Rhode Island continues to respond to the terrible events that took place at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in beautiful, moving and powerful ways. Last night hundreds gathered at the Roger Williams National Memorial, the site of our state’s very first Pride event 40 years ago, in solidarity, mourning and empowerment.
With long-time LGBTQ activist Kate Monteiro acting as introduction and organizer, a series of speakers that included clergy, advocates, and government officials spoke to the crowd about LGBTQ rights, violence, homophobia, Islamophobia and guns.
Dr. Wendy Manchester Ibrahim, of the RI Council for Muslim Advancement told the crowd that she and the RI Muslim community stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community in Rhode Island in denouncing the terrible actions of the Orlando shooter. The crowd reacted with enthusiasm and support.
Ethan Huckel, board president of TGI Network of RI, urged those in attendance to dismantle the system of oppression that allows such outrages to happen, saying, “The system is not broken. It is a system of oppression and it is working just fine. In this system, politicians use queer people as the bait to rally the hate of voters. In this system, the words “black lives matter” are seen as a threat. In this system, some schools provide education, while others funnel black bodies into prisons. In this system, trans and gender nonconforming bodies are treated like an affront to other people’s safety. In this system, women are left bruised and bleeding behind dumpsters, while the safety of white boys is protected.”
Fernando Gonzale, representing YPI (Youth Pride RI), said that the attack in Orlando compelled him to put aside his shyness and speak to the large crowd. Gonzale, a 17 year old gay Latino, said, “Unfortunately this week stopped being about marriage and rights and it turned into being about being a life and death situation, about survival.”
Both Governor Gina Raimondo and Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza called for a ban on assault rifles. Jennifer Smith Boylan, of Moms Demand Action, talked of the seeming futility of passing common sense gun legislation at the State House, where Speaker Nicholas Mattiello simply allows bills to die. State Senators Donna Nesselbush and Josh Miller left the State House while in session to join the rally, the only two General Assembly members to do so. It became clear that if Rhode wants to do something about gun violence, we’ll need a new legislature.
Below, please video and pictures of all the speakers at the memorial.
The opening of the Bernie Sanders campaign office in Providence Sunday afternoon was attended by well over 250 people, many more than could fit in the storefront office at 500 Broad St. There was a wide range of people present. Music was provided by a bagpiper in full kilt. unlike the opening of the Hillary Clinton campaign HQ on Thursday night, which featured a number of Democratic elected officials, only State Senators Jim Sheehan and Josh Miller.
See: Sen. Sheehan supports Bernie Sanders
Joe Caiazzo is running the campaign here in Rhode Island, and he feels his candidate has a real shot. Jim Dean, brother of former presidential candidate Howard Dean, was on hand to support Sanders as well. After the opening celebrations, Sanders supporters got to work, clipboards in hand, canvassing for Sanders. This is a campaign that knows it needs an excellent ground game if they’re going to take this state in just over two weeks, so they’re wasting no time.
[Comments and responses are welcome.]
Accepting Syrian refugees into the United States is an emotional issue. People are suffering and dying in Syria and throughout the broader Middle East. The grotesque nature of the situation is very real. Innocent Christians, Jews, women, homosexuals and children are being killed, sold as sex slaves and brutalized. Nobody in America wants that. Nor, however,…
Hundreds of people carrying signs of acceptance and support for refugees and immigrants filled the State House today in response to an anti-Syrian refugee rally sponsored by the Boston based and Orwellian named Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) and featuring former Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra. Russell Taub, a Republican candidate seeking US Representative David Cicilline‘s seat, introduced the event. State Representative Mike Chippendale, originally advertised to be part of the event, made one of the smartest moves of his political career by distancing himself as far as possible from this mess.
Things did not go well for the anti-Syrian refugee camp.
As Charles Jacobs of APT spoke, he was several times interrupted by those in attendance. He was called repeatedly on his racist and inflammatory speech. I wrote about Jacobs’ problematic and bigoted past here. Jacobs pressed on through his speech, if for no other reason than to have posted this fake news story about the event here. (Note that the story says nothing about the crowd assembled against Jacobs, that the picture used gives the impression that the crowd was there in support of his message and that the piece gives the impression that the crowd could hear and cared about his message.)
