proved to export to u. s. consumers. what is it? adding on ricardo's, mexico wants of the strictest party opener. the suspension was announced on the eve of the super bowl. one of the biggest sales days of the year, an export industry worth $3000000000.00 per year. i will go those from mexico, mexico's president under asthma and were little personal pro. daughter has suggested the band had a different motive. he says us growers don't want imported mexican cutters because of their superior quality. and to chappelle al jazeera ah amin stories. now nato secretary general is saying that the alliance is looking to deploy more battalions to eastern europe and made ongoing fears that russia will invade ukraine. insult him back says there's no evidence that some russian troops have pulled back from the ukrainian border despite as claims from moscow. the us

estimates the $150000.00 russian soldiers are gathered around ukraine. stoughton berg says, satellite images prove that russia is not pulled back troops. meanwhile, the kremlin insist that nato is wrong. it's released a video showing a tray load of armored vehicles moving across a bridge away from crimea, which russia antics from ukraine in 2014 russian government wants the west to keep ukraine and other former soviet nations out of nato holt weapons deployments near russian borders. and rollback forces from eastern europe will inside ukraine, has been a day of national unity with ukraine of flag being res, right across the country. with that 1200 meter long fly carried with the olympic stadium and care of president ramirez. the lansky attended military trails near the board with better routes and called on ukrainians to show resilience. this will you call. we are not afraid whatever's full cost. we are not afraid of any pupil any enemy. we are not afraid of any dates, because we will defend ourselves both on the 16th of february and on the 17th. i

didn't march and april and september, and then december, no matter what day or month. and all the top stories, mudslides and floods of killed at least 58 people in brazil. after months, rain fell within hours. vehicles and houses are swept away in the city of metropolis in real estate. 21. people have been rescued so far, fisher, that the cook declared 3 days of morning and the on group. i'll show bob's attack several police stations on security checkpoints. and the somali capital mogadishu, 2 children, 2 suicide bombers and a police officer, a believe to be among the 9 people reported dead somali as internal security ministers as asha bob. struck in the early hours of wednesday morning with a stream is coming out next. asking how the u. s. marijuana industry can be more equitable. i'll be back with more news after that in about 25 minutes time. i'll see you then. bye for now.

ah ah, i am josh rushing and perfect me. okay, today and you are in the stream in 2019 the u. s. date of illinois past recreational marijuana legislation on the promised to make sure the industry would provide opportunities for black and brown communities that were once ravaged by the country's war on drugs. by some accounts, illinois, ailing to fully live up to its commitment. now those shortcomings for the subject of a new documentary by ha plus $4518.00 avocations from

what was originally going to be $75.00 life 99 percent. people weren't going to get them because of its federally legality, are not able to credit cards. and so most of it is cash specific. the budget about the licenses lotteries and legalization is at the core of illinois butting marijuana business. another central issue is why it's so difficult for steve money to bloom into a flowering business. can it be equitable in the united states of america? that's where we're doing this interview. so yeah. so how can the marijuana industry be more equitable? joining us to discuss this d, my in a bank us use of presenter with 80 plus and

a correspondent in the documentary just saw a clip up there. in joining us from chicago as daniel perry, she is the cannabis regulation oversight officer for illinois and militia, roister a cannabis lobbyist and the president of social equity empowerment network. welcome everyone. i should also mentioned the militia is in the documentary as well. now look, if you're joining us from you tube, sound off, leave a comment or question given to me, we actually have a lie producer in there. see that box right there. there's a live stream producer waiting to get your questions to me so i can get them into the show. so be a part of this one, me, right. all right, ma'am, i want to begin with you 1st off, well done on this documentary and it's such a relevant topic. it's spot on. please tell us about zip codes and where the audience confines of codes. thank you, just so much for having you today. yes, the codes is aneesha by ha plus the digital video arm of al jazeera. and it's really a show that showcases how where we live defines how we live. so we go into specific

