Md. Legislators Consider Bills That Would Increase Medical Marijuana Business Owner Diversity

[newsBot]

This just in from the somd.com Headline News:

Title: Md. Legislators Consider Bills That Would Increase Medical Marijuana Business Owner Diversity

Date: 03-08-2017 01:45 PM

Summary: ANNAPOLIS (March 08, 2017)—After Carey Tilghman's 6-year-old daughter, Paisley, suffered from a stroke, doctors drafted a plan to use a round of Botox injections and muscle relaxers to treat her condition. Searching for an alternative for her daughter, Tilghman found that a transdermal patch filled with cannabis, which has been linked to…

Click here for the full story...

 

[stgislander]

So there must have been a problem with the selection process.

 

[GURPS]

So there must have been a problem with the selection process.

to many white people

 

[Larry Gude]

If you have time to stop making trite assumptions, or any interest in doing so, from the article;

While the commission has listed the rankings of each company, it has not released the scores and the criteria for which they were ranked, said Darrell Carrington, policy director for the medical cannabis division of Greenwill Consulting, a government relations firm.

"We're all flying blind right now because the commission refuses to release the scores," Carrington said. "The rankings are meaningless if we don't have the scores. How do we know how to move forward properly and know if we're really making corrections to increase diversity and the like, if we don't know the difference between (the companies) was 5, 10, or 30 (points)."

 

[This_person]

If you have time to stop making trite assumptions, or any interest in doing so, from the article;

So, we need diversity because diversity is good, right?

That means that using nothing but race of the owner, I can determine the value to society of a company? Is that the idea here? How do we "score" diversity?

When I look for a contractor, I don't really care what color, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, etc., the person or company's owner is. Why would anyone do that?

 

[Larry Gude]

So, we need diversity because diversity is good, right?

That means that using nothing but race of the owner, I can determine the value to society of a company? Is that the idea here? How do we "score" diversity?

When I look for a contractor, I don't really care what color, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, etc., the person or company's owner is. Why would anyone do that?

By that statement I know you didn't read the link. So, there's that.

 

[Clem72]

When I look for a contractor, I don't really care what color, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, etc., the person or company's owner is. Why would anyone do that?

When I contracted for a topless house cleaning service I definitely should have.

 

[This_person]

By that statement I know you didn't read the link. So, there's that.

Really?

The commission was tasked with ensuring racial and geographical diversity in their selection process, and on Dec. 9. it announced pre-approvals for 102 businesses to sell medical cannabis, which broke down into 15 growers, 15 processors, and 72 dispensaries.

However, preference for minority business owners may violate the Constitution, said Cheryl A. Brown Whitfield, principal counsel of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

The state would need to conduct a study to evaluate whether discrimination does exist in the medical cannabis industry before it could take race-conscious measures in awarding licenses, said Zenita Hurley, the attorney general's director of legislative affairs and civil rights. This study could take up to two years.

The commission used Towson University's Regional Economic Studies Institute to rank the company applicants. RESI used a double-blind system that did not take into account the race of owners, which resulted in the commission failing to award licenses that ensure adequate minority representation, said Delegate Cheryl Glenn, D-Baltimore.

It seems they're pretty concerned that the right racial mix is involved. What did I miss?

 

[Hijinx]

Black Privilege.

 

[black dog]

When I contracted for a topless house cleaning service I definitely should have.

How is that shaking out for you?

 

[Larry Gude]

What did I miss?

This;

Moreover, after complaints surfaced that the commission didn't fairly include representation in areas of southeastern Maryland, the commission revised their original unanimous decision on the 15 companies slated to receive growing licenses by bumping two higher-scoring applicants and replacing them with two lower-scoring applicants in the underrepresented areas.

GTI, one of the companies originally awarded a coveted pre-approval license, had already picked out a site in Washington County and began developing a plan to produce medical cannabis when they were replaced, said Delegate Brett Wilson, R-Washington. The company has since joined the other business bumped from the list, Maryland Cultivation and Processing LLC, in suing the commission.

The commission has been operating without oversight or transparency, Glenn said. "They can't answer why they made the decisions they made."

