Cook County Cannabis Commission

Commissioner Bill Lowry calls the meeting into order. Chief of Staff La’Mont R. Williams calls roll. Again, you can access the livestream here, on FB Live. https://www.facebook.com/events/525849612142710

The first speaker is J.R Fleming, director of the Anti-Eviction Campagin. He speaks to social equity in the Cannabis sector, thanking the commission and state legislators.

He expresses his appreciation for the redesigning of the licensing process, while expressing his disappointment in the rescoring process. The governor said that IL will pass a bill to ensure social equity applicants can participate in the sector. Fleming has not seen such a bill.

“Where is the city voice in this conversation? Where is the county voice? This commission’s voice?” Fleming says in addition to more equity in the sector and process, he wants to see more transparency and inclusivity in the conversation.

Fleming wonders what steps the state should be taking to aid social equity applicants during the COVID-19 pandemic. He says this commission has taken steps to help during this time, but the state has not.

“The voices that the county is bringing forward should be heard on the state level.”

Infighting, Fleming says, is a result of a lack of voices being heard by legislators. “Are they listening not just to the commission, but to their constituents?” He presents some recommendations, emphasizing that IL could serve as a model for other states in social equity.

Commissioner Lowry thanks Fleming for “putting it out there straight.” He talks about step one in bringing the city and the state together on these issues, mentioning what he will bring up in a meeting of Black elected officials later.

Three key areas need work in an equity lens, Fleming says: Licensing, R3, and consumption. People shouldn’t be hitting a “criminal justice wall” when marijuana is legal.

Acquisition of facilities is a huge barrier, Fleming says. Whether obtaining space for cultivating or selling, location can be a social equity issue.

John Daley calls the original licensing process “a disgrace.” He wants to get the license out in the community, and is looking forward to a bill or other work on the issue.

Commissioner Scott Britton asks Fleming to point him in the right direction, and he will do what needs to happen. Next Alma Anaya emphasizes that the first time around “didn’t go so well,” saying she appreciates this advocacy and experience from Fleming.

“We need to not look at this as a revenue generating opportunity, but a way to mend historical harm with Black and Brown communities,” she says. She asks about other rescoring efforts that we need to focus on.

“The rescoring is going to come down to transparency and equity from the scorers.” The first round created public mistrust, Fleming says.

Fleming says technical assistance was not distributed fairly in the first round, saying “we can always do better.”

Phillip Silvestri asks about whether somebody is studying the impact of these bills on different communities in Cook County. Deborah Sims says she will look into that.

She follows up by asking about whether a certain number of licenses can be guaranteed to the African American community. Equal protection prohibits that, Fleming thinks, since there’s not a historical disparity in marijuana licensing (it’s too new).

Deborah Sims says “we have to figure out a way to make sure it happens. The injustice has happened.” Commissioner clarifies that a disparity study needs to come out first, and that would need to happen before license go out. They are working on it.

“Maybe we should halt this and say no more licenses can be issued until we get that study,” Sims proposes. She wants to halt the legislature from giving licenses until the disparity study comes out, so they can ensure some equity. Fleming says they can’t do the study until

more licenses come out. But there are ways to address the issue in a more nuanced way,.

“We don’t want this to go the way gaming went,” Sims explained. “Black people are the ones who smoke more marijuana that anybody else. If we’re the people spending the most dollars, we should be the ones receiving most of the dollars.”

“We want to grow Black wealth and we have an opportunity at the door.” Commissioner says that was a wonderful summation about the importance of this meeting of the Cook County Cannabis Commissioner. #Chidocumenters

Next up is Toi Hutchinson, senior advisor to Governor JB Pritzker. “You guys raised a lot of very salient and interesting points.” She says we’re in the process of really understanding what happened, although some topics are off limits during live litigation.

She takes us through the numbers, emphasizing the high number of social equity applications. She says that there were some errors with the scoring process, but people can challenge their score and this process allows for corrections.

