War on Drugs

Exploring Legal Adult-Use Cannabis in NYC

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Imparting knowledge from New York for our P3 Campaign

Representatives from All Together Now PA traveled to New York City on June 20, 2023 to visit New York State’s first adult use cannabis dispensary – Housing Works Cannabis Co – which was started by a non-profit organization called Housing Works, whose mission is to provide housing, healthcare (including substance use treatment) and vocational training to thousands of New Yorkers annually. 

So why was a non-profit organization who serves people struggling with addiction also selected as the first licensee in the state to sell adult-use cannabis? Here’s their explanation in their own words: 

“As part of our person-centered approach to healthcare, Housing Works offers innovative substance use support grounded in Harm Reduction. This non-judgmental, non-coercive, trauma-informed philosophy meets people where they’re at, including those left behind by social programs and medical institutions. We believe people can and will make positive decisions about their health when given options that meet their circumstances. We respect the rights of people who use drugs and believe that everyone deserves healthcare. We value autonomy, responsibility, community, and compassion.”

Some Key Takeaways From Our Visit: 

  • NY State has struggled significantly with the roll-out of the legal market in New York City. We learned that too many licenses (300 or so) were approved with too little support for those businesses to get up and running efficiently and in compliance with regulations. This resulted in approximately 1,500 illegal cannabis shops opening all over NYC.  Housing Works Cannabis Co. was able to open their shop in a very efficient and legal manner because they already had the internal infrastructure, built over many years because they already run several successful thrift stores throughout the city. 
  • Housing Works Cannabis Co extended their mission to not only share profits with their housing non-profit, Housing Works, but also to share their knowledge and expertise with the hundreds of license holders who are trying to open – it’s an apprenticeship of sorts. This is a mentor-mentee model we should adopt for Pennsylvania. 
  • Most of the cannabis cultivation in NY state is open air, not indoor. Housing Works mostly deals with farmers and vendors upstate.  Pennsylvania’s rural communities and farmers would benefit from a similar symbiotic relationship with urban based retailers.

Another wonderful connection we made in NYC was meeting with Wanda Salaman, an inspirational community organizer from the Bronx, Executive Director of Mothers on the Move, and visionary for CannaBronx. She is on a mission to make #hempcrete and industrial hemp the gateway to building generational wealth in her community.  She is teaming up with architects and students from the Pratt Institute on how to bring hempcrete manufacturing to the Bronx and how to increase the use of this sustainable building material in more projects in the city.  We had a wonderful meeting of the minds and hearts with Wanda and the folks from Pratt, and wish them well on reaching their dreams for economic and environmental justice! 

Weeding Out Opportunities for Social Equity if PA Legalizes Adult-Use Cannabis

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Weeding Out Opportunities for Social Equity if PA Legalizes Adult-Use Cannabis

From New York to New Mexico, Social Equity has been a priority in legalizing Adult-Use Cannabis and the responsibility to right the wrongs induced by the War on Drugs falls squarely on the shoulders of the government. 

The difference between NY and NM is that New York sewed the seeds of social equity into the law and New Mexico deferred definition of social equity mechanisms to an advisory committee , spending the better part of a year polling, surveying and studying best practices, while giving multi-state operators and “Big Marijuana” a head start for growth. 

“Our studies show that 40% to 42% of all Adult-Use Cannabis will be derived from out-of-state purchases, particularly Texas,” Duke Rodriguez, CEO of Arizona-based Ultra Health, told the Santa Fe New Mexican.

With no cap on licenses and land ownership, legacy operators and disadvantaged entrepreneurs lack the capital and resources for start-up costs. According to the New Mexico Cannabis Control Division, NM has granted priority to Minority license holders (Black, Asian American, Native American, mixed race and other), representing 33% of the industry. And although it’s obvious that a head start for small farmers and minority owned small businesses is necessary in a market expected to reach $400 million annually within five years, there is concern that the NM industry is doing a disservice to the community by not explicitly laying it out in the legislation. 

Even with the progressive discussion about micro-licensing, co-ops and reinvesting 40% of cannabis tax into low income communities, New Mexico might have done better by offering social equity opportunities prior to the passage of its AUC legislation. 

In comparison, the New York law provides for automatic expungement for previous convictions that engage in “activities that are no longer criminalized.” New York is also the first state to offer initial dispensary licenses solely to entrepreneurs with marijuana convictions through the Seeding Opportunity Initiative. 

