Commissioner Monica Bharel, MD, MPH Department of Public Health

250 Washington Street Boston, Massachusetts

Adler ElaicinBaystate Holistic, Inc. 135 Cedar St Boston MA, 02119

Good Morning Commissioner Bharel, Members of the Medical Use of Marijuana Program. My name is Adler Elaicin and I am resident of the city of Boston with a home in the Highland Park- Fort Hill neighborhood of Boston, MA. I would like to thank you all for the opportunity to testify today and would like to personally thank everyone for the willingness to bring this issue of diversity to the attention of the committee as you consider how to ensure the economic opportunity provided by the cannabis industry is equitably distributed to all people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I come before you all to share the story of Baystate Holistic, the only certified minority business enterprise to apply for an RMD during the initial medical licensing process conducted by the Commonwealth, as it is instructive to how qualified businesses run by people of color can be shut out of this industry, unless elected officials take an active role in ensuring diversity and inclusion.

After Massachusetts passed its medical cannabis law in 2012, I saw an opportunity to bring a much needed service to the citizens of Massachusetts and do it in a culturally competent and community centered way. In order to accomplish this, I reached out to my colleague Dr. Malik Burnett, who at the time was a practicing general surgeon at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, MA, and Corey Barnette, who owns and operates District Growers and Metropolitan Wellness Center, two of the top 100 cannabis businesses in the country, down in Washington DC; and the only minority owned medical cannabis operations on the east coast at the time of the initial Massachusetts application process. Together we formed non-profit entity Baystate Holistic. Our mission was to provide education and access to medical cannabis along with advocacy around the need for greater drug policy reform here in the Commonwealth. In preparation for the application process, we secured a minority business enterprise certification and became a member of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council. Established research relationships with UMass Medical Center to explore clinical outcomes for medical cannabis use. Partnered with a community cultural center to build a work plan to hire men of color to work in our operations. We secured $5 million dollars in financing to run our operations, more than double the required amount of funding to apply for a license, and obtained a letter from the city of Worcester supporting our operations. In spite of all of our outstanding qualifications and work in the community, we found ourselves on the outside of program unable to participate.

In an effort to gain a better understanding of how we were deemed not qualified to participate, we engaged the Massachusetts Department of Health who was unable to provide a valid explanation for why we were not granted a provisional license. Additionally, we made it a point to advocate for the need for diversity in the Massachusetts medical cannabis program by working to raise this issue with the Boston NAACP, the Massachusetts Legislative Black Caucus, and even going so far as to send a letter to then Governor Deval Patrick, reminding him of his Executive Order 526, which stated specifically that each agency in discharging its duties, shall consider the likely effects that its decisions, programs, services, and activities will have on achieving non-discrimination, diversity, and equal opportunity. (Exhibit A) Ultimately our story was documented in the Boston Globe, (Exhibit B) for the sake of posterity, but we have come to share it with you all today to demonstrate just how high the barriers of entry are in the cannabis space for even the most well-resourced companies of color. Currently, people of color are still woefully underrepresented in the Massachusetts medical cannabis program, and the state is just a microcosm of a broader problem in the cannabis industry. Currently, across the country only 1% of all cannabis companies are owned by people of color, this statistic is particularly startling given that historically 70-80% of the arrests for marijuana possession come from the same population. As a company with experience operating in this space as far back as 2008, we have seen time and time again how the state procurement process effectively shuts minority operators out of the industry. It is only when a locally elected officials like you, take an active role in ensuring diversity in the business environment that minority owned firms get a fair opportunity. One need look no further than cities like Oakland, Berkley, and the District of Columbia (Exhibit C) for examples of how locally elected officials played an active role in ensuring diversity and inclusion in this space. As Massachusetts embarks on taxing and regulating cannabis, the Commonwealth again finds itself in a position to gain significant revenue. The Department of Public Health can play a proactive role in ensuring that the revenues generated from the cannabis industry are equitably distributed across all communities and that ownership and employment opportunities within the industry reflect the robust diversity of the state.

On behalf of myself and our team at Baystate Holistic, I would like to conclude by thanking you again for the opportunity to testify and I have included some supplemental material with my testimony which highlights the diversity which is brought about when local officials take an active role in the licensing processes and the benefits this diversity has for the overall population (Exhibit D). I look forward to answering any questions you might have to the best of my ability and look forward to continuing to work with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to ensure diversity is realized in this space.

