PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A group of Philly officials, including the office of Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, have partnered with a new medical cannabis company to primarily help people of color who have been convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses.
PA Cannabis Holdings, whose parent company is based in New York, is donating $100,000 of their proceeds to help Philadelphians released from state prisons pay fees, fines and other related debts they can’t otherwise afford.
Black people are nearly four times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession despite comparable usage rates across racial demographics, according to the ACLU.
PA Cannabis Holdings CEO Dr. Craig Antrell, of New York, said their goal is to bring equity and fairness to the multibillion-dollar marijuana industry. He said all of the funds were raised by a group of doctors from New York, specifically to address inequities.
The industry is expected to grow exponentially over the next few years as more states move to legalize marijuana. Officials have said outstanding fees from nonviolent marijuana convictions are constraining thousands of Black and brown people, while predominantly white dispensary owners are now profiting from the industry.
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“As an increasing number of states — 19 to date — have legalized the sales of adult-use cannabis, I can't help but be angry by Pennsylvania still making cannabis arrests,” Bilal said.
“Many companies are now traded daily on the stock exchange, NASDAQ, with too many people that look like me sitting in prison for possessions, and in too many jurisdictions, unable to find a job in an industry that they know well.”
While possession of small amounts of marijuana has been decriminalized in Philadelphia, the state of Pennsylvania still considers possession of any amount a criminal offense.
Related podcast: Might Pennsylvania change its marijuana laws?
But as Pennsylvania looks to legalize weed, Bilal said that ensuring that the costs of marijuana-related convictions don’t hold people back from opportunities to participate in the legalized cannabis market is one step toward righting those wrongs.
“A lot of my family members have been victims of the system,” said Rashaad Lambert of West Philly. He shared how racial disparities in mass incarceration have affected his life.
“When people think about this stuff, you think about it as a statistic, but you don't think about the family members of those people who you are really taking them away from, who it really affects. My father and my older brother were taken away from my family for a period of time because of nonviolent offenses.”
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If successful, the initiative could be groundbreaking. However, there are still many unanswered questions. For example, how exactly is it going to work? How many people will the fund help?
Bilal says those things are still to be determined.
“Over the next few weeks, we will be pulling together a larger coalition — inclusive of judges, probation, parole, community members, directly impacted individuals, and elected officials across the state — to work out the details on how this fund will work.”
A spokesperson from the sheriff's office promised more information on the initiative in the future.
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