According to the official New York Cannabis Conversations website, “the Office of Court Administration have expunged approximately 300,000 records and suppressed another approximately 100,000 from background searches as they await expungement.” The initiative also offers access to funding and resources to help prop up these businesses in the long run.

For states like Pennsylvania, who have yet to adopt Adult-Use Cannabis legislation, we have the chance to learn from both NY and NM when implementing laws that can provide opportunities for minority communities harmed by the War on Drugs.

If you are interested in getting involved in this important work in Pennsylvania, please reach out to Tara Zrinski, P3 Campaign Director via email at Tara@alltogethernowpa.org.

To learn more about All Together Now PA’s Pot Profits for Pennsylvanians campaign, visit alltogethernowpa.org/p3. 

Claiming a Piece of the P.I.E.S: What PA can Learn from Social Equity in the NY Cannabis Market

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Claiming a Piece of the P.I.E.S: What PA can Learn from Social Equity in the NY Cannabis Market

Everyone loves pie but, in this economy, it never seems like it gets divided up fairly. Twenty one states and Washington D.C. have legalized Adult-Use Cannabis (AUC), but social equity policies have varying degrees of success in providing a slice of entrepreneurial possibility to legacy operators. 

Pennsylvania has yet to legalize Adult-Use Cannabis, which puts us in a unique position to learn from other states, like our neighbors in New York, who are offering up valuable lessons…

Since AUC legislation passed in 2021, Forbes identified a potentially fatal flaw in New York’s regulatory structure that could jeopardize the good intentions of the approved social equity program that reserves Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses for applicants, or family members, who have been convicted of a cannabis related offense. This isn’t the only problem, though. There are questions as to how these CAURD licensees will procure or maintain inventory with no clear path to financing.

In a free market that depends on competition to weed out the most vulnerable entrepreneurs, it seems that the very people the law was meant to help are left just out of reach of their slice of the pie. 

The legacy community, pejoratively known as the “black market”, represents cannabis entrepreneurs operating under the radar. With the looming threat of incarceration, the legacy market operates under self-regulated authority for its own self preservation. While this kind of market can be characterized by gang violence, turf wars and untaxed cash transactions, the same market rids itself of bad actors, frowns upon selling to minors and prides itself on the quality of its bud. 

Out performing its regulated counterpart by three times, the legacy market should be acknowledged for its success- success that neither the war on drugs nor regulation could destroy. The question remains– how can the intention of legislation incentivize and partner with the legacy operators to transition to a successfully regulated market? 

A group of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) advocates with the National Cannabis Industry Association is hoping to bake a new social equity solution called P.I.E.S. into the mix. P.I.E.S. is an acronym for Pairing (existing marijuana operators with partners), Incubating(allocating resources, mentorships and technical assistance to launch successful businesses) , Excel (beyond launch to withstand startup challenges within first 3 – 5 years) and Seed (capital and inventory to cover initial startup cost). This program will provide a larger slice for legacy operators in disadvantaged communities most harmed by the War on Drugs. 

As the Pennsylvania legislature gears up to launch its own AUC legislation, proponents have the opportunity to advance meaningful social equity policies before free market capitalistic tendencies bend toward profiteers and multi-state organizations. At the end of the day, we need a policy that will right the wrongs of the war on drugs and keep pot profits on the plates of Pennsylvanians.

Tara Zrinski is the Campaign Director for the Pot Profits for Pennsylvanians (P3) Campaign. She joins All Together Now PA with a dynamic background as a local legislator in Northampton County, community organizer for environmental non-profits and adjunct professor of Philosophy at DeSales University and Northampton Community College.

Backlash Against Pot Pardons 

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Backlash Against Pot Pardons 

By Tara Zrinski, P3 Campaign Director

“As human beings, we are capable of painful yet transformative self-reflection, maturity, and growth, and to deny a person this opportunity is to deny them their humanity.”

Statement by Bill Underwood during his 2021 Congressional Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, On Undoing the Damage of the War on Drugs: A Renewed Call for Sentencing Reform. 

Bill Underwood served 33 years of life sentence for, in his words, “leading a violent drug operation during the 1970s and early 80s in New York City.” Underwood’s experience is testimony to the capacity for human transformation. He has become a compassionate advocate to end life-long sentences and mandatory minimums as a Senior Fellow with The Sentencing Project’s Campaign to End Life Imprisonment. 