Jacobs became visibly flustered and several times argued with the crowd, turning the event into a call and response. Jacobs claims to represent the interests of American Jews, but the Jewish people who I spoke with at the event all told me that Jacobs is a bigot who does not in any way represent them.
Pete Hoekstra did no better than Jacobs. At one point in his speech, Hoekstra mentioned genocide, prompting a Brown student to ask, “What about the genocide in Palestine?” In response, a photographer with Hoekstra and Jacobs’ group asked, “What Palestine?” eliciting first a shocked silence, then a loud denunciation.
Tired of what she called Hoekstra’s lies, Sterk Zaza, a Syrian immigrant, stood and asked Hoekstra, “Are you better than me?” Hoekstra never answered.
Afterwards, Hoekstra said, in conversation with Omar Bah of the Refugee Dream Center, “I’ve been in politics for 18 years, and I have never been met with a group as hostile and uncivil as what you are. Congratulations.”
The anti-Syrian refugee speakers were continually disrupted throughout their presentations.
The counter protest and the pro-Syrian refugee event held afterwards were organized in part by the RI State Council of Churches, the Dorcas Institute, the Refugee Dream Center, members and families in the Syrian community, Quaker Friends, CAIR-MA, the Standing on the Side of Love committees of several Unitarian Universalist churches, and perhaps 200 students from various organizations at Brown University.
After the failed and frankly embarrassing anti-refugee event was over, Hoekstra and Jacobs left the State House and the pro-Syrian rally began. John Jacobs from the the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MA) introduced the speakers. First up was State Senator Josh Miller.
Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman spoke next. Rabbi Voss-Altman said that he stood before the crowd as “a proud descendant of Jewish refugees who came here,” to America.
Omar Bah of the Refugee Dream Center came to America after being hunted, imprisoned and tortured in his home country. “What America stands for is love, is openness and its welcoming spirit…”
Businessman Youssef Bahralom is a gemologist and “very proud to be a Syriana and an American at the same time…”
RI State Representative Aaron Regunberg talked of being descended from a Jewish grandfather who escaped the Nazis. He was saddened to learn that the United States did not open its borders to Jewish refugees out of ignorance and bigotry. “It’s up to all of us here to make sure this time around,” said Regunberg, “the story has a different ending. This time, instead of succumbing to our basest instincts, Rhode Island stands up for its most fundamental values.”
Reverend Donald Anderson of the RI Council of Churches, said, “Unfortunately there are those among us who would turn their backs on our tradition of welcoming all faith traditions. But we must not let those who would prey upon fear and prejudice to snuff out the flame of religious freedom that makes our state and country so special.”
Sterk Zaza said she went to school in Syria, and contrary to the words of Charles Jacobs, “I was not taught to hate Jews. I was not taught to hate Christians. I have walked the streets of streets of Syraia and I have shaken the hands of Jews, of Christians, of Shia, of Sunni… and the man who was standing here, telling all these lies, couldn’t even answer me and tell me why he was any different than I am.”
Here’s the full anti-refugee rally:
State Representative Scott Slater will introduce legislation next week that would end marijuana prohibition in Rhode Island and replace it with a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol. Senator Josh Miller will enter similar legislation in the Senate. The Senate bill already almost half the Senate as co-signers and Slater has said that in conversation with leadership, Speaker Mattiello has indicated that he is open to the idea.
“Our current policy of marijuana prohibition has created an underground marijuana market that is entirely out of our control,” Slater said. “Most of the problems associated with marijuana stem from its illegal status. Rather than continuing to ignore these problems, let’s adopt a sensible regulatory system that addresses them.”
Slater also said, referencing Governor Gina Raimondo’s proposed tax on medical marijuana, “If Rhode Island wants marijuana to be a source of revenue, it should regulate and tax the hundreds of millions of dollars in adult marijuana sales currently taking place in the underground market. It should not impose onerous fees on seriously ill people who use marijuana for medical purposes, as our governor recently proposed.”
Senator Miller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, issued a statement saying, “We should regulate and tax marijuana in Rhode Island and treat it similarly to how we treat alcohol. In a legal market, products would be tested, labeled, and packaged appropriately, and consumers are protected from the black market where they can be exposed to other more harmful illegal substances. Our legislation would put the illegal marijuana dealers out of business while generating tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue that we can invest in our communities.”