 

[This_person]

This;

I saw that. The method they used was double-blind to take race out, they talked repeatedly about the race of the people who got licenses, the Black Caucus is the one involved in being concerned about it, oh, and yeah, location was an issue too.


That about sum it up?

 

[Larry Gude]

I saw that. The method they used was double-blind to take race out, they talked repeatedly about the race of the people who got licenses, the Black Caucus is the one involved in being concerned about it, oh, and yeah, location was an issue too.


That about sum it up?

Dude, I quoted the thing.

 

[Clem72]

I saw that. The method they used was double-blind to take race out, they talked repeatedly about the race of the people who got licenses, the Black Caucus is the one involved in being concerned about it, oh, and yeah, location was an issue too.

That about sum it up?

On the surface it does seem a bit off. If they decided to make meth completely legal, and 100 contracts went out in a "double-blind" random selection, and somehow all 100 of the new legal meth labs went to black owned businesses, you might think something was up.

 

[This_person]

Dude, I quoted the thing.

So did I. Wait, I'll quote more...

The state would need to conduct a study to evaluate whether discrimination does exist in the medical cannabis industry before it could take race-conscious measures in awarding licenses,

Note, not "race and geographically-conscious measures", just race-conscious measures.

More?

Maryland includes a black or African-American population of 30.5 percent, a white population of 59.6 percent, and 9.9 percent who identify as another minority, according to data collected by the U.S. Census as of 2015.

The majority of the companies selected for pre-approvals for growing and processing are led by white owners.

Of the 11 companies with pre-approved growing licenses that reported demographic data to the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, about 85 percent of of the owners are white, about 8 percent are black, and about 7 percent identify as another racial minority. The nine pre-approved processing companies that reported data showed similar numbers, with 73 percent white ownership, about 15 percent black ownership, and about 12 percent other minority ownership.

The companies selected have about 76 percent male ownership and 24 percent female ownership.

Four paragraphs on race and/or sex. Not a thing about geography.

More?

The bill would also give heavier consideration to businesses with majority black ownership.

Do they mean black ownership by county, or just black ownership? They don't mention geography in this case, either, so I'm guessing they don't care about areas, but about race.

More?

This new group would award new grower licenses in future years and would have a fund to provide minority- and women-owned medical cannabis businesses with loans.

#### you if you are a white male, or if you live where this is (for argument's sake) needed medically - you must be minority- or woman-owned, then we'll worry about geography later! When you don't get it in your area!




These are the bills they're suggesting. They're more worried about race and sex than location, but they're kind of noticing they screwed over some people by location, so they're using that, too.

 

[officeguy]

So there must have been a problem with the selection process.

Insider deals like the one that benefited Rep Morhaim.

 

[This_person]

On the surface it does seem a bit off. If they decided to make meth completely legal, and 100 contracts went out in a "double-blind" random selection, and somehow all 100 of the new legal meth labs went to black owned businesses, you might think something was up.

Maybe the people complaining don't know what "double-blind" means? That's what I would think is up.

 

[Larry Gude]

So They're more worried about race and sex than location, .

Please forgive my utter inability to convey a simple point; the commission is seen as having no oversight, not being transparent AND DID IN FACT take license away from two winners to GIVE to some other winners based on a preference; geographic diversity. And no one gets to see the scores so, it's all on faith.

Now, you can just totally pretend you don't see why that would lead other groups to question the thing or not. :shrug:

 

[Larry Gude]

Insider deals like the one that benefited Rep Morhaim.

I'm sure it's a total coincidence but every group that one has...friends.

 

[This_person]

Please forgive my utter inability to convey a simple point; the commission is seen as having no oversight, not being transparent AND DID IN FACT take license away from two winners to GIVE to some other winners based on a preference; geographic diversity. And no one gets to see the scores so, it's all on faith.

Now, you can just totally pretend you don't see why that would lead other groups to question the thing or not. :shrug:

You're forgiven. You suggested I didn't read the article because I saw that the laws being proposed were almost completely biased against white males, which is true, but you were trying to make a different point by saying that than that I was wrong (apparently).

So, we're both right. It appears the commission tried to make sure all areas were covered, and that pissed off GTI, and the solution to that based on the two bills proposed is to not give a flying #### about geography but only on race.

Or, in other words, we're both right about what is in the article, and are arguing different points.