Adler Elaicin Vice PresidentBaystate Holistic, Inc.

Exhibit A: Letter to Governor Deval Patrick regarding diversity in Massachusetts Medical Cannabis Program

June 19, 2014

Massachusetts State HouseOffice of the GovernorRoom 105Boston, MA 02133

RE: Ensuring Diversity in the Medical Use of Marijuana Program

Dear Governor Patrick,

We are writing to inform you of our experience participating in the Department of Public Health Medical Use of Marijuana Program and the importance of ensuring a demographically diverse representation of business within the emerging medical cannabis marketplace.

Our company Bay State Holistic, Inc. (BSH) is a certified minority business enterprise (MBE), based in Worcester; created for the expressed purpose of providing holistic solutions for the care of patients within the Commonwealth, for whom traditional medical therapy has proven to be suboptimal. Since our incorporation as a non-profit entity in August 2013, we have actively participated in the DPH licensing process in order to secure license to operate as a Registered Marijuana Dispensary (RMD). Throughout this process, we have been intentional in convening a group exemplary individuals who not only provide the expertise and sophistication needed to operate a successful cannabis company, but reflect a level of diversity that is troublingly lacking in the marketplace. Moreover, in forming our cannabis organization we have created an entity that embodies the principles outlined by the DPH at the outset of this process namely; establishing strong local support, creating sophisticated operating procedures, and providing opportunities for diversity and inclusion.

Throughout the licensing process, the DPH stressed the importance of local support in the formation of these businesses. As a certified MBE, committed to supporting minority businesses, in early September 2013 BSH began conversations and ultimately engaged in a memorandum of understanding with Mosaic Cultural Complex, a Prevention Wellness Trust Fund award winning organization, given their commitment to supporting health and education for minorities in the Worcester community. Our work with Mosaic Cultural Complex specifically focuses on the establishment of the Worcester Cannabis Action Network, Worcester C.A.N., which has the goal of convening local elected officials, law enforcement, community groups, cannabis businesses and additional stakeholders in a quarterly meeting to assess the development of the cannabis marketplace in Worcester. By doing this, BSH and additional cannabis businesses in the community would be able to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the community as the industry develops. Moreover, in addition to receiving a letter of non-opposition for the Worcester City Manager, our team at BSH met with many local and state officials, including Representative Mary Keefe, Senator Michael Moore, and the legislative assistants of Senators Harriette Chandler and Linda Dorcena Forry; specifically to educate them on issues surrounding the medical cannabis marketplace, our plan of operation, and to begin an ongoing dialogue.

Our team at BSH includes a medical physician with experience working at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, a dispensary/cultivation owner and operator currently working in the most regulated cannabis market in the country, Washington D.C., a healthcare information technology specialist, and a security specialist who has experience overseeing security at Logan International

Airport and operates security firm which currently holds security contracts for agencies within the Commonwealth. Given the breadth and depth of these experiences, BSH has developed robust policies and procedures which define patient interaction and medical education, cultivation strategy and dispensary operations, HIPPA compliance, facility security, supply chain management, and emergency preparedness. We provided summary explanations of all of these policies and procedures within our application. Unfortunately, in the detailed comments from the selection committee regarding our application the DPH justification for non-selection was “lack of operational expertise.” In a follow-up meeting with DPH on March 12th 2014, we attempted to provide our 75-page operations manual which provides explicit detail surrounding each of the summary explanations in our application, which DPH requires as part of the provisional inspection process for RMDs. DPH refused to accept this document as supporting evidence of our operational expertise.

