REPRESENTING COMMUNITIES MOST IMPACTED BY THE WAR ON DRUGS.
Legalizing recreational cannabis should have changed everything. And for a time, it seemed it had. Marijuana related arrests plummeted from 1,747 in 2014 to just 323 in 2015. But it didn’t last long.
At every level, the reality of legalization has not lived up to the promise. Nobody knows this better than DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. Almost one year ago to the day, Mayor Bowser introduced the “Safe Cannabis Sales Act of 2019” a plan the Mayor and her opponents hoped would fulfill the promise of cannabis legalization in the District. As part of her plan, at least 60% of cannabis license owners and licensed employees would be required to be D.C. residents. Better yet, tax revenue would be reinvested into affordable housing “and benefit the communities most negatively impacted by prohibition of cannabis.”
The Mayor’s “Safe Cannabis Sales Act” started a wave of optimism that grew increasingly hopeful in June 2019, when the ban wasn’t even included in the House’s version of the measure.
Sadly, the optimism was short-lived.
In December 2019, as part of a $1.3 trillion must-pass federal spending bill, Congress again chose to prohibit D.C. from passing any bill legalizing or regulating cannabis sales. The prohibition—which was first put in place in 2015—will now extend through at least September 2020.
PROBLEMS FOR DC GOVERNMENT
1. Congress continues to attach language to annual funding bills that prevents D.C. from spending its own money to legalize and regulate the cannabis trade
2. Growing robberies, shootings, and other violent incidents targeting cannabis pop-up events
3. Consumers don’t know what they’re getting, leading to unsafe and unregulated products (ie. the vaping epidemic)
4. Significant importation of cannabis from outside of the District
5. Inability to tax cannabis sales which could otherwise benefit the communities most negatively impacted by prohibition of cannabis
6. D.C. has the highest ‘intensity’ of gentrification of any U.S. city. Between 2000-2013, more than 20,000 African American residents were displaced from low-income neighborhoods.
GREEN ACRES SOLUTIONS
1. A transparent, end-to-end solution to legitimize Initiative-71 compliant retailers and encourage home cultivation as legalized under Initiative 71
2. A distributed cultivation model ensures safety by minimizing the amount of product in any given location
3. Compulsory testing for pesticides and heavy metals ensures consumers receive quality, unadulterated cannabis
4. A District grown; District owned model ensures DC residents benefit from the cannabis marketplace
5. Green Acres Growers represent those communities most negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition and earn significant supplemental or primary income through urban agriculture
7. Green Acres provides supplemental income to offset the rise in property taxes associated with gentrification
8. Green Acres ensures existing residents can afford to stay in their neighborhoods and benefit from investment in them
PROBLEMS FOR THE CONSUMERS
1. Product origin and purity unknown
2. Often forced to purchase cannabis illegally, despite it being legal in the District
GREEN ACRES SOLUTIONS
1. Compulsory testing for pesticides and heavy metals ensures consumers receive quality, unadulterated cannabis
2. Green Acres removes the shadiness of Initiative 71-compliant gifting, allowing consumers to support their neighbors and local initiatives that benefit everyone
PROBLEMS FOR THE CULTIVATORS
1. Cultivators interested in monetizing their hobby are forced to sell illegally
GREEN ACRES SOLUTIONS
1. Green Acres allows cultivators to get paid to hone their craft. Unlike black markets which exchange cash for cannabis, Initiative-71 compliant retailers compensate growers for their time and expertise only
2. Green Acres legitimizes home cultivators, destigmatizing the hobby and providing opportunities to earn supplemental income and support neighborhood revitalization
“Initiative 71 was passed by voters in large part to eliminate racial disparities in marijuana arrests, but due to racial bias and uneven enforcement, four years later Black men continue to be overwhelmingly targeted for arrests. This is unacceptable and must stop. Marijuana arrests do not advance public health or safety, and violate the will of the voters.”
— Kaitlyn Boecker, Drug Policy Alliance