating and regulating a retail market, the board is figuring out how to address issues of racial equity in the emerging industry.
The board is focused on better representation in ownership and employment, well as using tax revenue from retail sales to further address inequities. On Thursday, Nader Hashim, a former state lawmaker, offered his perspective.
“I was a state trooper for seven and a half years. I was a drug recognition expert during that time, and part way through my career, I started really seeing the impact of the war on drugs on people, and started seeing how those disparities were playing out,” Hashim said.
The board is also taking advice from neighboring Massachusetts. Shaleen Title, the first commissioner of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Board, aid the most important thing is to emphasize equity from the beginning.
“Anything you can do to make sure it’s the equity businesses that open first, even if that takes longer, is really going to help,” Title said. “It’s a matter of a few months, and a matter of future generations that are counting on us.”
The board is considering who should benefit most from an equity-based approach,…