Finally, and most importantly, the DPH scoring process fails to capture our efforts to provide diversity and inclusion in this space. As a certified MBE, we feel we have a critical role to play in this space, particularly given the history of mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities brought about by the “War on Drugs.” Moreover, as an executive branch entity, the DPH has a responsibility to uphold Executive Order 526, specifically “in discharging its duties, (each agency) shall consider the likely effects that its decisions, programs, services, and activities will have on achieving non-discrimination, diversity, and equal opportunity.” In a memo dated May 8, 2013, the DPH working group requesting approval for promulgation of regulations 105 CMR 725.000; in response to a question concerning residency requirements for those planning to operate RMDs, commented as follows: “DPH maintains that the most appropriate mechanism to encourage local engagement in this industry is to preferentially consider applications from Massachusetts residents (as well as women, minorities, and veterans).” In our follow-up meeting with DPH on March 12th 2014, we inquired to ask how DPH considered Executive Order 526 in their decision process for provisional license awardees and we were not provided with an answer. Given the complex nature and multiple business opportunities in this marketplace, our commitment to supporting minority business will create a “multiplier effect” on opportunities for diversity and inclusion in this emerging marketplace.

Overall, we hope that the experience we have outlined above provides you with a sense of who we are and why we feel that we can play an instrumental role in bringing diversity to this program. We hope that as you review the application process which the Department of Health conducted, that you will consider the merits of our application and our commitment to providing diversity in this space. Finally, there is significant information which we can provide to support the statements above. I have provided my email address and phone number below and look forward to future conversations.

Respectfully,

G. Malik Burnett, MD/M.B.A.Executive Director, Bay State Holistic, Inc.P: (678) 416-0057E: gmalik@baystateholistic.com

Exhibit B: Boston Globe Article on Baystate Holistic

Medical marijuana firm wonders why it fell short Share via e-mail

By Adrian Walker GLOBE COLUMNIST   MARCH 31, 2014

As the drama over the state’s foray into medical marijuana unfolds, G. Malik Burnett and Corey

Barnette continue to wonder why exactly their effort to take part fell short.

Burnett and Barnette are two of the principals in Bay State Holistic, a company that had designs on

distributing medical marijuana in the Worcester area. Their team boasted many of the qualities

considered crucial to winning a license from the Department of Public Health, including an attractive

location, experience in the field, and local support. They were also the only minority-owned firm in

the competition.

Burnett is a Duke-educated physician with an MBA, while Barnette runs a major dispensary in

Washington D.C., widely considered the most highly regulated medical marijuana market in the

country. They understand the medical issues and have experience in government-regulated

cultivation. What their company did not have were political connections or well-known lobbyists.

They can’t help wondering whether any of that mattered.

“This is totally speculation,” Barnett said, choosing his words carefully. “But I feel like when you look

at some of the teams that won, there’s no way in the world you can tell me that relationships with

government officials didn’t play a role.”

What is certain is that they find themselves without a license or a plausible means of appeal. They are

$30,000 poorer — that’s what their application cost — but none the wiser about what their company

lacked. Their application fell 17 points shy of success, and they say that, despite meeting with state

officials to seek answers, they have no idea why.

“When you look at our scoring, the main takeaway. . . was that we lacked expertise,” Burnett said.

“Given my knowledge and the fact that one of our partners has a dispensary and cultivation center in

the most regulated market in the country in Washington, D.C., I was shocked.”

As you may have heard, the awarding of 20 temporary licenses earlier this year has become a

running controversy. Critics have charged that some of the winning companies boasted stellar

political connections but slender expertise. Some local officials have claimed that their support —

deemed a critical element in the approval process — was exaggerated by applicants.

Some critics have gone so far as to suggest that the DPH should simply restart the entire process.

Dr. Burnett got into the medical marijuana field by accident. He was a surgical resident at UMass

Medical Center in Worcester when he happened to read Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” a

scathing indictment of the so-called war on drugs and its disproportionate effect on black people. He

began to view legalizing medical marijuana as an antidote to mass incarceration for minor drug

offenses.

At the same time, his training had opened his eyes to the medical potential of marijuana. “[Certain

drugs] have their negative stigma but when you are in the medical field you know that is not

necessarily so,” he said.

After attending business school at Duke, Barnette first became involved in medical marijuana

distribution in San Diego before opening District Growers in Washington D.C. He believes the review

process for applicants here in Massachusetts was not nearly rigorous enough. He believes the agency

ignored readily available information about applicants.

“We remain positive on Massachusetts,” he said. “I hope they have a good and robust program

because there are patients there that do need help. But we think that the state could have potentially

turned away some very good operators in the process.”

No government agency ever likes to admit mistakes, but it’s time for DPH to fully own up to its failure

here. When critics outnumber defenders, the process has failed.

