The Oakland City Council recently passed a new
initiative that will prioritize people who were convicted of marijuana-related felonies to open marijuana businesses.
Through the Equity Permit Program,
half of all licenses for medical marijuana facilities will be prioritized for people who went to jail for marijuana in the last 10 years as well as residents of six neighborhoods that police excessively targeted for drug arrests.
This is amazing news! It is admirable that the city of Oakland is making amends for the overly harsh War On Drugs, which disproportionately affected communities of color. People who went to jail for marijuana, a medicinal plant, will never get those years of their lives back.
I live in San Francisco, and I would love to see the city make the same move. With recreational marijuana legal in California as of January 1, 2018, the time is ripe for this move.
Please sign this petition if you would like to see San Francisco follow Oakland in giving marijuana convicts priority in obtaining licenses to open marijuana-related businesses.