She explains the current process, breaking down how cannabis will be a long-existing industry and needs specific protections. “We are nowhere near a place where people have a corner on this market. It is very very early in the market.”

“You are going to see people of color get these licenses, even before a disparity study…” She says we do need this data to fix the social equity problem, though. “You can’t fix what you can’t see.”

“At the end of the day, we were the 11th state to attempt this, but the first state to attempt this this way. We had no breadcrumbs.” She says the state listened to constituents in legalizing marijuana, and it’s about what we can do right now in terms of equity.

“How do you keep the face of the industry, what do you do with the money, and how do you repair past harm.” These are the three big questions, she says.

Next up is Danielle Perry, who’s office will be conducting the disparity study. It is a legal document her office will take to court.

It is comprised of a market study, an analysis of IL’s race neutral approach (which is in the law, the points system is based on incarceration and neighborhood, not race), and recommendations that fix for the issues that arose as part of a race neutral approach.

All marijuana businesses in the state report to Perry, and she’s sent them 900 questions in order to learn a little but more to increase equity in the application and ownership process.

Responses were due a week ago, and they are working on compiling a report at the moment. She hopes it can be released in a matter of weeks.

Next up is Deputy Chief of Staff for Cook County President Preckwinkle John Roberson. He says that the County stands ready to be supportive and help in whatever ways it can.

“We stand ready with our legislative team to do whatever is necessary.”

Toi Hutchinson agrees, saying nobody comes to this topic lightly. “This is real trauma and pain.”

Commissioners are being called on one by one, but there haven’t been questions so far.

A question! Toi Hutchinson explains that people with a perfect score will be entered into the next lottery.

Question: Will there be a cap in the number of licenses issues in the second lottery?
Answer: That will be determined by the legislature.

Question: Has the state released any data about one business submitting more than one application?
Answer: Application data is anonymous.

These are FB Live questions that the Chief of Staff is reading out and Toi Hutchinson is answering.

JR Fleming: What bills should advocates like us be looking out for in terms of bills in the state legislature?
*He notes that a lot of bills are about banking and he wants to know what to look out for in social equity in the marijuana sector.
Toi: Ask Chairman Harper.

Representative Sonya Marie Harpe is next up, just emphasizing that in this new industry tweaks will happen all the time. She says the state legislature is going through bills every day, and it is time to focus on communities that have been harmed by war on drugs.

She also adds that the medical marijuana industry also needs a social equity component that doesn’t really exist at the moment.

The more we push back addressing the racial disparities in this industry, the more that the disparity increases. Licenses need to be available for normal people to get in the business, she says.

She has a number of suggestions for increasing equity in the sector, including some outside of the buying and selling and employment fields, as well. She talks about education programs and how to meet target audiences where they are.

She also talks about issues involving community access to funding. She says she doesn’t know exactly where mental health and substance abuse funding is going. They imagined those funds going directly to disproportionately affected communities, but they don’t know where that is.

The state’s contract with the firm who scored the applications has been renewed and expanded, after a lot of questions surrounding the firm’s process as notably few applicants of color were rewarded licenses.

“Soon we will be signing our equity commitment into law.” Although that commitment is basic, Representative Sonya Marie Harpe looks forward to expanding its definition.

She mentions the similarities between equity in the marijuana and agriculture industries, emphasizing the need to grow one along with the other.

The commissioner asks her about potential legislation for programming that can be funded with the cannabis revenue to ensure social equity in the field. Rep. Harpe talks about leftover money from the medical marijuana industry.

She says some representatives want to give that money back to the patients, while she wants to put that into social equity in the marijuana industry.

“We’re gonna keep on pressing with this. It is vitally important to our county and to our state,” Commissioner says. #Chidocumenters

Chief of Staff invites the public (that’s you!) to email him lamont.williams@cookcountyil.gov with any questions about the meeting or in general.

With that, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you for following along with me and learning more about the Cook County Cannabis Commission!