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An Illinois House committee on Thursday approved a blistering resolution condemning the war on drugs and its discriminatory impact on communities of color.<\/p>\n
The House Human Services Committee adopted the measure, which has the short title of \u201cShameful History-War on Drugs.\u201d It\u2019s now been placed on the calendar for floor consideration.<\/p>\n
While there have been similar resolutions filed in Congress<\/a> and state legislatures decrying the harms of criminalizing people over drugs, this one in particular, sponsored by Rep. Mary Flowers (D), puts the issue in no uncertain terms.<\/p>\n It starts with the history of the drug war under the Nixon administration, calling it a \u201ca failed, costly, and inhumane\u201d effort that would \u201cprove to be the United States\u2019 longest and costliest war and ultimately a complete and shameful failure.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, the \u201creal enemies\u201d that President Richard Nixon targeted \u201cwere not drug abusers but were the anti-war left and Black Americans,\u201d the measure states.<\/p>\n The drug war fueled mass incarceration, it continues, noting that one factor that\u2019s led to a more recent decline in the male prison population seems to be states and local municipalities moving to legalize or decriminalize marijuana.<\/p>\n \u2014 \u201cThe War on Drugs has proven to be a costly, failed disaster that shamefully affected some of America\u2019s most vulnerable populations,\u201d the resolution says<\/a>, \u201ctherefore, be it resolved, by the House of Representatives of the 102nd General Assembly of the state of Illinois, that we recognize the shameful and discriminatory history of the War on Drugs in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Illinois legalized marijuana through an act of the legislature in 2019, and lawmakers and administration officials alike have emphasized the need to promote social equity in the industry to right the wrongs of prohibition.<\/p>\n But that goal has proved challenging to attain. The state has faced criticism from advocates and lawsuits from marijuana business applicants who feel officials haven\u2019t done enough to ensure diversity among business owners in the industry.<\/p>\n That said, the House on Tuesday approved a bill<\/a> that is meant to build upon the legalization law by creating more cannabis business licensing opportunities that are meant to help people from disproportionately impacted communities enter into the marijuana industry.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, adult-use marijuana sales in the state are projected to exceed $1 billion<\/a> by the end of 2021. Illinois has consistently seen record-breaking sales<\/a> since launching its recreational market in January 2020.<\/p>\n Illinois officials have emphasized that the tax dollars from these sales are being put to good use. For example, the state announced in January that it is distributing $31.5 million in grants funded by marijuana tax dollars<\/a>\u00a0to communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.<\/p>\n The funds are part of the state\u2019s Restore, Reinvest, and Renew (R3) program, which was\u00a0established under Illinois\u2019s adult-use cannabis legalization law<\/a>. It requires 25 percent of marijuana tax dollars to be put in that fund and used to provide disadvantaged people with services such as legal aid, youth development, community reentry and financial support.<\/p>\n Awarding the new grant money is not all that Illinois is doing to promote social equity and repair the harms of cannabis criminalization. Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) announced in December that his office had processed more than 500,000 expungements and pardons<\/a>\u00a0for people with low-level cannabis convictions on their records.<\/p>\n Relatedly, a\u00a0state-funded initiative was recently established<\/a>\u00a0to help residents with marijuana convictions get legal aid and other services to have their records expunged.<\/p>\n Youth Marijuana Use Remained Stable After States Started Enacting Legalization, Federal Report Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Illinois Lawmakers Approve Resolution Condemning \u2018Shameful\u2019 And \u2018Inhumane\u2019 War On Drugs<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
An Illinois House committee on Thursday approved a blistering resolution condemning the war on drugs and its discriminatory impact on communities of color. The House Human Services Committee adopted the measure, which has the short title of \u201cShameful History-War on Drugs.\u201d It\u2019s now been placed on the calendar for floorContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":47913,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47914,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47912\/revisions\/47914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Illinois Lawmakers Approve Resolution Condemning \u2018Shameful\u2019 And \u2018Inhumane\u2019 War On Drugs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"