places and look at communities often marginalize and really dissect what's going on there and the impact of those people living there. the why did you do this issue? now? i think this issue is really important now, especially as we look at people pushing towards federally legalizing cannabis. illinois is a state, it's the 1st state to include things like social equity as part of the process. and i do think what happens in, in illinois could showcase what this means for the rest of the nation. daniel, why was it important to include such social equity in the process and regulating this industry? i think it's something that should be included in every process. it's not a, it's not a side thing which some folks do. and i typically think, and i say this all the time, the legal act candidates in a lot of states and equity wasn't a part of the conversation. i don't think we should be starting any industry in this country or anywhere without having some real conversations about equity and

every decision that we make. is there another industry that, that that's a precedent for this? not that i know of it really does the like, you know, i feel like and every meeting people say we're flying to play, we're on the plane and build in the play at the same time. and the truth is, this is the 1st time ever to happen. and we are model as you said a minute ago, and one of the things i love about that is we can push other states to do more than we've even done, which we see happening. there's no state that you've seen come after illinois and not add equity in that because illinois made a point and we are teaching not just through the successes we've had, even some of the things are didn't always align to. we wanted teaching other states how to make this better, which is the goal. and then you know, you applied for a license for discipline 3, right, but you did not get it. what happened? i believe i said, i'm looking a voice message. danielle felicia, you applied for a license for dispensary, right? i did, i did not get it. no, what happened?

i did not. basically, i wasn't a veteran, i'm not a veteran and i didn't score perfectly. so this particular realm of the they decided to add a veteran cloth which added 5 point and ultimately low $5.00 for feed it $50.00. also equity, which ultimately eliminated. and you can you respond to the yeah, you know, i, i find it interesting whenever we're talking about the application where people pinpoint the thing they didn't get the points for and usually say it's a preference. but the truth is, i think it's a larger issue at hand. and the issue is we had an application process that was completed. so you, you can pick whichever point you, why was it the bonus points? was it the veteran point? was it the only my preference or the illinois point? it doesn't matter which point you pick because it's

a competitive process and the goal was to get the people with the highest score. if you didn't have the highest score, you didn't get the licenses. and so i think the larger question is, does it, is it important for us and should we in the future, do a competitive process with point? and should we have limited license? because to me we have a short amount of a small amount of licenses. and you make it based on how well you got in the points usually ends up being how much money did you have or, or, and yeah, listen, i talk about this all the time. we want to streamline application and think about ways to do an application process that doesn't require people to have to think that they need consultants and to hammer a yeah, i think you really make a good point. i think that it's important that we recognize that it is a competitive process. the people that currently run the businesses right now that are medical that have been there since 2013 when the medical marijuana law, half of the compassionate here at path were not perfect. they just had the money

and they had the wheel to go in and get those licenses and they be it. and i think that the problem is not necessarily perfection or not necessarily where, where the shortcomings were on the application. i think that the problem was, is that it was designed for not only for it to be perfect, but it was designed for people, the people that i could afford to put in several applications to flood out the people they really couldn't afford it. and of course, social equity not have that it's an applicant, can't afford it, you bring up a good point. it is a can very competitive process. and i think that most of the people. busy which in my personal theme, you know, as an individual, i did not or one, but i also put in a family application with a veteran on it. and we had a 3rd party vendor for application. and our scores were wrong, but there was so many different to bottles on this 3rd party k, p and g. and actually for the applications that even though there was a room for,

for a perfect for they, they really missed a lot of points. they really missed a lot of the mark and i think that ultimately yes, it's perfect. but who knew that you have to be social equity and has to be a veteran in order unless you were part of that the program to know that. ok, yes. we amy for a purpose for we're aiming for everything that's on the table. i ultimately think that it should be open license is open if you qualify, and if you can afford to apply, then you deserve a license. and i think that that'll be ultimately what would make this more equitable. in the documentary we have daniels predecessor, toy hutchinson. can we play this for a 2nd? was the most comprehensive approach to any one had ever taken? especially legislatively, it just had never been done before. i don't know how to solve for 90 years of criminal justice reform that needs to be undone and dismantled. and i definitely don't know how to do that all in one bill. so obliquely, how does that sound you? it's like, she says, she doesn't know how to undo all the problems around this in one bill as does that

