The Cole Memo

In this episode, I sit down with Peter Contos from the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition(CEIC). During the episode, we recap the state of the state address and give you a sneak peek into what to expect in the upcoming legislative session. We also share ways in which you can get directly involved in the legislative process!

• Watch the episode on Patreon here
• Watch the episode on Youtube here
• Stream the episode on Soundcloud here
• Stream the episode on Spotify here
• Stream the episode on Apple Podcast here
• Stream the episode on X here

Links mentioned during show

• https://cannabisequityil.org/
• Click here to follow CEIC on Instagram
• Click here to join a policy group
• Here are ways to support and get involved with the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition
• The Alliance for Cannabis Equity Unveils Proposals for 2024 Legislative Priorities in the Illinois Cannabis Industry – this is the article that I referenced
• Watch episode 64 with Representative Carol Ammons here
• Click here to watch the State of the State with me

The auto-generated transcript is available below.

hello and welcome everybody this is the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston every episode is released in audio video and transcript format to find the transcript audio or video version of any episode please refer to the description of the episode that you’re listening to now within that description you can find a link that will take you to our website which will display the transcript for this episode and the platforms where you can find this episode in audio or video formats if you’re unable to locate the episode to description of whichever platform you’re listening from I get it every platform’s different simply note the episode number and visit TheColeMemo.com from there you can use our search functionality in the top right hand corner to find the corresponding episode and then you’ll be able to access the audio video and transcript version of that episode you might also find any links that we reference during the episode so that you might be able to do your own research if you’re not listening to this episode of the Cole memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode a little bit later than our patrons to become a patron go to TheColeMemo.com/Patreon it’s a great way to support our show although one of the best ways to support our show is completely free subscribe to or follow our show leave us a positive review from wherever you’re listening to us from favorite this episode give it a thumbs up leave it leave a comment or post a review Once Again folks TheColeMemo.com/Patreon it’s just $3 a month and it gives you immediate access to our content but our content ultimately all gets released for free our show is funded by listeners like you your engagement and support is appreciated today is March 4th wow 2024 I’m today I’m joined by Peter Kos Peter thank you for sitting back down with me although I will say this is your first time on the coal memo uh so for folks that may not know you do you mind uh introducing yourself and telling us where we can find your work online absolutely you thank you for for your generosity with the platform and for for always supporting the Coalition so my name is Peter Kos I’m the deputy director of the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition where a nonprofit based in Chicago founded in 2019 working to you know hold the state accountable for the harm done by the War on Drugs we provide a variety of direct holistic re-entry services for folks returning from incarceration um as well as a lot of uh education around you know how to um you know know your rights around cannabis how to stay safe with with this legal plant that you could still be criminalized for in a lot of ways uh as well as lots of policy advocacy so I spent most of my time trying to do policy work and so I know that’s we’ll be talking about uh today um but encourage folks to find Us online at canity il on all platforms Instagram is definitely the best place to follow us and our website cannabis Equity il.org find out more about what we have going on uh you’re always welcome to send us a DM on social media or email us info@ Canabis Equity il.org if you have questions or want to get involved awesome Peter thank you again for your time today and thank you for what you do you do so much uh you know of course it is called cannabis Illinois Coalition so you know we talk about cannabis often but you do offer some service you do off I don’t mean to say some service many many services that that are outside of uh I would say a cannabis Focus so I’d be happy to give you space to talk about that if you’d like to today but I know that uh one of the things that recently happened was the State of the State address by JB pritsker and I I almost wanted to follow your lead here because I know there were a few things you guys have released statements so where do you want to start today Peter yeah I think we could start I think um you know just kind of with a little chronological order just letting folks know kind of what this what 2024 has looked like in terms of state state policy um and so you I think it’s really important for folks to kind of just realize that Illinois state government really our lawmakers I should say really only work from January to May um and so we are in the midst of that legislative session right now we have an election coming up on March 19th and so um as people probably seen there’s hasn’t been a lot of movement in terms of the laws or policies getting enacted or changed at all um in the state that is not like a surprise or something we’re we’re worried about too much just because we know again once the election comes once we get into April that’s when our lawmakers kind of wake up out of their their hibernation and get to work um and so we you know very excited about kind of what’s to come over these next few weeks um and months I should say um but it’s really important that we talk about the State of the State because it does really um offer kind of a look into what’s to come for um State policymaking over this next uh these next few months and what it will mean for the next year for the state of Illinois yeah and I was about to ask you since you I like that idea of staying in chronological order that looks like the State of the State was on the 21st of February is that correct yep cool cool so let’s talk about it um I’m sure some people may have missed it some people may not have even know that known that it was happening so um yeah let’s talk about