Too many white Canadians make money in the weed industry and they need to start hiring minorities, according to a Thursday article from VICE News.
Medical marijuana has been legal in Canada since 2001 and since then, 45 federally licensed cannabis producers have sprung up in the country. However, almost all of them are run by white males, and the industry “perpetuates racial inequality” by not hiring people with criminal drug records, according to VICE.
Canadian law requires that all CEOs and top management be thoroughly vetted by law enforcement in order to become a marijuana producer and, once approved, most companies require their employees to have clean records. While VICE notes that statistics supporting its theory are “scant,” it argues that drug laws are disproportionately enforced on minorities, and they can’t get jobs in the cannabis industry as a result.
With the legalization of recreational pot use expected in the next year, a blanket pardon on cannabis offenses or a refusal on the part of companies to consider past pot offenses when hiring would grant minorities acceptable representation and protect them from the effects of “racist laws,” VICE says.
Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau disagrees. People convicted of pot-related offenses were still breaking the law, he claims, and they should not be “rewarded” with a space in the legal cannabis industry.
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