Professor Andrew Horwitz, a criminal defense lawyer and co-chair of Regulate Rhode Island spoke about the importance of decriminalizing marijuana, noting that continued criminalization,”devastates communities of color.”
“Most Rhode Island voters support ending marijuana prohibition and regulating marijuana like alcohol, and the level of support grows every year,” Horwitz said. “We hope this year that legislators will demonstrate leadership on this issue and replace our destructive and wasteful policy of marijuana prohibition with a system that makes more sense.”
Horwitz also spoke briefly about Governor Raimondo’s plan to tax medical marijuana, calling the move, “fundamentally cruel” and an “extraordinarily misguided approach.”
The Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow one mature marijuana plant in an enclosed, locked space. It would create a tightly regulated system of licensed marijuana retail stores, cultivation facilities, processing facilities, and testing facilities and direct the Department of Business Regulation to create rules regulating security, labeling, and health and safety requirements. It would also establish wholesale excise taxes at the point of transfer from the cultivation facility to a retail store, as well as a special sales tax on retail sales to consumers.
Fifty-seven percent of Rhode Island voters support changing state law to regulate and tax marijuana similarly to alcohol, according to a survey conducted in April by Public Policy Polling. Only 35% were opposed.
Some of the business suits worn in the Providence City Council Finance Committee meeting last night were worth more than a hotel worker’s monthly salary.
The power and pressure being brought to bear, to make sure that The Procaccianti Group (TPG) got their multi-million dollar Tax Stabilization Agreement (TSA) was enough to bend reality, as a five member committee was whittled down to three members and the final vote unanimous in favor of TPG.
City Hall was electric with meetings being conducted behind closed doors. What happened in the Finance Committee room was theater, the real deals were all made out of sight. The Finance Committee meeting seemed meticulously planned so that when it started, it would fall like a string of dominoes in favor of moneyed interests and to the detriment of hotel workers.
At issue was a 13-year TSA for the Fogarty Building site downtown, where TPG wants to build a new nine-story hotel. The building trade unions want the hotel, it will provide a couple years worth of good jobs. The hotel workers want the hotel and the jobs it will provide as well, but they wanted an amendment to the TSA “calling for workers to earn 1 1/2 times the federal poverty rate, or more than $14 an hour.”
Good wages for hotel workers are important. TPG is notorious for paying poorly, and the company requires their workers to do much more than workers at competing downtown hotels. Then there’s the steady stream of injuries to workers in TPG hotels. Unionization efforts at the Renaissance Hotel have dragged on for years and only recently did the hotel win a vote to unionize. Without the amendment, a new hotel full of underpaid, overworked and at-risk workers will be coming on-line even as Renaissance workers finally realize a fair contract.
On one side of the Finance Committee meeting room was Mayor Elorza’s Chief Operating officer, Brett Smiley, RI AFL-CIO leader George Nee, Michael Sabitoni, business manager for the RI Laborers’ District Council, state senator Josh Miller, a pile of lawyers and TPG reps, and prominent members of the Providence business community. Council President Luis Aponte stood nearby and monitored the proceedings.
Hotel workers and Unite Here! organizers, vastly outnumbered and outgunned, sat opposite.
Finance Committee Chair John Igliozzi was the city councilor who once suggested tying TSA’s to better wages way back in June, 2014. When it came time to amend the TSA, however, he was silent. Councilors Kevin Jackson and Sabina Matos were also silent, save to deliver the lines required to vote the TSA to the full City Council for final approval next month.
Missing from the committee meeting was Councilor Terrance Hassett, whose day job is Senior Investigator in the Workers’ Compensation Fraud and Compliance Unit at the Department of Labor and Training. He, like two other members of the finance committee, works for the state. It is well known that Governor Gina Raimondo wants this project to proceed. On background I was told that city council members were afraid of losing their jobs if they interfered with the deal, but nobody wanted to go on record.
(Given this, Providence voters might want to reconsider electing council members with state jobs.)
Hassett was a no show, but Councillor Carmen Castillo, a hotel worker herself, was there. She put her purse and coat down into her chair, then left the room to talk off stage with someone. While she was out of the room the Finance Committee meeting started and attendance was called. She was marked absent.
As the meeting got underway Castillo entered the room, recovered her purse and coat, and left without explanation.