DPH needs to admit and fix its mess, and if that means starting over — as some have suggested — so

be it. This effort is worth getting right.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.

Electronic link:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/03/30/losing-medical-marijuana-firm-explains-why-they-believe-process-massachusetts-didn-give-them-fighting-chance/EaPhMNkpaSaAOa4PGrrMNP/story.html

Exhibit C: Example of local government involvement to achieve diversity in the cannabis space

Oakland hopes to light the way for minority-owned pot businessesBy Rachel Swan

May 16, 2016

Oakland’s City Council is on the verge of passing what it sees as reparations for a U.S. drug policy

that disproportionately punished people of color — but it’s an effort that might quickly backfire.

As it looks to pass laws this week to regulate the medical marijuana trade within the city, the council

is considering rules to make the industry more inclusive of African American and Latino

entrepreneurs.

The city will begin to award marijuana permits to people who have or want to start businesses in a

trade that is expected to flourish if California eventually legalizes recreational weed. But the city’s

ordinances would reserve half of those permits for applicants who fit a narrow set of criteria: Oakland

residents who have lived for at least two years in a designated police beat in East Oakland that had a

high number of marijuana arrests in 2013; or individuals who were incarcerated in Oakland for

marijuana-related crimes within the last decade. Called equity applicants, these individuals must

keep at least a 50 percent ownership stake in the business they seek to permit.

The council already gave initial approval to the ordinances and is scheduled to give final approval

Tuesday. But the plan is drawing sharp criticism from people who say it actually would make it more

difficult for black and brown people to operate cannabis businesses — and would undercut what

could be a booming business in the city.

“It’s not actually addressing equity, and it may possibly be setting it back,” said Alex Zavell, a senior

regulatory analyst for Oakland cannabis attorney Robert Raich.

Last-minute provisions

Councilwoman Desley Brooks pushed for the equity system, tacking on last-minute amendments to

marijuana ordinances that had taken the city’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission 18 months to craft.

Councilwoman Annie Campbell Washington added the provision for people with criminal records,

characterizing it as a way to redress the racial injustices of the drug war.

A 2013 national report by the ACLU found that blacks were nearly four times as likely to be arrested

for marijuana possession as whites, even though they used the drug at roughly the same rates. That

imbalance is apparent in Oakland, where marijuana arrests are concentrated most in African

American neighborhoods. Meanwhile, people with visible leadership positions in the cannabis

industry are white.

“When you look at the cannabis industry around this country, it’s predominantly white,” Brooks said

at the May 3 council meeting when the council initially approved the ordinances.

Oakland’s pot ordinances were designed to bring the city in line with new state laws that will

regulate all aspects of the multibillion-dollar industry by 2018. For years, all but eight large

dispensaries in Oakland have operated in a hazy gray market: Although they were required to

register their businesses and pay 5 percent of their gross receipts to the city, they didn’t have

permits to sell cannabis.

“Technically, we operate in the absence of a law,” said Andrea Unsworth, owner of StashTwist, a

boutique delivery service that hawks everything from pain salves to pot-infused gummy worms.

City officials tolerated that system on the belief that California would eventually move toward

thorough cannabis regulation — which happened when Gov. Jerry Brown signed a suite of new

marijuana bills in October.

Suddenly, Oakland had a chance to legitimize its pot trade, creating thousands of jobs, attracting out-

of-state investment and generating a cash windfall for city coffers. The city’s eight currently licensed

dispensaries will be grandfathered into the new system.

But Zavell and other critics worry that the equity requirements are so narrow that Oakland’s entire

marijuana permitting system will grind to a halt while officials wait for a single qualified equity

applicant to materialize. According to the proposed rules, the city will have to follow what Zavell calls

a “Noah’s Ark” model: If it has five regular pot licenses and five equity licenses, it cannot give out

another regular license until it gives out an equity license.

While many residents and industry experts who spoke at the May 3 meeting agreed with the

sentiments Brooks expressed, they warned that the proposed solutions will stifle innovation and open

the door to graft. Some say the reparation attempt will sabotage a pot market that’s not only a vital

source of tax revenue, but also a key part of Oakland’s cultural identity. This is, after all, the city that

created an Oaksterdam district in its downtown corridor.

