Will new cannabis laws result in reparations from a nascent industry?

October 17, 2020  |  By Shanti Boyle | Community News Service

New state legislation lays the groundwork for a commercial cannabis industry in Vermont by 2022. The separate but related hemp industry has proven popular with a burgeoning network of growers, producers and retailers of many CBD products. Photo courtesy Zenbarn Farms in Waterbury.

Days before Governor Phil Scott allowed a Vermont law that creates a regulated cannabis market to pass, Black, indigenous, and people of color met to discuss concerns that the new cannabis marketplace may leave them behind.

On Oct. 6, Zenbarn Farms in Waterbury hosted a forum that invited Vermonters to listen in on a conversation between BIPOC community members regarding the S.54 bill that was sitting on Gov. Phil Scott’s desk. 

The moderator, Katrina Battle, said she had no vested interest in or thorough understanding of the legislation, and reiterated that this was an opportunity for BIPOC individuals to share a discussion guided by the moderator and three panelists. 

The panelists included event organizer and Zenbarn Farms owner Marlena Tucker, activist and University of Vermont senior Harmony Edosomwan, and Arantha Farrow, owner of Caledonia Cannabis in the Northeast Kingdom. 

“The cannabis industry owes us reparations,” Edosomwan said. This sentiment was widely shared by the other panelists, in addition to the attendees. 

The next day, Gov. Scott took no action on a pair of cannabis-related bills – S.54 and S.234 – allowing them to become law. 

Under S.54, the sale of cannabis will be legal in Vermont in May 2022, as long as cultivators, product manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and testing laboratories obtain the correct licenses. It also establishes a Cannabis Control Board – an independent regulatory authority overseeing the cannabis market. 

The companion legislation, S.234, automatically expunges criminal records for possession of up to two ounces of cannabis. 

Now the debate and discussion around cannabis continues. Scott’s passive initiation of a legalized cannabis marketplace was partly due to his concerns regarding how the bill may negatively affect minorities. Specifically, he cited concerns that licensing will favor existing medical cannabis dispensaries, giving them an unfair head start on market access. He detailed his thinking in a letter to the Senate released after the bill was enacted into law. “This creates an inequitable playing field both for our smaller minority and women-owned business applicants, and other small Vermont growers and entrepreneurs,” Scott wrote.

The BIPOC meeting acknowledged that same concern in addition to broader issues. 

Edosomwan, in mentioning reparations, is referring to multi-layered claims of disenfranchisement relating to the BIPOC community and the cannabis industry. A top issue in the conversation is the how Black individuals and people of color are disproportionately targeted for cannabis-related crimes, even in Vermont. The main criticism of the new legislation from social justice organizations is that the bill does not do enough to address those inequities. 

Farrow, 28, said reparations mean more than what the legalized market offers. “I don’t feel like it addresses the criminalization of the Black market,” she said. “The expungement is only two ounces, so I definitely don’t think that’s enough. They should probably release everybody that has a cannabis charge. And things like racial profiling, you can’t address that in a bill.” 

The entrepreneur then brought up the controversial issue of land ownership, one of the key issues in the discussion of systemic racial discrimination. “They’re going to give licenses to farmers, but the majority of people who own land are white. Because it was stolen and because it was sold. POC communities don’t have access to those kinds of resources,” she said. “They’re going to give [minorities] a 50% discount on licenses, but how much is the license fee?” 

Farrow noted that CBD licenses changed this year, and she had to pay $500 for hers. 

According to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, commercial licenses for cultivating 0.5 to 9.9 acres of hemp are $500. Licensing fees for cannabis were not specified in S.54. 

Room for improvement 

While Farrow said she sees the bill’s passing as a good start, she maintains reservations and wants to see Vermont do more to address racial disparities within the cannabis industry as it moves forward. 

Other social justice organizations agree.

On Oct. 4, the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, Middlebury Showing Up for Racial Justice, Women’s Justice and Freedom Initiative, and the Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana called for Gov. Scott to sign S.54 and S.234 into law. In doing so, they issued a statement saying that S.54 would “promote the interests of individuals who have been disproportionately harmed by cannabis prohibition, create economic opportunity, and promote consumer safety.”  

The groups also called upon lawmakers to “advance further racial justice initiatives when developing the tax and regulate system.” 

The collaboration of the five justice organizations as advocates on the issue highlights the fact that cannabis legalization and expungement may be first steps, but discussions around the related social and racial equity issues will continue. 

Tucker from Zenbarn farms outlined that point specifically. “I do not think that the bill does enough, but I think [it] presents itself in a way that it shows it’s not enough, and there’s opportunity within the bill to continue to build,” she said.  

Tucker describes Zenbarn Farms as a sustainably made Vermont wellness brand offering a variety of plant-based CBD supplements. It has a retail location on Vermont Route 100 in Waterbury Center less than a mile from her family’s flagship business, Zenbarn restaurant, on Guptil Road. The CBD operation as part of its mission donates 1% of profits to social and environmental causes. 

Tucker said she hasn’t thought too much about how to incorporate THC into her business model yet, but she knows she is interested in a retail license in addition to cultivator and product manufacturer licenses. “I’m so excited about the bill, particularly about the education aspect and also the prioritizing of BIPOC- and women-owned businesses,” she said. “The education aspect is what really excites me, especially the 30 percent tax that goes towards education.” 

In Scott’s letter to the Senate, he outlines his desire for a plan and funding regarding cannabis education and prevention efforts aimed at children as 30 percent of the cannabis excise tax will go towards substance abuse prevention. S.54 does not contain language about youth education. 

A conversation for the community 

State Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, who voted in favor of S.54, is also president of Revitalizing Waterbury, the nonprofit economic development and business organization in town. Wood said that because the new law requires communities to opt in to allowing businesses to obtain cannabis licenses, Waterbury and many other communities will need to have that conversation. “We need to pull together not only the business community, but the community at large to help inform the town about what the people in our town want to see. We need to have a discussion in our community about what our community wants,” she said. 

Should Waterbury not choose to opt in, businesses like Tucker’s Zenbarn Farms would be prohibited from selling cannabis products, and even growing commercially. But Wood offers an argument for why towns should opt in. “Would Waterbury become a Mecca for cannabis? Will Stowe opt in? The more towns that opt in, the less of an issue it will be for any one community,” she said. 

Wood’s colleague in the Legislature was also a proponent for the bill. “Beginning with legislation [like S.234] that expunges people’s records is an important first step because we know that hundreds of people over the years have been busted for marijuana sales or possession and have it on their records. It’s damaging and follows people around their whole lives,” said Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury. 

Stevens said he also recognizes the disproportionate burden law enforcement of cannabis has placed on members of the BIPOC community. “There’s a higher percentage of people of color that have been arrested and prosecuted for crimes that hold them back. People of color own fewer homes on a per capita basis than white people. And that affects people of color who may want to grow their own [cannabis] in an apartment. That’s just a piece of a whole big puzzle of systemic racism,” he said. 

The new law will take the better part of two years to fully come into effect and Stevens notes that certain sections of S.54 can still be improved upon. “The bill sets up a structure for these issues to be dealt with in the coming years. [It] opens up the process in a way that really treats individual growers and sellers better than other states do,” he said. 

Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.