The day after Chicago aldermen voted to allow recreational marijuana sales in the city to start as planned next month, a Cook County Board proposal was introduced Thursday that would establish a commission to examine how the new industry will affect the region.
The 11-member County Cannabis Commission would be tasked with interrogating the legal, economic and social impact the new industry has on residents. That means the group would determine, among other things, how residents’ health outcomes are affected, how struggling communities benefit financially, who gets the industry jobs and how many tax dollars are actually being generated.
“For generations the war on drugs has devastated lives, families and communities,” County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. “We see the impact and the consequences of those misguided and racist policies from our criminal justice system to the delivery of our health care, to the economic and educational opportunities lacking for our most vulnerable.
“We want to make sure we are investing in these impacted communities by attracting businesses and giving people opportunities for employment,” she said. “We want to ensure there are real opportunities for social equity applicants to enter the market and build wealth for themselves and their communities.”
The cannabis group will be made up of seven elected County Board commissioners, and one representative each from the public health department, the justice advisory council, the bureau of finance and the bureau of economic development. The group will meet no more than twice a quarter and will investigate how the Cook County sheriff’s office, the public defender’s office, the state’s attorney’s office and other government agencies are being affected by the legalization.
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Preckwinkle was among the commissioners who sponsored the measure. It was one of three cannabis-related measures that came before the board on Thursday, its last meeting of the year.
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Another measure would impose a 3% sales tax on all marijuana sales in the county and another would establish zoning rules related to where dispensaries in unincorporated areas could set up.
The proposals were sent to different board committees and will be up for consideration in the new year.
“The cannabis law will create a new economic ecosystem,” said 3rd District Commissioner Bill Lowry, who co-sponsored the legislation. “We’re going to see an increase in job growth, we’re going to see wealth accumulation. While the work of the commission will be very far-reaching, we’re going to be committed … to developing strategies to spur investment and reinvestment in the disproportionately impacted areas of the county. That is true social equity.”
As the city and state have pressed toward legalizing recreational marijuana, it has revealed a deep divide along racial and class lines.
So far, the first set of licenses in Chicago have been issued to mainly white business owners.
For some, it seems, white Chicago is preparing for a marijuana utopia. The same concern has been raised for suburban parts of the county where dispensaries will be allowed to sell the drug.
Meanwhile, for African Americans and Latinos, who for years were stigmatized for using the drug and arrested at disproportionate rates, legalization looks like white businessmen getting rich off the very product that decimated their communities. As white businessmen prep for a business boon, minorities have been offered a route toward amnesty.
On Thursday, Preckwinkle said the commission will be put in place to ensure that the county “gets this right.”
“Putting my personal cannabis views aside, for years I’ve been a supporter of legalization,” she said. “We have had an appalling history in this country of disproportionately criminalizing black and brown people over the use and distribution of marijuana — putting millions of nonviolent offenders in jails and prisons across the country.”
In addition to the commission, the county could impose its own tax on marijuana sales — which also face taxes from the city and state.
“The state legislation … enables municipalities, cities, towns and villages to tax the product and the county as well — we will tax marijuana,” Preckwinkle said. “It remains to be seen how taxation will impact legalization.”
The county didn’t count on any revenue from marijuana sales in its 2020 budget, officials said, because it’s unclear how long it will take for recreational sales to get running and tax collection to start. But the county conservatively has estimated it will bring in less than $1 million next year.
In other business, the board renewed a one-year contract for an embattled vendor that has recently come under federal scrutiny. The county will pay $252,340 to Black Dog Foods LLC to provide dairy products to youths being housed at the Juvenile Detention Center. Black Dog is owned by Amit Gauri, who recently was named in an ongoing probe targeting a string of politicians — including state Sen. Martin Sandoval and Lyons Mayor Christopher Getty.
In addition, his company Black Dog Chicago LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid a legal fight with one of its former fuel suppliers over millions of dollars in allegedly unpaid bills, court records show. His contract has three, one-year renewal options.
Six of the commissioners voted present when the contract came up. Gauri has had a contract with the county since 2015.
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