By Daniela Altimari
The Hartford Courant
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Connecticut United for Reform and Equity, or “CURE”, is made up of parents, nurses, entrepreneurs, market experts, community organizers and others dedicated to advocating for greater opportunity within the cannabis industry.
The Hartford Courant
With the Connecticut legislature likely to consider the legal sale of recreational marijuana, advocates are pressing for racial equity in the emerging industry.
“We want the same opportunities that are offered other communities,” Kebra Smith-Bolden, of Canna Health and Women Grow CT, “But when you look at states like Massachusetts or Colorado with not even a handful of minority-owned business in the first hundreds of licenses, we have a serious problem that needs to be addressed. So we got together to make sure it gets addressed here and now.”
Smith-Bolden and other advocates have formed a new group focused on achieving racial equity in ownership, employment and consumer access.
Connecticut United for Reform and Equity, or CURE, is made up of parents, nurses, entrepreneurs, market experts, community organizers and others dedicated to advocating for greater opportunity within the cannabis industry.
“Just like the war on drugs has devastated our communities and denied so many the opportunity to prosper, the current legal cannabis industry has replicated this denial of opportunity,” said Jason Ortiz of Hartford, who serves as vice president of the National Minority Cannabis Business Association.
“In order to achieve justice for our communities, we insist on robust equity programs to ensure ownership and employment opportunities, and investment in our communities equal to the damage done by decades of malicious public policy.”