In an alternate reality, where marijuana was legal to grow, process and distribute, his previous leadership might have been interpreted as entrepreneurial and, without the stigma of criminalization, the violence of his drug operation might have been replaced with casual transactions at a cash register in a store on main street. 


With adult use cannabis legalization on the horizon, we have to recognize the fact that the War on Drugs created this underground economy, tempting those already marginalized by systemic barriers to economic mobility such as, red-lining, poor schools and Jim Crow laws .

Weeks after Biden announced his pardons for small possession felonies, pro-legalization activists swarmed the Capital, protesting the “self-serving” and “disgusting” actions of the Biden Administration. The action has been interpreted as nothing more than a virtue-signaling, mid-term election Hail Mary to get democrats elected and is a slap in the face to those incarcerated on marijuana charges– they offer no freedom from incarceration.

Not only does Biden have cause to repent for his complicit participation in the War on Drug, but so does Vice President Kamala Harris. As District Attorney of San Francisco, Harris oversaw the conviction of 1900 marijuana charges.

Demanding clemency for all people incarcerated on marijuana-related offenses, activists representing Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Last Prisoner Project are pointing to a comment on cannabis reform Biden made during a 2019 presidential debate when he stated, “Number one, I think we need to decriminalize marijuana. Period…And, I think anyone who has a record should be let out of jail, records expunged. Completely zeroed out.”

While the president has the authority to pardon, it is not the same as clemency. The U.S. Constitution gives the President of the United States the power of executive clemency in the form of a commutation, or reduction of sentence, relief from fines or a reprieve from punishment.

Biden might take a page out of Wolf and Fetterman’s book. Pennsylvania received 3,539 applications for their Marijuana Pardon Project (MPP), a one-time effort to pardon people with certain non-violent cannabis criminal convictions. 

Now is the time for clemency. No one should wait 33 years for justice. Underwood’s moving testimony emerged from his years of incarceration from which he was granted compassionate release in January at 67 years old by Judge Sidney H. Stein.  In his release order, Stein wrote, “I watched him mentor other young men in prison and it was a well-known fact and still is that when you speak to Mr. Underwood and are around him, ‘no nonsense is allowed!’” This brings about a culture of responsibility for all the men that he comes into contact with. . .” 

As we discuss adult cannabis legalization, we cannot forget the lives indelibly disrupted by the War on Drugs. The humanity stripped of disproportionately black and brown individuals through incarceration needs reparation and redemption. 

Presidential Pardons, Prisons and Pot Profits: No Room For Incremental Justice

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Biden’s attempt to overhaul marijuana laws just doesn’t go far enough

Opinion

Read the article in The Philadelphia Inquirer

President Biden’s announcement to pardon federal convictions for marijuana possession and call to remove Cannabis from Schedule 1 under the Controlled Substance Act did little more than virtue-signal a change of heart after a political career marked by complicity in the War on Drugs. 

Even the most staunch advocates for the War on Drugs can have a change of heart. Biden’s actions are not cause for celebration. 

Decriminalizing simple possession and reviewing the schedule doesn’t necessarily mean that people will not face future criminal charges for marijuana. Federal Law could complicate the current legal medical or adult-use programs. Now is not the time for incremental justice.

Now the window of opportunity to encourage legislation that will right the wrongs of Jim Crow policies, to prioritize social equity opportunities for farmers and entrepreneurs and to prevent corporate monopolies from depriving Pennsylvanians of the benefits of a thriving rural-urban cannabis economy.

With 78% of Americans in favor of marijuana legalization, public opinion on the failure of the War on Drugs offers a unique opportunity for equity and justice but it will require much more bold action than a gesture like a federal pardon that fails to free those incarcerated. 

The War on Drugs has had the most damaging impact on Black and Brown communities. There is no room for incremental justice in righting the wrongs of the past 50 years of excessively punitive anti-drug legislation, mass incarceration and militarization of local police forces. 

In 2020 alone, there were 20,200 arrests for marijuana possession. A record of conviction has lifelong social and economic impacts, leading to instability in employment and housing. Incarceration as well as services for housing and food insecurity are costly to taxpayers. 

