John Klar: Vermont law loans money to blacks to sell weed

Vermont is pondering commercial marijuana legislation that would grant reduced licensing fees and a low-interest loan fund for “individuals who historically have been disproportionately impacted by cannabis prohibition.”

Initially funded with $500,000, the bill, S.25, includes no eligibility requirements such as business experience, residency, proof of prior conviction of a relevant offense, or a business plan. In the name of “creating equity,” the issue of race has been made paramount, creating new inequities, new resentments, potential fraud and waste, and bad law.

John Klar

S.25 is controversial enough in legalizing the “Devil’s lettuce” for widespread sale. The vague language defining qualification reflects the absence of any statistical demonstration that black Vermonters have been targeted by the legal system, or whether there are black Vermonters who wish to launch a weed business. Presumably the allusions to those who have been “disproportionately impacted” by prohibition refers to allegations that Nixon et al increased drug penalties to disenfranchise black voters. But marijuana prohibition long predated Nixon, was motivated by commercial interests, portrayed white youths smoking “reefers,” and harmed numerous caucasian lives — it was never “all about race.”

The dearth of evidence to support loaning money to BIPOC people for pot cultivation is reflected in vapid justifications from state lawmakers:

“There are some people who have been more impacted and probably less able to come up with the funds and the business plans and stuff because of the impact that the prohibition laws have had on them,” said Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations.

“Probably there are some people” is a hand-in-the-air of evidentiary nothingness, as is this blather from another senator:

“Many people, many white college students, for example, might get caught up in law enforcement, but have a very different experience when it comes to sentencing, or actual findings of guilt, than Black and brown Americans,” said Sen. Kesha Ram, D-Chittenden.

Vermonters deserve better when creating laws that have such huge impact. To the claim that people “might” have a “very different experience” of “actual findings of guilt” we should ask: do they?

Has Vermont’s Legislature become so “deer-in-the-race-card-headlights” frozen that it requires zero evidence to enact every race-flavored bill it encounters? One bill alleges prostitution was banned in Vermont for racist motives — will that become law without a shred of truth or fact?  Using vague generalizations and extrapolating anecdotal incidents into stereotypes may be a central tenet of social justice activists, but is it to be rubber-stamped so easily by uncritical legislators?

Vermont is welcoming refugees from foreign lands — many are black, and thus individuals who are part of a group who historically suffered disproportionately from prohibition: do they get pot-selling loans? Further, are “undocumented workers” permitted to apply? They get special drivers permit privileges, and we are told by Racial Equity Director Xusana Davis that Vermont agriculture is dependent on them: When someone refers to the dairy industry as the backbone of the state’s economy, she points out that it’s supported by a largely undocumented Latino workforce. And when a public official blithely suggested that perhaps black people should join the ranks of police instead of criticizing them — as Waterbury Selectboard member Chris Viens did last year — Davis suggested that law enforcement’s “para-militaristic slave-catching history” may be an impediment.

There’s another disconnected, vague historical grievance again — is there evidence that Vermont’s law enforcement officers have been chasing down runaway slaves in Vermont? (Perhaps subsidies for BIPOC police would be better received than for legalized drug dealing.)

Such tiresome opportunistic initiatives are finally attracting overdue critical assessment. Senate Minority Leader Randy Brock, R-Franklin, wisely and bravely stood up and voiced this concern:

“I’m very uncomfortable with a trend that I see in this bill, in which we appear to be making decisions based upon color and ethnicity, in terms of regulation and in terms of fees. We are a nation of individuals, not a nation of individuals who are in subgroups that should be treated differently based upon their color, or their gender, or their sexual orientation, or their ability or disability,” he said.

That contrasts sharply with indignant remarks from Mark Hughes, of the Racial Justice Alliance:

“And yes, our target is those folks who are American descendants of slaves and folks who are Black, Indigenous and other people of color. Why? Because that is what the system has historically disproportionately impacted,” he said.

These same actors have persistently marginalized Vermont’s police by abusing statistics to avoid examining whether black defendants are out-of-staters. It’s bad enough to label police racists and potentially expose Vermonters to more narcotics trafficking and gang activity. Now the social justice warriors claim nebulous historic inequities nationally mean that every new BIPOC arrival should receive Vermonters’ money to sell pot.

So much for Martin Luther King. Allocating money based on skin color is racism. Rewarding loans to newly-arrived blacks to sell drugs as “reparation” for the drug war is a whole new reefer madness.

