Elizabeth Warren And Jonathan Van Ness: Prevent Corporations Like Amazon, Booze And Tobacco From Taking Over Cannabis Industry

Author: Maureen Meehan | July 14, 2024 06:48pm

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) delivered a compelling call for the careful legalization of cannabis at a weekend event sponsored by the Parabola Center, a nonpartisan think tank dedicated to equity in cannabis advocacy. TV personality Jonathan Van Ness of the Netflix series “Queer Eye” was also in attendance.

The two-day gathering featured a series of discussions and an "anti-monopoly cannabis crash course."

"Legalizing marijuana is about more than just allowing recreational use or the money that can be made from this new market, or even about the potential medicinal benefits," Warren said via a prerecorded video. "It's about undoing a century of racist policy that disproportionately targeted Black and Latino communities."

When Big Business Steps In, Who’s Left Standing?

The senator reiterated her prevoius warnings about large corporations, such as giants like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Altria (NYSE: MO) (aka Philip Morris), dominating the space to the detriment of smaller, community-focused cannabis companies, reported Marijuana Moment.

Read Also: Elizabeth Warren Pushes For Cannabis Laws That Keep Amazon, Big Tobacco & Alcohol From Dominating The Industry

Shaleen Title, founder and director of the Parabola Center, praised Warren's longstanding commitment to challenging corporate dominance.

"She knows a thing or two about how hard it is to reign in big monopolistic corporations once they've consolidated and metastasized," she told the outlet. "But she's right that with cannabis, we have a chance to prevent that before it happens—to focus on fairness and justice instead. That's what our crash course and leadership training is all about."

Van Ness: Alcohol And Tobacco Giants Are Waiting In The Wings

Van Ness, of “Queer Eye,” who also spoke via video, said that the cannabis industry was at a crucial crossroads.

"While we have made so much progress, we have so much further to go. And now the cannabis industry really finds itself at such a pivotal place. We have alcohol [and] tobacco that are seeking to make this industry even more corporatized and exploitative,” he said. “That really doesn't help small businesses and doesn't help individuals. We have an opportunity here with marijuana to help heal so much injustice and help people get ahead, honey."

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