Residents Of African-American Missouri Neighborhood May Miss Out On Cannabis Opportunity, Here's Why

Despite passing a historic marijuana legalization measure in Missouri last fall, some local business owners in North St. Louis may still miss out on the economic opportunity due to negative repercussions of the War on Drugs, reported Missouri Independent.

Missouri is scheduled to hand out 48 microbusiness licenses this fall under Amendment 3, which expanded the existing medical cannabis program in Missouri in 2022 by allowing licensees who already sold cannabis statewide to serve both medical and non-medical purchasers. Moreover, with the passage of the historic legislation last fall, Missouri became the first state where voters initiated the automatic expungement of prior marijuana convictions.

The constitutional amendment establishing a "microbusiness license" program statewide sought to hand out cannabis licenses to those living in communities negatively affected by marijuana criminalization.

Those interested can file applications between July 27 and Aug. 10 via the Department of Health and Senior Services website.

The agency, which regulates the cannabis program statewide, has recently unveiled a list of ZIP codes it will accept as having a consistent record of high levels of imprisonment for cannabis-related offenses.

However, none of them are situated in North St. Louis, which is where the area's largest African-American population is located.

Other ZIP codes in the St.Louis area cover downtown Clayton and St. Charles, while the remaining are all the state's rural areas.

Adolphus Pruitt, the president of St. Louis City NAACP in Missouri, was "shocked" by the list, claiming it's "impossible" that residents of Clayton – home to one of the most affluent communities in the area – have been arrested more than residents of North St. Louis.

"Listen, not today, not if it's legal and not even when it was illegal, will you find a bunch of Black people smoking weed in the middle of Clayton," Pruitt said earlier.

To address criticism, DHSS issued an eligibility variance on June 6, according to which those looking to become business owners but do not live in one of the ZIP codes outlined could provide evidence of meeting criteria, such as a report conducted independently or a statement from a state or local authority.

Former Circuit attorney Dee Joyce-Hayes, who held the position of city prosecutor from 1993 to 2000, specified that going back 40 or 50 years would be necessary in order to witness the actual effects on the African-American community in St. Louis.

Why?

By the 1990s, the overcrowding of city jails of those convicted of minor marijuana crimes in the 1980s led to lesser chances of incarceration for people residing in cities than those in rural places.

"In out-state Missouri, I think they were still making a lot of Mickey-Mouse marijuana type of arrests and prosecutions, but we just weren't," Joyce-Hayes said. "So if you look at the statistics, that would seem to kind of make sense to me that the city's ZIP codes are not included."

Under current rules, DHSS only considers incarceration rates for the past 20 years.

Credit Cards For Cannabis Purchases

Meanwhile, even though marijuana has yet to be federally legalized, the Missouri Legislature took steps this year to enable credit card payments by passing a bill that eliminates the obstacle posed by banks and credit card companies, reported Missourinet.

Sen. Steven Roberts (D) of St. Louis declared that his bill would permit cannabis stores to deposit their funds in banks and other financial institutions without facing potential repercussions from federal authorities.

S.B. 63 is currently pending Gov. Mike Parson's approval to get enacted into law.

Photo: Courtesy of Rick Proctor on Unsplash