John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield, and the former pastor of the First Congregational Church of Westfield. © Copyright True North Reports 2021. All rights reserved.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Jonathan Wilkins

10 thoughts on “John Klar: Vermont law loans money to blacks to sell weed

  1. No stereotypes, stigmatizing or racism heeeeeere…pathetic.
    Coercion, entrapment, or setup?
    Take your pick.
    Gov’t is NOT our friend.

  2. Hey why our great state of Vermont is At it why not set up in and giving guns to protect their drug businesses also Such a bunch of bull crap

  3. John, great topic.

    Now racism is a bit over used these days. But let me introduce you to two of the most racist representatives in our Government.

    Senator Kesha Ram
    Senator Jeanette White.

    Only a progressive could be so evil, corrupt, heartless and ….

    In our real estate business they have something called steering. There are serious crimes and penalties of which these two women are committing and anyone else who signs this bill or any like it.

    Jeanette White and Kesha Ram are steering minorities into the drug trade. They aren’t asking for plumbing licenses to be reduced. They aren’t asking for secondary education to be reduced in fees.

    No they are saying, hey…..your too stupid do anything else other than smoke dope and sell weed.

    HOW RACIST CAN YOU GET?

    If I suggested to a minority person, hey you wouldn’t want to live in this neighborhood…..I would lose my license, have huge fines possible jail time. Yet these women….are clearly steering minorities into the drug business. What’s next are we going to have pimps at high school job fairs? Oh wait…look here..

    http://www.truenorthreports.com/video-is-prostitution-really-a-victimless-crime

    See what the progressives are all about! You don’t have to fight any progressive. You only have to expose them for what they are trying to do. Don’t let them try and reframe the argument like these two intellectual giants, are trying to do by their racist justifications of their bills.

    Here is yet another example. A slow pitch across home plate. All the VTGOP has to do is call out the racist, sexist intentionally evil things that are being proposed in our legislature by progressives.

    All of this, if you take the time to view the above linked article exposes that Vermont is entirely being manipulated by outside lobbyists ……PIMPS AND DRUG DEALERS…….for their benefit.

    And our progressives are all too complicit to go along. There is true evil in Montpelier. All that needs to be done is expose all the corruption, inside dealings and vapid arguments for what they truly are.

    • Combine this with our Governor asking for illegal aliens for our state and drivers licenses for people not allowed in our country AND no permit process, no ACT 250 permit required for dealing drugs across our state, in our schools (because we won’t have any police in our schools to protect our children) and what could possibly go wrong?

      Lord, please help us we know not what we are doing.

      There are others that do know perfectly well what they are doing. These people, those of the progressive ilt, of those whom worship Alinsky, Marx and study from the their bible of Subversion called Rules for Radicals, need to be exposed for whom they serve and their true intents.

      One doesn’t need to fight, only shine a light upon their actions and deeds, that pretty much shows their true heart and intent.

    • Bernie Sanders was already promoting this in the 2020 primaries, that black Americans could start “a small business” by selling weed and that the government would help them do it. In other words, “Hey, you’re black, so your only career choice should be drug dealer.” That’s the most racist crap I’ve ever heard.

  4. Right. We’re now going to give money to blacks who have been convicted of drug offenses to open pot selling businesses in Vermont. This is beyond nuts. Just who we want opening drug businesses here; those with criminal records who have routinely disobeyed the laws on the books! Maybe we could also give grants to convicted pedophiles to open nursery schools? What could possibly go wrong?

    And where does this end? Our tax money is being used to give special grants to black businesses. Through affirmative action blacks get into colleges with lower test scores and grades. Through affirmative action blacks have hiring preferences. There’s talk of providing money just to blacks to buy homes in Vermont. Now we’re going to be subsidizing criminals to open drug businesses in our cities and towns because they’re black.

  5. “There are some people (?) who have been more impacted and probably less able to come up with the funds and the business plans and stuff because of the impact that the prohibition laws have had on them,” said Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations.

    This doesn’t pass the smell test.

    Essentially, Senator White is really saying that “…some people who were more impacted…” were actually a group of people who were arrested more often for breaking the “…prohibition (against illegal drugs) laws…” and that the State of Vermont should therefore give them money (collected taxes) to start legally selling drugs, even though they have no business plan, no business acumen, no business ‘stuff’ and no idea of how to start a business. Her remarks and rationale are more than ‘blather.’ This Senator has been elected to make laws that impact our lives. Irrational and Irresponsible remarks, deeds, and proposed legislation by these clueless idiots should scare the living hell out of us…

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