it yeah so what happen you know this is a you know an annual thing that every Illinois governor has done for um quite a while I’m sure I don’t know who started it but it’s been doing as long as I’ve been alive um and so what happens is every year you know in the middle of of kind of the winter um you know session hasn’t really heated up yet there’s not a lot of work getting done you know it’s really just all about laying that framework um for what’s to come at the end of really at the end of May when they pass all the bills um and so every governor in Illinois will basically kind of go out there go onto the pulpit and say Hey you know this is what I think the state did great this year I think this is where we could have done better this is what I Envision for for the next year um and so last year you know Governor priter came up and and talked about um a lot of the Investments he made into education he talked a lot about cannabis illegalization and how great the industry was um but this time around you know when we were down there last week um he did not mention cannabis once uh he didn’t mention drug policy at all didn’t mention mention the overdose crisis that continues to get worse in Illinois didn’t mention any kind of Criminal Justice Reform prison reform um the fact that many Illinois prisons don’t have clean water still um didn’t mention any of those things which you know um there’s a choice you know politicians have you know speech writers and and and and lawyers and and professionals who hold whose entire job it is to make sure that the words he says you know um make sense that they’re politically uh effective and ultimately um you know cuz he is not the one setting the budget I want to be really clear with folks he doesn’t set the political agenda he’s one guy at the top of of this this state but he doesn’t draft the laws he doesn’t pass the laws he doesn’t vote on the laws he’s just the one who who sign he signs what comes to him he vetos what what he doesn’t like that comes to him um and so you know this was a really you know I would say for about an hourong speech he talked again about kind of what he did good again you talked about you know the educ investments in in especially like early childhood education things like healthcare you know we’re never going to be upset about those things um but what we were very surprised to see was again no mention of of cannabis at all no mention of the industry no mention of um you know the progress or lack thereof um which he’s spoken about again I mentioned a previous state of the States you know he’s in his second term as Governor um and plenty of press conferences definitely was surprised to not hear him say anything about it I was too especially he tweeted about it right before the show I don’t mean to say specifically about cannabis but there was a mention I’ll pull up the Tweet just so that for posterity but I was also surprised there was no mention of cannabis uh but the way I I mean I I’m I’m upset as well that there was no mention of cannabis because of course I always like talking about it uh but um the way I put it is it made me realize how many other things were truly going on and sometimes people accuse me of of being a little bit pessimistic negative about the progress we have made and you know guilty is charged uh but I I I will just say that you know some people have made the point to me that yes there I think even you have uh in some of the the Coalition meetings like you know we can come with this list of needs but realize that there are so many other people from so many other Industries there and uh it’s something I never really thought of until you and others educated me on the reality of what happens in Springfield you know so yeah it’s a lot of competing interest and and folks have to realize that like we’re not the first priority on the list you know we’re not just to be clear with folks we’re not in the the room that he’s making the speech they that’s a ticketed invite only event we’re not there um there are lobbyists who do get involved there are Advocates who do get invited um but you know there’s a reason that you know uh you know we have a lot of a clout to gain and reputation to build so we get into those rooms um but there’s you know uh a lot of competing interests you know I’m not sure the exact number but there has to be at least 500 lobbyists registered in Illinois probably more who represent everything from what we do in cannabis and drug policy reform and Criminal Justice Reform to the people who represent the casino and gaming industry to people who represent the Chicago White Sox baseball team who were trying to get a billion dollars out of state taxpayers you know so when we’re down there it’s not like oh we you know we have the Cannabis megaphone and everyone BLS to us like we’re definitely um you know definitely the odd men out a lot of the times people really uh yeah you know they put off the conversation they might be a little nervous to engage with it yeah well and you know just to list off a few other interests that are probably there um power companies for example water companies I I mean you know um there are many many things going on um Plumbing I don’t know I’m just throwing out random trades at this point but you know um yeah it’s I I say these things not to put down what we want obviously but for context for people that like you say it’s not like it’s just Peter and Peter and Doug and whoever else may be there um you know in the corner it’s like a packed room of several interests that are you know fighting for the attention of these legislators in so many ways so um and then and then on top of all that there’s you know three Middle School classes that are doing a field trip and you know you’re trying to have a conversation and 60 seventh graders walk by you’re like oh my God shut up I’m trying to talk to this person um and there you know this is this is you know working in the capital this is what it’s like I want to give you more space I’m showing for our listeners right now the tweet I was referring to a moment ago but it was made uh it looks like actually a day before the um was it was yeah this was on the 20th so I think the State of the State was on the 21st if I’m remembering correctly I can’t remember um but you can see here he does mention uh you know as kind of a highlight that they launched the adult use cannabis industry so I definitely thought I thought this was going to be like the bullet point list he was going to go through like maybe even in in order I don’t know um but I was surprised that that this did not make the cut