10/24/2019
Ward 9 Alderperson Kim Bray is having a hard time accepting the impending cannabis legalization. Under a veneer of caution, Bray has zealously fought against the acceptance of cannabis as a relatively harmless alternative to alcohol and harder drugs. At one point, during a council session, she went full reefer madness stating there was a strong correlation between smoking cannabis as a teen and various mental ailments like schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression.1
Ward 6 Alderperson Jen Carrillo has worked tirelessly to create a diverse, equitable, & honest dialogue about the inevitable legalization of cannabis. In September, she advocated for the creation of a cannabis taskforce made up of a diverse group of Bloomington residents. The taskforce’s goal was to examine the various avenues available to Bloomington City Council when it comes to selling cannabis legally.
Despite opposition from some Aldermembers, the task force was approved and given a three week deadline to report back. Ten members were selected for the taskforce: “De Urban, owner of Alley Kats Arts & Antiques; Jan Lancaster, owner of the Bistro and member of the Bloomington Public Safety and Community Relations Board; Assistant Police Chief Greg Scott and Sgt. Aaron Veerman; Olivia Butts, an Illinois State University associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and Recreation and member of the Black Lives Matter movement; local NAACP chapter President Linda Foster; addiction specialist Deb Carter; John Walsh, the McLean County Chamber of Commerce’s manager of government and public affairs; and alderwomen Julie Emig of Ward 4 and Jen Carrillo.”
From the beginning, Bray has done everything in her power to prevent the creation of a cannabis taskforce. One of her worries is that such a taskforce wouldn’t support her reticence towards cannabis legalization.
But, the consensus is overwhelmingly against her position. An informal poll created by Carrillo suggested as many as 95% of Bloomington residents support the legalization and sale of cannabis. Mayor Renner mentioned that three years ago Illinois Wesleyan performed a systematic stratified poll in the Bloomington area and found that 53% of local residents supported legalization while only 37% opposed.
The vote from the cannabis task force reflects this divide. The cannabis task force voted 7-3 in favor of permitting the sale of cannabis in Bloomington (both police officers and local capitalist De Urban voted against). Bray seems to think there are far more prohibitionist hiding from pollsters than what is reflected in the public. Her idea of arriving at a consensus on this issue is to buck democracy and pack the debate with an equal amount of prohibitionist voices as anti-prohibition voices. (We see the same phenomena in climate change deniers. Despite overwhelming scientific consensus on the subject of global warming, media reports on global warming give equal time to both sides implying an equivocation in support for each side.)
The biggest problem with Bray’s obstructive prohibitionism is it offers no alternative to legalizing cannabis. Does she think the war on drugs is a better option? Is the unregulated black market preferable to a regulated legal one?
Carrillo vigorously defended the integrity of the taskforce research provided and blew the appropriate amount of shade on alderperson Bray. “There is a type of expertise brought by these community members. Linda Foster, as head of the NAACP, and a person who has worked alongside communities of color to see the way they’ve been devastated by the war on drugs brings expertise to the table. Olivia Butts, a member of Black Lives Matter, who has also bailed people out of our own jail sometimes for cannabis related offenses, brings expertise to the table… I do not want to see that expertise dismissed.”
“It’s 2019, and I think the people are with us… For all the conversations we’ve had of youth [use of cannabis], we have not had enough conversations about what the effect of the war on drugs has been on countless youth of color. Yes, I’m concerned about [lower] IQ’s [amongst youth who smoke cannabis], but I’m also concerned about what has happened to countless and countless families who have had a member because they were using a substance that is very minimally harmful.”
“We can’t turn a blind eye to the carceral state; and this is an opportunity for reparations; this is an opportunity to be on the right side of history; to acknowledge a messed up past, to acknowledge the entire reason cannabis is an illicit substance is rooted in racism, is rooted in the association of this substance with Mexicans, to Mexican immigrants.”
In a mere three weeks, the cannabis taskforce performed due diligence on this subject and presented City Council with an extensive report critically analyzing multiple avenues available. While they ultimately voted to approve sales, the task force included the pros and cons if the council opted to ban sales, both temporarily and permanently. You can read the full report here.
City Council will review this information & could vote to approve sales as early as next week. Hopefully, the council will vote to permit sales and extend the cannabis taskforce for the purpose of zoning, taxation, and what the tax revenue should go towards.
- Cannabis task force member Deb Carter, who is an addiction specialist, corrected the implication of Bray by stating, “Cannabis use is [a form of] self-medicating, and it does correlate with co-occuring disorders such as depression and other mental health disorders.” For his part, Mayor Teri Renner pointed out there was no causation between cannabis use in teens and the development of mental health disorders.