seem fair or is it? is that just not good enough? you know what i think i think it's both an i think that she's right. legal handling, she can't or her, her colleagues cannot. oh, you're right of them are here. the whole white supremacy in one and one bill, however, and the people we, we elect public officials, we elect people when government are under the premise of hope and trust. and so we trust that that our elected officials and the politicians that we put in place the passes bill actually read it and actually understood the ramifications of what will happen. and although we can't put race and their competitor federal are of occasions against that, we can put them safeguards in place to make sure that the people that are incentive to benefit from this do. and i don't think enough by garth are in place to actually make sure that the people that should have been fashion awarded the licenses are actually awarded. i was just making sure i'm i think i think you have to think about though what the goal was. if the goal was to add as defined in the statue,

it was to make social equity. someone who was formally incarcerated, had a family member, was, or from a d i a that's who won these licenses. on the agricultural side we have given now 40 craft grow, 33 user so far, almost over 50 transporters. you are seeing that those people in the agricultural side were in fact 100 percent social equity. so what you'll see in the news is nobody got a license number one that is not true. agricultural folks have received their licenses. you'll also see that people say nobody of color got a license. 67 percent of the people who received the licenses on the agricultural side are people of color. and over 40 percent of them were black. so to say that it didn't work to say people didn't realize it is just untrue. do i agree with felicia? we can keep going further and keep pushing it. keep changing the legislation.

absolutely. if you look at the dispensary numbers which you just had up there even higher. so right now the industry that was medical them with don't space was 100 percent white. now with those licenses that we have given out to craft growers, users and transporters, you have now seen the industry go from a 100 percent white and male to 34 percent way. which means right of the numbers on how many of those are. yeah, i have a question, i'm sorry, militia, i hope you don't mind me jumping it because the numbers that you're saying, right, i believe are true. but i think what's really important to kind of put in context right, is currently right now today there are no majority black own dispensaries in the state of illinois period. right. and we have the numbers that bear that out. when we tried to do, somebody can ask you a quick question, why do you think that's more important? people often say that, i mean, i think it's important when we're talking about issues, right? like if one of the concerns which i heard and doing this piece is issue around race

in equity, right? you're saying you want to target people who are disproportionately disenfranchised by the war on drugs. what we know for a fact is that is overwhelmingly black and brown. communities, but we are unwilling to use race in the legislation because then it might not hold up in the federal courts is where i'm understanding, but now you're still not seeing those people own. the majority share of the business is what we are. we're definitely and that not the question considers us success. i think it's about because i'm not getting people are getting people are getting licenses and they're straumy and there's no written one. once again, there's no faith guard in place to say that this person that actually name is on the application, is actually going to control it 3 years from now. well, if we fight proposal equity and we put this phenomenon out there about social equity without the actual safeguards to say you cancel your life of the 81 or if you do fail. because that was brought up in our documentary of, well, if you do fail, then there are ram parameters in

a place where any person at all is this also equity license must hire within the community, make sure that they are doing business with lack of honor. they must make sure that the, you know, they're the, the employees not only are employee what they are, a managerial, make sure that they are, they are having shelf space for black product beaver parameters and making sure that they're, they're up here. and so the community engagement plan to leave communities, these, these parameters need to be in place that make sure that even if they're fold, that their feel social equity, interest them all, and back and laugh at me. if i are, you brought up a point that, that it is covered in the documentary and i want to show a clip from that right now. i think if a social equity applicant sells, i don't think anything's wrong with that. because the alternative is taking a very large financial risk,