um but I wanted to give you more space like I said so you talked about some of the other topics uh that weren’t discussed I wanted to give you more space on that because I think that is important but I also wanted to give you the space to talk about for folks that missed the speech what was mentioned you know what I mean and we’ve mentioned a little bit but I wanted to like I say just give you more space on those topics yeah the um I would say the the main things he talked about were especially stuff like at the very top here where you know balance budget it’s credit upgrades spent a lot of time talking about like Illinois as a business and like and can I jump in real jump in real quick sorry I uh but to your point earlier just so that people understand if they didn’t see the speech this past five balance budgets he made a statement during the speech like hey kind of like you know some people may critique my analysis of this but just this is my analysis it seemed like a hey I’m Reaching Across the aisle but for the budget but realize that I will not put the States credit uh what is it not credit upgrades for approval see this is his other bullet point so I wanted to say that to your point earlier of um you made the point that the people passed the legislation to get bring it to him to sign into law um but that he doesn’t directly write it so the speech he saying like hey you know if this is how you’re going to proceed this is what’s going to get my signature almost I thought that was important to mention and that’s really I’m glad you said that yeah he’s he’s he’s not telling you what he wants you to do but like hey man this is what I want you to do right um you know it’s it’s it’s um you know and then you know they’ll have countless meetings between the Senate the house um all you know each the house and the Senate have their own budget Representatives the Democrats Republicans have their own budget Representatives all of these people have staff who their only job is to write the budget um and so there’s a lot you know that this is one of the most complex things you will see is is how the budget gets made it is it is um it’s just a lot you know this is you know you know uh billions of dollars being spent you know the city of Chicago budget is 16 billion um the state of Illinois is at least double that and so it’s really important that folks know like this is not small potatoes this is not Pennies on the dollar this is a lot um and so again the governor he’s not telling people what they need to do but he’s saying hey this is my request of you um and he’ll lay out his stipulations like hey I’ll invest in this early childhood education or this healthc care thing that we might lose money on technically um but on the back end you know we will make it back through like people H you know paying more in taxes or you know having a better a better um higher employment rate or something um and so he’s being you know he’s trying to be very clear and for for context Illinois you know we had um kind of back-to-back Governors where passing a a budget was very difficult um under former Governor roner we we literally had three years of budget in passes where they literally couldn’t agree um and so there just wasn’t a budget and so a lot of the social Services organizations mental health support just didn’t get done um and so groups like The Coalition like when we first started um this was a year into Governor pritzker’s term there was very little State staff for us to like call or to reach out to him and ask for help from um things have definitely changed since then you know we’ll give the governor a lot of credit like we do have um more more adequately staffed agencies we could always do better um but like we have moved in the right direction and it does go to like there’s a huge difference in having at least your build as a state like you know we are in a much better position than we were in the past but again like this needs to be the ground floor for you know further growth yeah and I can’t speak on um you know other levels of education but I can say that in the past like you said due to these budget impasses there’s been a huge impact to higher education institutions I even know that some closed like community colleges were closing I don’t know if people remember this but the in one Community I know of a few yeah that closed some that were really buckling down and they the the future was unclear you know they were having layoffs this is in higher education so like you say uh to to uh to credit the current governor um although May things may not be perfect things are you might say better in in at least those regards so absolutely and and one just real quick you know some of the other things he mentioned in the speech so again he mentioned I would say he really focused a lot on on Healthcare and education so again early childhood education not just trying to support families um especially like more vulnerable families you know single parent households um but making sure that you know um those families actually have support they have tax credits and more investment but also making sure that you know the professionals who are going to offer those Services making sure Illinois is like the most competitive and generous place for people to get jobs um because it’s like we want to ATT trct to the best labor force we got to pay people money we got to pay people benefits um and so there was some really exciting stuff like as a individual as part of a community like we should all be excited about um but you know again those were very kind of very focused again Healthcare education how great our our credit score is um you know one thing that he did say that um we you know as a coalition do have a lot of issues with which he he did kind of make a jab at the Republicans around uh the immigration conversation um the Coalition you know we started again in 2019 we have members from all over the state of Illinois we have folks from all over the world um but we had a lot of very honest conversations about you know the the impact of the War on Drugs both in Chicago and across the globe when we first founded um and so we take the immigration conversation very seriously um and so Governor pritzer did kind of make a jab at the Republicans about them you know not coming well not fully agreeing to a federal immigration deal and this is very off topic of cabis but um you know again we believe we we see the intersections in cannabis and in Immigration policy this the American Immigration system is based on racism and you know our drug policy and immigration policy are are firmly