Critics said the proposed rules could force permit-seekers into “shotgun marriages” with East

Oakland residents who live within the designated police beats. They also said the 50 percent

ownership rule would restrict businesses from adding partners, expanding or liquidating assets.

“They’ll be saddled with more stringent rules,” said Matt Hummel, chair of Oakland’s Cannabis

Regulatory Commission, who believes the council’s deployment of the term “equity” is misleading.

“To target people of color, then restrict their freedom of movement, is disgusting to me,” Hummel

said.

Perhaps the biggest irony is that some African Americans and Latinos who already operate marijuana

businesses in Oakland — and pay taxes — wouldn’t qualify for the equity permits and would get

caught in the same bottleneck as everybody else.

Not covered by preferences

Among them is Unsworth, the black owner of StashTwist delivery service. Unsworth, a former bond

analyst, doesn’t live in any of the six police beats that Brooks identified as having the city’s most

marijuana arrests.

Oakland has 57 police beats in all, so the cluster that Brooks chose represents only a small fraction of

the city.

“I agree with the intent,” Unsworth said. “But I think there are holes in it, and I don’t feel like they’re

capturing what they think they’re capturing. ... I’m an African American woman who bootstrapped my

business, and I’ve never lived in any of those police beats.”

Brooks did not return phone calls seeking comment.

As it stands, the ethnic and racial makeup of Oakland’s pot economy mirrors disparities in the nation

at large. Of the eight dispensaries licensed to operate in Oakland, only one — Purple Heart Patient

Center — is majority black-owned. Although many African Americans and Latinos work in the

industry, most run smaller mom-and-pop enterprises, like Unsworth’s delivery service.

Unsworth said the schism arose because people of color typically don’t have the same economic

resources as their white counterparts.

Backers needed

“You can’t get (traditional) business loans, so every company is bootstrapped — unless you happen to

have an angel investor, which most black and brown people don’t have,” she said.

Steve DeAngelo, who owns Harborside Health Center, the Oakland dispensary that’s also the nation’s

largest, said racial disparities in the pot market could be a residual effect of the drug war.

“It’s important to remember that the brunt of that war has been directed at people of color,” he said.

“Once arrested, African Americans were more likely convicted, and more severely sentenced, and

that would naturally make them more reluctant to get into the industry.”

Joe DeVries, the city staffer assigned to the Cannabis Regulatory Commission, said it’s too early to

predict that the equity system will fail.

“I’ve heard a lot of ‘what ifs,’” he said. “I think it’s clear what the council is trying to do — lower the

threshold and bring in people who’ve been historically locked out of this business.”

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com

Electronic Link:

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-hopes-to-light-the-way-for-minority-owned-7470161.php

Exhibit D: Importance of cultural competency in medical cannabis

Are Blacks Missing Out on the Medical Benefits of Weed?

High Society: Medical-marijuana experts say that cannabis can provide relief for many diseases affecting the black community, but the stigma of the drug keeps some folks away.

BY: ALLISON KEYES

Posted: September 7, 2016

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series that looks at the growing legal marijuana industry and its

effect on the black community.

If you search “babies cured with cannabis” on YouTube, you come up with a plethora of emotional videos. There’s

California’s Dr. William Courtney from 2013, using X-rays to show what he says is the cure of an 8-month-old baby

suffering from a brain tumor with cannabis oil. Then there’s an excerptfrom the 2014 documentary The Culture

High, in which California resident Jason David explains how a cannabis extract helped his child stop having literally

hundreds of seizures a day.

But very few of the people in the pages of videos appear to be people of color.

“It’s time for us as a community to embrace this plant and understand what it means. We need to start helping our

children,” says activist and entrepreneur Wanda James. She is the African-American co-founder and CEO of the

Colorado-based dispensary Simply Pure, and she thinks blacks are missing out on what she says are the major

medical benefits of marijuana.

“I’m not seeing black children with cancer lining up to get cannabis oil. I’m not seeing our kids take advantage of what

I’m seeing a lot of other children take advantage of,” James says. “Cannabis helps with brain cancer and epilepsy.

… Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have said there is a medicinal value. We know this plant will

increase the appetite in people who can’t eat. We know it will stop nausea. But most of the people who use medical

marijuana are white.”