There were three members left of the five member committee, enough for a quorum. As hotel workers looked on, the TSA was passed out of committee without the amendment they had requested. Millions of dollars in tax breaks were given to TPG.
There were smiles and handshakes all around as one half of the room erupted in enthusiastic conversation. Finance chair Igliozzi pounded his gavel for order, there was still the city’s contract with Local 1033 to be decided, so $40,000 worth of fine business suits moved outside and into the hallways, and eventually outside into the street.
The hotel workers gathered in a corner on the third floor so that a translator could explain to some of the Spanish speaking members what had happened.
But they understood.
This was government as business and business as usual.
Senators John Miller and Gayle Goldin are hosting a State House rally on Thursday at 1:30 “to demonstrate support and compassion for refugees fleeing the crisis in Syria,” according to a State House press release.
Miller said the rally tomorrow is to dispel any misconceptions that Senator Elaine Morgan’s comments are representative of the Senate as a whole. Morgan sent an email that brought national attention to Rhode Island because it said Muslim refugees should be kept in a camp, and, she wrote, “The Muslim religion and philosophy is to murder, rape, and decapitate anyone who is a non Muslim.” She later said she meant to include the word fanatical in this description.
“I’m embarrassed if people think that is a feeling that is prevalent in the Senate and this is an opportunity to show that there are other strong opinions,” Miller said. “I’ve heard from other senators who want to separate themselves from the comments made by Senator Morgan.”
Miller “absolutely” supports Rhode Island taking in Syrian refugees. “Not only is it the essence of Americanism it’s also the essence of Rhode Island.”
So far, the three state legislators to speak out for accepting Syrian refugees are all Jewish – sens. Miller and Goldin and Rep. Aaron Regunberg. Regunberg wrote a high profile letter to Gov. Gina Raimondo after reps. Bobby Nardolillo and Doreen Costa said they thought Rhode Island should not welcome refugees fleeing war and oppression in the Middle East because it poses a domestic security threat.
“I think the context for a lot of people is whatever their heritage is,” said Miller. “Our recent history shows how horribly wrong it can go when you start to identify the few.”
The senators will be joined by former Gambian refugee-turned-Rhode Island Omar Bah, whom Steve Ahlquist profiled in 2014. They will also be joined by Father Bernard Healey, a Catholic priest and State House lobbyist for the church, Rabbi Sarah Mack, a progressive rabbi from Providence and Iman Farid Ansari, a local leader of the Islamic faith, among others.
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No one spoke in favor of the project, but more than 100 people packed the room and 33 people spoke against National Grid‘s plan to build a $100 million methane gas liquefaction facility in Fields Point in South Providence before representatives of FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), the agency tasked with the job of approving or disapproving the project.
One after another speakers from the affected community, environmental activists, concerned Rhode Islanders and elected members of the General Assembly spoke passionately about negative environmental impacts and the explicit environmental racism implicit of National Grid’s plan.
The liquefaction facility is to be located adjacent to one of Rhode Island’s poorest communities, which already suffers from higher rates of asthma and other respiratory ailments. This community has become a sacrifice zone, a place where dangerous chemicals are stored. A representative from FERC admitted that some additional methane leaks are to be expected as a result of this plan, and methane is one of the most dangerous gases contributing to global warming and global catastrophe.
Peter Nightingale, a member of Fossil Free Rhode Island, has been involved in several FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas) actions and who was arrested for his peaceful protest at Senator Sheldon Whitehouse‘s Providence office, pulled no punches when he told FERC, “To you who are here silently doing your jobs for this project I have but one thing to say: You are complicit in crimes against humanity and against Mother Earth.”
Monae McNeil, from the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island (EJLRI), a group central to the community’s resistance to this project, said, that this project “puts low-income communities at risk, if something were to happen.” The site of the project is not protected by the hurricane barrier. There was an earthquake near this location in August. A disaster at this facility would affect as many as 140 thousand Rhode Islanders.
Jan Luby pointed out that no storage facilities like this are being proposed for Barrington, Lincoln or East Greenwich. Instead, these projects are proposed for low-income communities where resistance is expected to be minimal.
Greg Gerritt spoke on behalf of the Green Party of RI and Prosperity For RI. FERC, he said, “has never turned down one of these projects” demonstrating that the agency is not serious about climate change.
