In previous editorials, we described the so-called Bathroom Bill as the death of common sense in Massachusetts. Here is another example.
The Boston Globereported on Wednesday that the Cannabis Control Commission has “unveiled an unusual training and mentoring program to help people from minority and low-income neighborhoods start or work in marijuana businesses.” Unusual is the operative word!
There is extensive research on marijuana that shows it is addictive. Moreover, there is a great deal of evidence that indicates that marijuana is a gateway drug to more potent and illicit drugs such as heroin.
Why in the world would Massachusetts taxpayers want to establish a training and mentoring program to help minorities and low-income citizens get involved with marijuana? Under federal law, the use, sale, and possession of all forms of cannabis is illegal. Marijuana continues to be on Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substance Act, which is the most tightly restricted category of drugs.
According to the Boston Globe, the program is intended to help minorities get into the cannabis business as the “nascent industry” is “overwhelmingly white,” with only 4.3% of cannabis businesses in legal-pot states owned by blacks. So presumably this program is meant to ensure that blacks in Massachusetts have an equal opportunity to become addicted to marijuana or use weed to become addicted to more lethal drugs.
The other reason why $300,000 of taxpayer money is being used to establish this program is to redress the alleged inequity of a disproportionally high percentage of those arrested for possession or sale of marijuana coming from minority communities when pot was illegal here. So now these putative victims will be given an opportunity to have their lives wrecked even more by working in the cannabis industry and being daily exposed to the potentially damaging effects of marijuana.
Only in Massachusetts (and perhaps California) could something so asinine be initiated. And we have to pay for it.
