Editor’s note: This commentary is by Steve Hawkins, who is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.
I have dedicated my career to racial equity and criminal justice reform — including as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and executive vice president of the NAACP. In 2018, I became Marijuana Policy Project’s executive director because ending the war on cannabis, and doing so in a way that fosters racial justice, is an essential part of dismantling mass incarceration and reducing oppression in the United States.
MPP’s Vermont team and our allies have worked hand-in-hand with the Vermont Legislature for 15 years to make as much progress as possible, step by step. Together, we’ve passed nine bills starting with a limited medical cannabis law, adding dispensaries, expanding qualifying conditions, decriminalizing possession, and legalizing simple possession and cultivation of cannabis.
The next, extremely important step forward in the arc of justice is the enactment of two bills — S.54 and S.234 — which should land on Gov. Phil Scott’s desk very soon. S.54 creates a legal, regulated cannabis market, giving Vermont’s cannabis consumers access to a safe, tested product, creating hundreds of good jobs that don’t land Vermonters in jail, and generating tens of millions of dollars in needed tax revenue. I’m most proud, however, of the robust provisions to ensure an equitable, diverse industry that prioritizes small growers. The companion bill, S.234, would automatically erase more than 10,000 low-level criminal records for cannabis, ensuring those arrested for this now-legal plant are not haunted for life by the scarlet letter of a conviction. It would also decriminalize an amount modestly exceeding the possession limit.
If both measures are enacted, Vermont would go from having the worst legalization law in the country to one of the more forward-thinking.
Vermont’s status quo is untenable. The state legalized personal possession and cultivation but left sales and commercial cultivation illegal. The only sources of cannabis are home cultivation, driving to Massachusetts, or buying illicit cannabis. Illegal producers don’t comply with environmental, labor, or consumer protection laws. Investigative reports show illicit cannabis growers in California — which produces much of the cannabis consumed in the U.S. — abusing workers and despoiling the environment. Illicit cannabis has tested positive for hazardous additives, pesticides, and heavy metals. And, as long as sales are illegal, anyone selling cannabis in Vermont risks jail time, and disparities mean those risks are particularly acute for people of color.
A 2020 ACLU report found Black Vermonters are 4.4 times as likely to be arrested for cannabis as whites, despite almost identical use rates. The availability of home cultivation is also marred by racial disparities: While 70% of white Vermonters own their homes, only 20% of Black Vermonters do so. Most rental agreements ban home cultivation, leaving those who don’t own land, disproportionately Black Vermonters, behind. This all amounts to an unequal, two-tiered system of legalization.
After Vermont decriminalized simple possession, a Black Vermonter — Greg Zullo — was stopped for driving with some snow obstructing part of his license plate. For a decriminalized amount of cannabis, his car was impounded and his cellphone taken. He was left eight miles from home in the snow. As long as prohibition persists, Black Vermonters can anticipate the harshest, most unjust application of the law.
Under S.54, the Cannabis Control Board will be required to implement a plan — crafted hand-in-hand with the director of Racial Equity — to promote and prioritize licensing of minority-owned businesses, along with businesses that recruit, hire, and put minorities on a management ladder and pay a living wage. It also prioritizes small grower licenses, with lower barriers to entry, improving opportunities for those with less access to capital. S.54 would also ensure that prior non-violent drug convictions, which have disproportionately impacted Black Vermonters, do not prohibit individuals from participating in the legal cannabis industry.
S.54 also invests all of the sales tax revenue (30% of total revenue) in after-school and summer learning programs focusing on underserved areas.
I understand some oppose S.54 because they feel it does not go far enough. Some want reparations included. At this stage in the legislative process, amendments are not possible. So, this insistence would simply result in perpetuating this unequal quasi-legalization — and all the harms it entails — for at least an extra year.
But, there is still plenty of time for the next step forward after S.54 passes. Regulating sales takes time — they would not begin until 2022. This gives the Legislature two more years to consider allocating funding to repair the harms of prohibition.
If our movement had insisted on every measure being perfect, Vermonters might still be criminals for possessing cannabis — medical or otherwise. S.54 and S.234 represent incredible progress for consumer safety, Vermont’s economy, and racial and social justice. They deserve Vermonters’ support and Scott’s signature.