In Washington, D.C., where medical marijuana was first approved in 2010, a report (pdf) from May notes that “it is

important to remember that the substance does have legitimate medical uses.” It cites 1999 research from the

Institute of Medicine reporting that weed is effective in controlling some forms of pain, alleviating nausea and vomiting

due to chemotherapy, treating wasting due to AIDS, and combating muscle spasms associated with multiple

sclerosis. It confirms that marijuana low in THC—or tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that causes the high—has

“shown promising results for managing seizures in children,” and that research suggests marijuana may be helpful for

everything from Alzheimer’s disease to asthma, arthritis and glaucoma.

Fear of Using Medical Marijuana

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites serious health disparities for African Americans, including

an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and several kinds of cancer. Some

marijuana-medical experts, such as Chanda Macias, Ph.D., an African-American cellular biologist, are trying hard to

get blacks to take advantage of the ways the drug could help deal with some of those problems. But she says that the

challenge is getting past the negative impact that weed has had on communities of color.

“We’re scared to use it,” says Macias, who also has an MBA and owns the National Holistic Healing

Center dispensary in Washington, D.C.’s trendy DuPont Circle neighborhood. “We used it—sometimes as medicine

—before it was legalized, and in some cases we were incarcerated for it. Now, even though treatment and science

are pointing to the benefits, we’re still skeptical. … We’re not sure what the bottom line is; we’re not sure what the

repercussions are, especially in places where there’s medical [marijuana]. And then the other question is access to

that.”

In some states where medical marijuana is allowed, Macias notes, some employers still do drug testing for weed and

other illegal substances. That means people of color who might be potential patients could be blocked from entry-

level positions and lose a chance of employment. But Macias says that there are several strains, and different uses of

marijuana, that could help mitigate health problems suffered disproportionately by African Americans, including

diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

“I treat black males with prostate cancer. It’s an epidemic in the black community, and often metastasized to bone

[cancer]. … It blocks the pathway to void the bladder, and men were coming in because they were having that

obstruction,” Macias explains. “With a certain strain of medication—we have over 50 different strains we can align

with your ailment—we were able to allow that muscle relaxation and could void the bladder without using other

medications, like Flomax.”

She says that she has helped veterans of color suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and insomnia, cancer

patients suffering loss of appetite from chemotherapy treatments and HIV/AIDS patients who need pain management.

“For example, women use Botox for the straight cosmetic effect, but Botox has caused people to feel better,” Macias

says. “People didn’t understand. Come to find out that Botox is a muscle relaxant for the muscles in the head and it

also helps with headaches, so you have people going in for a specific element but being treated for another. … That’s

why you need to go through the truth questionnaire and surveys to understand exactly what you need. It’s not just the

strain that’s important, it’s also the method of consumption.”

A Treatment for Common Ailments

Marijuana can be smoked, vaporized, and used in edibles and as a topical treatment. Macias says that cannabidiol,

or CBD—not the THC part of marijuana that causes the high—causes an anti-inflammatory response that can help

with arthritis. She explains that strains higher in CBD can be used to treat epilepsy or multiple sclerosis.

“Even with heart disease, there’s no engagement in our community. I’ve seen it in other communities,” Macias

explains, adding that her practice has close to 1,000 patients, with marijuana strains ranging from $13 to $22 per

gram. “I’ve seen HIV and cancer [patients] because those are known, but not lots of diabetes, even though we know

[weed] has a big effect on diabetes and ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease], but our

community doesn’t engage.”

Macias and other medical-marijuana experts add that people using weed to deal with ailments don’t have to end up

sitting on their couches, too stoned to deal with their everyday lives, as seen in a variety of anti-drug television

commercials.

“Lots who experience ‘couch lock’ and what you see on TV are overmedicated, and you shouldn’t have to be,” Macias

says. “If you are overmedicating, you can’t really be functional, but if you medicate at what you need, it’s like taking a

Tylenol. Some have the desire to overmedicate, but that isn’t the typical person in this community.”

DEA Still Says No to Rescheduling

Other challenges to more widespread use of medical marijuana arguably include the stance of the federal

government. In August, the Drug Enforcement Administration denied two petitions to reschedule marijuana under

the Controlled Substances Act. The agency said that marijuana would remain a Schedule 1 controlled substance,

like heroin and LSD, because “it does not meet the criteria for currently accepted medical use in treatment in the

United States, there is a lack of accepted safety for its use under medical supervision, and it has a high potential for

abuse.”