Presumably well intended, Biden’s actions fail to actually free those incarcerated for those charges, provide adequate resources for their reentry into society or recognize the impact that incarceration has had on marginalized communities. Now is no time for incremental justice. 

This is an opportunity, if not a moral imperative, for Pennsylvania’s legislature to dismantle the prison pipeline and enact restorative justice policies that invest in the communities that have been ground zero for the war on drugs. Records need to be expunged and arrests restricted to more serious crimes to minimize the collateral consequences of prior marijuana convictions. 

Thirty seven state legislatures, legalizing cannabis either as medicinal, adult-use or both, have taken up the gauntlet, but Pennsylvania is lagging on its moral responsibility to address the multi-generational trauma of disenfranchised communities that lies squarely at the feet of our Representatives and Senators.

With a projected $2.5 billion in cannabis industry revenue, PA legislators are looking for legalization but, if they are just chasing the profits leaking across our borders, we will miss a unique opportunity to right the wrongs of the past. 

Righting the wrongs will take the establishment of a cannabis regulatory framework that distributes the tax revenue back to the communities it harmed by establishing social equity programs that provide grants, education and support for disenfranchised entrepreneurs and disadvantaged farmers. 

We have an opportunity to unite rural farms and urban businesses, resulting in a huge economic boon that would help local economies thrive through job creation and protection of small farmers. The worsening farm consolidation trend makes the PA agricultural sector of the cannabis industry ripe for multi-state domination. Farmers with smaller homesteads and little capital will find it difficult to compete. So, while Pennsylvanians could benefit from this economic boon, without legislative protections for small farms and businesses, profits will go out of state. 

Adult-use cannabis legislation that incorporates social and economic equity policies must also reach across party lines and have a broad base of support. Local small farmers and small business owners need to build a supply chain that builds upon the experience of the legacy markets without the stigma previously attached by criminalization. 

Special attention in the legislation needs to prevent economic concentration and multi-state domination of cannabis markets so that the revenue can stay in state and build stronger local economies that keep pot profits in Pennsylvania. 

Now is the time for transformative justice.

Signed,

Tara M Zrinski, Campaign Director, Pot Profits for Pennsylvanians, All Together Now Pennsylvania

Cherron Perry-Thomas, Director of Social Impact, Diasporic Alliance for Cannabis Opportunities (DACO) & Founder of Black Cannabis Week 

Presidential Pardons Show Change of Heart in War on Drugs

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 Presidential Pardons Show Change of Heart in War on Drugs

By Tara Zrinski

The 80’s onset of the War on Drugs, with its excessively punitive model of anti-drugs and mass incarceration, disproportionately harmed and continues to harm Black and Brown communities. In 1989, then Senator Joe Biden, criticized George H.W. Bush not because he opposed the War on Drugs, but because he didn’t think it went far enough. 

Fast forward to a week ago when President Biden had a welcome change of heart, announcing his plans to pardon people with federal convictions for marijuana possession, and urging Governors to do the same for state convictions and proposing to review Cannabis as a schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substance Act. 

For adult use cannabis advocates and groups like All Together Now PA, who are promoting their Pot Profits for Pennsylvanians (P3) Campaign, this change of heart does not mean we are out of the weeds, legislatively speaking.

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Decriminalizing simple possession and reviewing the schedule doesn’t necessarily mean that people will not face criminal charges for marijuana, that the state level markets won’t be at odds with Federal Law or that current legal medical or adult-use programs won’t be complicated by Biden’s political maneuver. Currently, 37 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, and 19 states have legal adult-use marijuana with many more on deck to do so in 2022 and 2023. 

So, while 78% of Americans believe that marijuana should be legalized, there is a great deal of work to do at the state level to insure an equitable and just legalization process that provides more than pardons for those who have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. This level of injustice requires restorative justice to impacted individuals and communities, so that any legislation moving forward includes mechanisms to right the wrongs of the past. 

Still, this is a small step in the right direction. Biden’s actions shows that even the most rigid of advocates for punitive measures in the War on Drugs can have a change of heart. Now is not the time to revel in celebration, but a time to recognize the window of opportunity that has opened to encourage legislation that will advocate for localization, prioritize social equity opportunities for farmers and entrepreneurs and prevent corporate monopolies from depriving Pennsylvanians of the benefits of a thriving cannabis economy.