California’s Affirmative Action for ‘Marijuana Entrepreneurs’

The Source for this Blog Posting is...

Jason L. Riley

Wall Street Journal

 

(Excerpts from Mr. Riley’s column are in Italics below.)

 

In California, a criminal record can prevent you from obtaining a liquor license but give you a leg up in obtaining a permit to deal dope.

 

It’s all part of an effort in the Golden State to help more minorities become “marijuana entrepreneurs”. On New Year’s Day 2018, California became the ninth state to legalize cannabis for recreational use, but officials are worried that not enough blacks will qualify for the permits needed to sell weed legally.

 

To address this “problem,” Los Angeles, Oakland and other cities have created “equity programs” that offer no-interest loans and other perks to people who live in poor black neighborhoods and have been convicted of drug crimes.

 

If you’re a white applicant, you can improve your own chances of receiving a permit by “incubating” an equity applicant, which means making him a 50% partner in the business or giving him floor space in your establishment, rent-free.

 

The people who dreamed this up sold it as a way to compensate blacks, who have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. But what about the disproportionate number of blacks who have been victims of these drug dealers? What about all the law-abiding blacks who reside in poor neighborhoods where drug gangs have taken over playgrounds and street corners and school yards and made the sound of gunfire a summer-night norm?

------------------------

Above is what Mr. Riley had to say about those who have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

 

Below is The Fella’s Wise Guy Retort...Will all those who have been negatively affected by the actions of those who have been disproportionately affected now be positively affected proportionally?

 

How far are we away from hearing this conversation in courthouses across the Fruited Plain?...

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: Good Morning, Mr. Bureaucrat, I would like to fill out the required paperwork to open a bank in our fair community.

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: This is a big day for me.

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: I have always wanted to own a bank and, as long as I can remember, I have had this burning desire to enrich my fellow Smithvilleian’s lives by granting hard working and ambitious members of our community loans to start new business ventures and allow them and Smithville to prosper.

Ø Mr. Bureaucrat: Have you ever robbed a bank?

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: No.

Ø Mr. Bureaucrat: Sorry. If you have never robbed a bank, you are not entitled to become a banker.

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: Sigh.

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella