No Taxation or Regulation Without Reparations Campaign
No Taxation or Regulation Without Reparations
Release, Expunge, Forgive, Enable, Empower and Commit to do More
We call on legislators to make every effort to ensure that S.54, the Cannabis Regulation Act provides strong equity and inclusion provisions and eliminate harmful “compromise” language. We implore you to place social equity and inclusion as a priority, engage those who have been historically adversely impacted and use a data driven approach in the creation of this historic cannabis regulation policy. Please consider the Illinois Cannabis Regulation Policy, released in January 2020.
We call on the legislature to make the following practical and impactful social equity adjustments to S.54 to acknowledge and address the harm done and avoid future harm on impacted communities.
* Automatic, no cost expungement of low-level so-called “marijuana” related crimes;
* Implementation of a Cannabis Business Development Fund, funding loans, grants and fee waivers for Social Equity Applicants;
* Community Social Equity Program, economically restoring communities;
* Expungement Fund, funding all administration costs associated with expungements; and,
* Removal of language indicating any use of saliva testing until such time of validation of efficacy of the technology;
* Removal of language indicating sole purpose of traffic stops can be for non-use of seat belts.
No one should profit from cannabis until harm is repaired and a fair path forward is established.
Call 802.228.2228 and leave a message for the Speaker and the Committee Chairs, asking them to address social equity in S.54.
Send them and email:
House Speaker – mjohnson@leg.state.vt.us
Chair of House Ways and Means – janetancel@gmail.com
Chair of House Appropriations – ktoll@leg.state.vt.us
Chair House Government Operations -scopelandhanzas@leg.state.vt.us
11th Hour of Discussions on Taxation and Regulation – Silence…
State taxation and regulation and taxation is within sight for the state of Vermont. Various proposals have been put forward to fund education and address public safety. Numerous models have been examined to determine how the State might go about taxing the “drug” that we now call “product”. Yet of the three reports released by the Governor’s Marijuana Commission there is no mention of the responsibility that we have as a state to consider reparations for the “War on Drugs.” Why is it that this vital question has somehow escaped all of our white elected and appointed officials minds? Why is it that that white folks across the state stand by silently?
Black people in Vermont continue to be represented at critically disproportionate rates in prisons. The majority of these folks are serving time for nonviolent, low quantity drug infractions (such as marijuana). We believe it to be morally wrong to profit from marijuana until the score is settled on this heinous crime against humanity This is far more than a matter of addressing the criminal justice system because many people have lost everything as a result of direct and indirect consequences associated with the “War on Drugs.” This is a Human Rights issue! Sign the petition here. Donate to the support marijuana reparations here.
Our History and Our Future
Throughout our nations history some have pursued political and economic power at all cost and others have stood by complicit. From slavery, to convict leasing, sharecropping, lynching, Jim Crow to the war on drugs and all the bloody so-called “up-risings” this has been the pattern. Now once again when white people have an opportunity to do what is right the prospect of economic opportunity has created yet another moral amnesia as silent onlookers predictably cosign and in some ways indirectly benefit.
We will fight until the last record is expunged and last person is released from prison in Vermont; until every person impacted by incarceration for nonviolent drug related crimes is afforded an equal opportunity to work in this industry; until people in this category are provided a hand up to ensure that they get off on equal footing to start a businesses in this industry and until leaders of this state respond to our atrocities with a commitment to reparations. Until this happens neither the state or anyone else should cash in on marijuana. Stand with us, sign the petition and support this work.
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