[A Zoom screen with the three panelists and BTW Peer Educator Danielle Wright.]
Danielle Wright: Input. So we have another question from the Q&A. Lemme pull it up. Of course I just exited out of it. So it's on policy, and it's asking, "Cambridge is giving preferential business licenses "to minority owned shops "for the two years since legalization, "what are your thoughts on this policy? "Does it make access to cannabis and the business market more equitable?" And in conjunction with that, "is it safer to use cannabis that you purchase at a legal store?"
[Danielle Wright leaves the Zoom screen.]
Will Jones III: In terms of the equity in the industry, It's definitely, there are many people with good intentions that are working on this. I, you know that want to see, you know, entrepreneurs of color have kind of a first move in the industry. Unfortunately, we still live in a country that is rife with systemic discrimination. And so what we've seen time and time again, I don't know if I have this old, see if I can throw that behind me, is that these programs have been gamed by big corporate interests that really circumnavigate what is what is put in place with an intention to give entrepreneurs of color kind of a a first an opportunity to be first in line. And so most States, there's a general when you're looking at what's happening in state, after state, we see that these good intentions have been circumnavigated in, in many instances, where things that were intended. Wrong background, let me see if I can find the right one. But where these things that are intended for entrepreneurs of color are not being upheld. And so I think, again, it's a very lucrative industry, there's some people that are looking to make billions of dollars off of this. We know it happens with big money. We know how these things work again and particularly towards people of color, so. Good idea. It hasn't really gained a lot of traction in terms of statistics yet, when we look at what's happening in communities of color. So again, good intentions, it hasn't gained traction in terms of percentages of ownership from people of color as of yet.
Tom Fontana: Yeah, there might've been a second question, "is it safer to use something from the store than the street?" It's actually an interesting question, this idea that you're probably better off in a store. They're going to have labels that are pretty accurate without what you can say, right? to the extent that they're accurate. Hopefully they're more accurate that people in stores care, you know? We're not thinking that people in stores are trying to mis-sell you things, that people care about the community of weed smokers and putting out a good product. They have a brand, you know? so you can know potentially a little bit more from a store. And hopefully, another reason why federal regulations to allow some of this testing to be happening. But ironically, you're probably buying "better shit" in the store. You're buying a higher potency things. And what we just know, even from the Canadian guidelines, is that you're better off using lower potency in terms of long-term safety. So you might be able to get a more consistent product in a store. It's not necessarily a safer product if it's a higher potency product. But, so yeah, just the two sides of that with the store.