At the same time, the agency expanded the number of DEA-registered marijuana manufacturers, which will provide

researchers with a more robust supply of marijuana. The agency says that will allow more people to register with the

DEA so that they may grow and distribute weed for Food and Drug Administration-authorized research purposes.

The agency says that it is committed to working with the FDA and with the National Institute on Drug Abuse to

facilitate research on weed and its components. The FDA has a patent, No. 6630507, on cannabinoids, which

declares that they “have been found to have antioxidant properties … [and] particular application as neuro-

protectants, for example in limited neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke or trauma.” It goes

on to say they can be used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.

“It insults us as Americans that the DEA says [marijuana] has no medicinal value,” argues Colorado activist Wanda

James. “The only reason the DEA wants to keep it as the most dangerous drug in America is because it allows them

to continue harassing black and brown people and allows the civil forfeiture that puts money in their pocket.”

But DEA spokesman Melvin Patterson insists that the reasoning behind not rescheduling marijuana is quite different.

“We received information from the FDA stating the marijuana still didn’t quite meet up to their standards of becoming

a medicine … so we’re at a loss and that ties our hands here at the DEA,” Patterson explains. “If something isn’t a

medicine and it isn’t a cure for anything, that forces our hand. We have to leave marijuana as Schedule 1.”

Patterson points to an Aug. 11 letter written by DEA acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, in which he writes that

the FDA drug-approval process is a “thorough, deliberate and exacting process grounded in science, and properly so,

because the safety of our citizens relies on it.” Rosenberg adds that “if scientific understanding about marijuana

changes—and it could change—then the decision could change.”

There are government-approved clinical marijuana trials going on right now, including through the California-based

nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which received a $2.156 million grant from Colorado’s

Department of Public Health and Environment to test the use of botanical marijuana in treating military vets with

PTSD.

“I’d be rooting the FDA on; we think they’re really close and we hope there is something we can hear when they finish

with their trials,” Patterson says. “But without something conclusive, the DEA is still on the hook. … Say we did cave

to public opinion. Lots of people want us to reschedule. Say we did that, and then 10 years down the road, people

have adverse effects of weed with higher levels of THC. We have to protect the people from themselves.”

There are doctors who are skeptical about the benefits of medical marijuana, according to Shawnta Hopkins-Greene.

She’s CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based CannX LLC, a physician-referral service that has seen about 6,000

patients since 2014.

“There are doctors, particularly in pain management, who don’t believe in the use of cannabis. … They drug-test, so if

patients test positive for marijuana, they won’t treat them, and some aren’t comfortable about discussing medical

marijuana,” Hopkins-Greene says. “We have a network where patients can share their use of medical marijuana and

receive treatment without judgment.”

Hopkins-Greene and Macias are going into a partnership aimed at engaging communities of color—doctors and

patients alike—in this multibillion-dollar industry. They are moving into other states, including Maryland, Pennsylvania

and Ohio, to provide networks of physicians for marijuana referrals and to convince people of color that through

partnerships, they, too, can be involved in the weed industry.

“We need to bring this awareness to the minority community—not only will there be dispensaries in your community,

but there is an opportunity for businesspeople to get into this industry,” Hopkins-Greene says. “I specifically target

physicians of color … I want to engage as many minorities in all levels possible.”

That includes having African Americans take advantage of what many advocates see as clear, positive outcomes for

people battling many ailments that affect communities of color.

“When you’re in my position and you see the healing and true medicinal benefits of it, and our community not having

access, whether it’s a financial, socioeconomic or political issue, it’s missing the positive on something we have

historically built,” says Macias. “The other thing is that our community  … typically we don’t go to doctors, especially

our males, so this pulls into that as well.”

She says the myths about the use of medical marijuana need to be dispelled because it can really help people feel

better.

Allison Keyes is an award-winning correspondent, host and author. She can be heard on CBS Radio News and WTOP News Radio, among other outlets. Keyes, a former national desk reporter for NPR, has written extensively on race, culture, politics and the arts.

Electronic Link:

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/09/are-blacks-missing-out-on-the-medical-benefits-of-weed/