you have to be in maneuver and navigate all the intricacies of owning a business that is not federally legal. there only so many places that will allow you to sell whole communities. don't want you there. oh, landlord, don't want you there. have you been struggling your whole life in somebody was willing to give you 3000000 dollars, and you don't want to take the risk and you just, you want to live comfortably. i understand. so militia, britney saying, and she actually does have a license that if she wants to sell it, she should be able to sell it. why not? and yeah, it's her life is ultimately, but thought process behind this opportunity is creating generational well. and it's a $3000000.00 to buy for her and her family, and that's what she needs to do. that's her decision. i don't, my only hope is that the people that have the opportunities that have been granted what the licenses actually make sure the social equity is that the home of their decision. and so i feel like bell parameters needs to be in place that make any owner of these licenses. and here to certain things that make sure that they're

helping the community that these like with the benefit. so i to be covered there. no, i just wanna get this really clear. is it a goal of the state of illinois that there are black own dispensers? there we want there to be dispense resolved by a diverse group of people and absolutely want some of those to be black. in the numbers you put show that the lottery we just did produced over 41 percent of the lottery winners were indeed black. and so these, the losses that are holding up those people getting life is, is i have no control over. but the process that was put in place with the definition of equity as it is, it create aided and gave an opportunity for 40 craft or is $33.00 users. 45 transporter's name, a lottery full of dispensary winners, who almost half are black. so to say i have been trying to make,

or the audience be clear about how do they know the majority of all that you're talking about? because i know that they're not currently in business just from the audience. no, so absolutely. i said they're stuck in litigation and while they're stuck in litigation, i have absolutely no control. i do want to make a point that i brought up to police a lot. and that's that what you see in this industry also, which is not common is 100 percent black on businesses. so on the aggregate, true side, we see 12 of the businesses being 100 percent own. and we all know they're not a lot of industries where you see that number of people who are 100 percent like we heard. although our b transporters that's not true. the majority of the 100 percent where own are actually on the crap ro side. and so i will say this, me, they, we are, they have, we have not seen anybody start creating crap grow. obviously it takes years to kind of get started. but we know that there are a number of craft growers who are actually finding locations,

purchasing buildings and moving forward. and you also know that like with the point already taken off and now we're building it while it's in the air. um, we don't really even know on, on a broad basis who this industry is attracting to work. and that's been studied by a professor at the university of illinois named justin. leave any sent us this video comment to overcome in equity in any quality what the candidates industry needs 1st and foremost is better data. i know a few others. illinois has been working with state regulators on a broad data driven view of equity. on the downside, we know that employees in general and ownership in particular is less racially diverse than it should be. but we're seeing her doing things to 16 employees in illinois. cannabis industry identifies as l g, b t q, which is several times the national average. and knowing the industry attracts people who are often marginalized in our society and better understanding what improves they're working conditions can help make this an industry that's truly for

one minute to his point. is this bigger than a race issue? you're asking me right, josh. i am asking you yes. okay, i'm just making sure i heard correctly. i mean, i think we cannot talk about cannabis in the u. s. without talking about race, because i don't know that there are any stories that are based out of the us that are also steeped in race. but that also means that they're also steeped in class, they're steeped in region which all affect access. and i think he is correct when he says we would need the data behind this. and that's part of why this illinois story is so important. and the way they've decided to go about this to be clear, their initial offering of licenses did not include social equity. there was blow back from that which allowed a 2nd set of licenses to be put up, which is how we get the social equity and getting those points, which i think is really important. but what happens at illinois? true, i already in california, nebraska, all have these patchwork of was, is,

you know, there's not going to be a federal standard for what we have in the nation. and so that could provide all kinds of issues in terms of who gets access and who gets licenses in terms of race and class. i'm even looking at things like gender, which i think would be really important part of this issue. and so that's why this conversation around illinois is so important. it also the conversation around the fact that it is still federally illegal to own distribute, smoke cannabis. and so my always, you know, can something be legal on the state level if it's illegal federally. yeah, i'm glad to explain that so much of our international audience is probably confused about this issue, that federally, that you us, it is still illegal, but states have made it legal and kind of a patchwork of solutions that are come fort daniel, it seemed like you were disagreeing with something there. can you jumping to explain what you the point you're going to make? i just want to some clarity around the idea that we put out a licenses that weren't equity focused. and then the 2nd time we did. but i think