Kate Schati doesn’t live on the South Side, but she cares what happens there, because “it affects the people who live in Providence with me… I don’t want them to be at risk of a breach or a leak or an explosion or even the normal operation of a plant…”
Ben Boyd: “…we need to be investing in clean, renewable, sustainable energy sources…”
One of the most impassioned testimonies of the evenings came from Stephen Dahl, of Kingston, RI. “Weep, weep, weep, weep,” he began, quoting William Blake on the Industrial Revolution. This was more performance piece as testimony, and was powerful.
Marti Rosenberg lives within the affected community. “This project shows us that the impact of fracking is much closer than we think.” Methane is used by communities near the South Side, but the South Side itself not so much. Instead, this community bears the brunt of the negative impacts of methane gas, and none of the benefits.
Peter Sugrue questioned National Grid’s motives for project. “We will clearly see a rate increase for this $100 million project,” yet all National Grid is promising is a smoothing of price volatility. How does this benefit Rhode Islanders, is that even to be honestly expected and is it worth the cost?
Paul Klinkman
Liberty Goodwin
Karen Palmer
Nick Katkevich of FANG, which has lead several actions against fracked gas infrastructure in Burrillville and Providence, promised resistance to this project in the event that FERC approves it.
Gina Rodriguez-Drix is a resident of Washington Park, a mother of two and a birth worker, is “deeply concerned about the disproportionate effects” this project will have on women and children of color in her neighborhood and other affected communities.
Julian Rodriguez-Drix is tired. “I’ve got a family with two kids, a full time job, and now it’s up to us to us, spending our free time poring through pages and pages of bureaucratic nonsense that is trying to find ways to justify a facility that you’ve heard everyone here speak out against.”
Representative Aaron Regunberg
Claudia Gorman
Servio
Lisa Petrie
Yudiglen Sena-Abrau
Jesus Holguin
Ana Quezada
Dania Flores is a board member of EJLRI. She spoke to the community (not to FERC) about how National Grid’s plan impacts the Latino community, about how we have our own solutions, and how we need to deport National Grid.
Paul
Beth Milham
Senator Josh Miller
Senator Juan Pichardo
August Juang
Vanessa Flores-Maldonado
Helen MacDonald
Steve Roberts
Susan Walker
Michelle Lacey
Will Lambek
Representative Scott Slater introduced a bill (H5777) in the RI House of Representatives yesterday to tax and regulate marijuana. Senator Josh Miller introduced identical legislation in the RI Senate. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, both legislators were optimistic that this might be the year the legislation passes.
Though a pair of cranks attempted to hijack the press conference by insisting that the speakers use the word “cannabis” instead of “marijuana,” Jared Moffat, executive director of Regulate Rhode Island, a coalition of groups in support of marijuana regulation, showed remarkable poise and kept the presentation on track.
Representative Slater said that Colorado, the first state to tax and regulate marijuana, “has one of the fastest going economies in the country.” Money spent on legal marijuana products is money denied to organized crime, says Slater, who asked, “Do we allow criminals to control the market? Or do we want the sales to be regulated and taxed?”
- Mattiello open minded on marijuana reform
- Paiva Weed still skeptical on regulating marijuana
- Rhode Island has the most per capita marijuana users
- Legalizing marijuana enjoys ‘tripartisan’ support
- Legalizing marijuana could mean $82 million in revenue for RI
Senator Miller cited justice, public safety and revenue issues as reasons for a growth in support for the idea. Many more groups have joined the call for regulation, and the governor, the Senate president and the speaker of the House have all said that they are open to considering such an idea.
Dan Harrop, the recent Republican candidate for mayor of Providence, was to speak at the press conference, but an auto accident, in which Harrop was unharmed, prevented his attendance. Instead Dr. James Crowley spoke about the current laws regarding marijuana prohibition as being “fundamentally wrong, and a tremendous waste of resources.”
Crowley also spoke of the “first mover advantage.” The first state in New England to tax and regulate marijuana, Crowley maintains, will have early and sustainable marketing advantages that should last even as other states follow suit. Massachusetts activists have already managed to get legislation onto the ballot, and Rhode Island has “a small window of opportunity” if we want to be first, and reap the financial rewards.
Senator Miller says that a majority of Rhode Islanders are in favor of taxing and regulating marijuana, saying, “I think this is the year to do that.”
