Legislators joined a progressive group outside the State House on Wednesday, calling for Rhode Island to ensure that marijuana legalization benefits poor and working-class communities of color that bore the brunt of the War on Drugs.
The General Assembly concluded this year’s legislative session on July 1 without passing one of the competing bills that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults in Rhode Island. Legislative leaders have talked about returning for a special fall session to address marijuana legalization and other unresolved issues, but it’s not certain that will happen.
“If we choose to legalize cannabis in Rhode Island without full restorative justice for the Black, brown and low-income Rhode Islanders who were targeted and imprisoned because of the racist War on Drugs policies, we have failed,” Representative Leonela Felix said.
Felix, a Pawtucket Democrat, estimated that there is now a 70 percent chance the legislature will not return in the fall. But, she said, “I am hoping we actually can come in and we can get this done before the end of the year.”
Senator Tiara Mack, a Providence Democrat, noted that Massachusetts, Connecticut and other states have legalized recreational marijuana. [Read more at The Boston Globe]
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