that you were referring to the medical survey medical r. yeah, no. okay. i just wanted, i want to find you some voices from. are you to body? it's here. this is from air is one. 06. what? even the, the license can't they just make it legal to grow and sell for everyone. and randi peyton says better is do not necessarily mean social equity though. and according to illinois definition of social equity veterans are not included in that definition. what so a minute, can you touch on this? cuz what, what does it mean? it is actually legal. right? i mean, i'd, this is the question that i have, and it's part of the reason i wanted to do the documentary, you know, i think, of course, the federal government isn't criminalizing right now. these operations at the state of illinois says is legal, but it could if it chose to. i want to highlight that in its 1st year of legalized recreational marijuana in the state of illinois,

they arrested 3 times as many black people for possession than any other race. so we're still seeing this level of an equity. a discrepancy that we're seeing even before this move to decriminalize and legalize, which are 2 separate things that's not paid. i mean, the same thing, which i think is really poor for an international audience where the isn't familiar with the us legal system. why didn't it wire their rusting so many white people for something that seems to be legal there? so there are still possession. if you read the statute, there were possession limits put in the statute. so people can still be arrested for possession. if they, you know, go beyond the legal amount, so things are legalized, but it's not legalized completely. and that's something that we should continue to talk about federally as federal legalization happens. it, i don't know that we need to continue to put limitations on possession as we move forward, especially as we move in the federal government considering to legalize so it's

just something to think about as of now it based on that you, that would be illegal to have a certain level or possession amount and that's why you could be right. and you have eleanor done enough. have a done enough to insure social equity in the searcher. i think we have like every day we have further we can go, i do think people mischaracterized. i don't know why people are obsessed with the dispensary licenses and that's all they talk about. but i do think there are other parts that illinois has done really well that people never discuss. we are the only state taking tax money and giving it to communities and investing in communities with the tax. but we put 45 percent of that tax towards our 3, which is our grant fund for to support violence prevention, reentry, and work in community that went directly into the hands of community members. we critique and i think that's about it, the bailable a we're, we're debating whether the right community groups got it. but i think sometimes in

illinois we're blessed with the problem of critiquing something that exist here when there's no other state doing. and then every state they came after it went and added investment into community and even increase the number of new york came in. it was 65 percent. that's what an illinois did. and that's what our success, being able to put the money in the community and model to other people that that's something that should be done. and the other states, like colorado in washington the started, well before us, are now calling us to say, we need to figure out how to invest in our communities with this tax. but to me, i think that's what i think your point out as a matter of what is the best, but for everyone, what does the best equal? does it mean a small win or does it mean actually accomplish in the goal of making sure that i'm look outside and i live and you know, we looked at my, my home 349. thank you. not look in the south side on the west side of chicago, and i don't see the accomplishments that kind of money has done,

and it's been legalized with 2013. and so i think that we need to really make sure that one, the people that deserve it are actually getting it. do we have when i give kudos? first of all for you? because i feel like you actually do care. i believe i feel like you're doing your best. we're down to our last minute here in monument. tell us the name of the documentary and where our viewers can find it. yes, you can find this documentary on who gets to open a we dispensary on a j pluses youtube channel on facebook, instagram and twitter. you can follow me at i, i rights and i will happily send you the link. that's great. i want to thank all 3 of our guests for being here today and sharing this. and i got encourage you to jump on youtube and watch this documentary. it is, um, it's just an excellent discussion of what is an incredibly complex issue here in the u. s. but will only grow going forward as each states trying to figure out their own way forward in this. thanks for joining us on the stream. and we'll see

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