“There are more African-American men in prison, jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850,” said Diego Arene-Morley, President of Brown University Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “That’s a statistic that you don’t really ever forget.”
He added, “The federal prison population since 1980 has grown 721% thanks to Reagan’s vision for a war on drugs.”
Arene-Morley was acting as the emcee at a forum on Regulating Marijuana in Rhode Island. It featured two panels of experts and advocates addressing a crowd of over 120 people. With nearly two hours of experts discussing policy and outlining possible courses towards the regulation of sales of marijuana, it was a night jam packed with information.
Representative Scott Slater (D-Prov) spoke about his involvement in passing a law to regulate the recreational use of marijuana as a continuation of the work his father, former Representative Thomas Slater, who was instrumental in passing the laws that allowed for the medical use of marijuana in our state.
Dr. David C. Lewis, MD, founder of Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, gave a short history of drug prohibition laws. He says such laws have always been racist in origin. That’s not to say that there are no dangers in using marijuana. Dr. Lewis maintains that we must balance an understanding of civil liberties with an understanding of the medical information.
Jim Vincent, president of NAACP Providence Branch pointed out that it’s not just communities of color, but all communities that are impacted by these drug laws. Money dedicated to the war on drugs is money not used in our schools or for other public goods. Vincent mentioned the book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (see the suggested reading list below) as being an excellent guide to the cost of such policies on our society.
Elizabeth A. Comery, JD, retired attorney, former Providence police officer and member of LEAP, (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) recalled her days as a police officer in Providence. She joined the force in 1976, and said, “I went on because I really wanted to serve and protect. It may sound naive given what’s happening now but we have to get back to that.”
Comery knows police officers who are “consumed with guilt and regret” over their actions during the drug war. The police routinely targeted communities of color in their drug raids, and their war on drugs almost never penetrated into white or economically advantaged communities. Meanwhile, the clearance rates on homicides has plunged. In Providence, only 43% of homicides have been cleared since 2000.
Mason Tvert, Director of Communications at Marijuana Policy Project and co-director of the 2012 Amendment 64 campaign in Colorado, was asked about the approach most Rhode Island state legislators seem to be taking towards the issue, which is to “wait and see” what happens in Colorado in the wake of regulation there. Tvert compared those legislators to people who find out that they have cancer and wait to see how a friend’s treatment goes before deciding on a course of action for themselves. In adopting this attitude legislators are dodging the question and destroying lives.
Tvert also talked about the jobs marijuana regulation has brought to Colorado. In addition to 18,000 badged employees licensed by the state, there are uncounted thousands of spillover jobs in terms of construction and attendant industries. Tvert feels that responsible regulation that mandates living wages and health care for employees, among other benefits, could mitigate the effects of “Big Marijuana” in the event of nationwide regulation and federal acceptance.
Michelle McKenzie, MPH, public health researcher and advocate for people in recovery from substance dependence, who was part of the second panel, said, “Our society has tasked the criminal justice system with a task it just cannot do. We desperately need drug policy reform.”
Pat Oglesby, JD, MBA, former Chief Tax Counsel, US Senate Finance Committee would prefer that the regulation of marijuana be done under a state monopoly, but he was assured by Senator Josh Miller that such an idea is politically impossible at the Rhode Island State House. Oglesby thinks the taxation of marijuana should be on volume, not cost, as this reduces the chance of losing revenue as market competition drives down the price of marijuana in the future.
As to the possibility of passing marijuana regulation legislation in the near term, Senator Josh Miller is hopeful. Though by Senator Miller’s estimation the majority of State Senators privately believe that regulation is the best answer, most will not publicly endorse the idea for political reasons. Miller only got 13 Senators to publicly support the measure last year.
Miller isn’t all that interested in the financial implications in ending the war on marijuana. “There’s a culture of violence around drug use,” says Miller, “I’m interested in saving lives.” Regulation means that a person purchasing marijuana will be dealing with licensed businessmen, not criminals. Criminals bring access to weapons and harder drugs.
“The gateway,” says Miller, “is the drug dealer, not the drug.”
Dr. Lewis joked that this being Brown University, he couldn’t let the audience go without giving them a reading assignment. He recommended the following:
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society by Carl Hart
Why we need to end the War on Drugs a TED Talk by Ethan Nadelmann
Not to be outdone, Beth Comery added a bit of required reading as well:
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