intertwined um and so for him to kind of come at the Republicans and say well you’re not you know trying to come to the the dealmaking table when you know the solutions that are being put on the table are basically ending the Asylum process and again we’re getting way too into the weeds um but as an organization who recognizes that the War on Drugs destabilized communities across the globe the US is behind a lot of that destabilization and now these people are coming to the us and we’re trying to close the door in their faces we as a coalition will not accept that and we think it’s it’s incredibly um disappointing that the governor would would even think that an immigration deal like that is is productive um because again considering Illinois is a state built you know by immigrants built especially the city of Chicago like we have no right to say that you know our our city is full or we’re at capacity like this is um we can only you know grow from here and so so we did want to call that out as something that was um extremely disappointing um and something that you know we think he he should be you know learning from and growing from um you know this is not just about saying oh the Republicans won’t take a deal like no the deal has to be like a good deal um we want to see you know uh Illinois be the most welcoming place um in the country and and you know a place that everyone can live safely um securely and in the best health possible and um you know we want to make sure that um not closing the door sure I’d like to preface this question with saying that I’ve only watched a few stateof State addresses and I’ve only watched maybe a little bit over a handful of State of the Union addresses uh and I would say starting with President Barack Obama when I first started like getting interested in politics and then of course you know going on from there so again maybe just over a handful um now that I’ve like prefaced this question I want to ask is it normal for a governor to like call other Governors out like that um even the pre the former president he called out which I it’s not that I disagreed necessarily with anything but I would just like to call it just seems like we’re talking about the State of the State right now which I guess I I get how the immigration issue makes you think of uh Abbott because he is apparently sitting sending the you know busing people here um so I I guess that call makes sense and I and I can see how the Trump thing comes up too I just am asking like is that unique or does that happen often um yeah that’s definitely something like I I haven’t seen like we’ve seen people take kind of shots at former president Trump a few times but like other Governors that’s the first I’ve seen of it um you know when you brought up the question I thought you were G to talk about his dig at at California governor knew some around their their debt issue um because he did make a jab theity of California um you know I think the the California example is very interesting because you know we have seen Governor priter let’s be honest he’s a billionaire this man has doesn’t need to be a politician if he didn’t want to be um if he didn’t want Power he could live he could buy his own Island and live on the island comfortably um but he doesn’t he lives in Illinois well is the governor of Illinois and you know we believe he has much larger kind of prospects um we think he’s going to eventually run for governor at some point um and so to see him you said govern yeah president president at some point um you know and so it made sense to see him kind of take a jab like Oh California is kind of underperforming or not as performing as good as Illinois um so that was a little bit of surprising but like when you see his political prospects that make sense when it comes to the stuff with Texas um I’ll be totally Frank as an advocate um and somebody who’s like very pro-immigration again like resettling people so they can live their best life um I think he could have gone even harder like this dude the go some I say this dude the governor of Texas the governor of Florida these people are hiring buses and private jets using taxpayer dollars to send migrants to Chicago and New York and California and all over the country I don’t want to say it’s like just the big cities um and it’s just like totally abdicating their responsibility um to actually process Asylum cases and to support people who are again fleeing their homelands like people wouldn’t come here if it wasn’t absolutely dire people wouldn’t travel thousands of miles in the most dangerous you know Crossing in in modern you know human history like we have created these situations so I was a little surprised he um didn’t go even harder because like this guy and again there’s much bigger issues around Federal immigration that again I’m going way too off topic um but like he uh he used his Pulpit to you know I think show the country not just the state of Illinois but really show the country like hey I mean business I’m I’m different than the California I’m different than the Texas guys um that’s kind of why I was asking that question again I’m not so much that you know I had issue with anything that he said I I I was like is he positioning we all know that it’s a possibility but it just seemed like something that somebody who’s running for a president would say you know um so well anyways did not mean to get into the Weeds on that I just thought it was uh you know you brought up the idea of immigration and or the issue of immigration rather and um yeah just made me think of those those statements that that he made and I wasn’t sure if it was characteristic of a state of the union so or State of the State rather um so well what are what are some other thoughts you have about this or what what are some like next steps like I mean I saw you guys produced a graphic are you like yeah what what do we go from here yeah so you know again really went into the Weeds on some of those things so I apologize to listeners again I can spend a lot of time on this so the next I think kind of where where we go from here is like we have um pretty much three months March April and May to to really make make a lot of noise and to try and pass a lot of bills um so again we mentioned the governor he he laid out what he wants to see in the budget didn’t mention cannabis by name and that means it’s on us to to make sure cannabis is addressed um if he’s not talking about it we need to talk about it so that we fill that void and we make sure that nobody can run away from this nobody can dodge these questions um nobody can ultimately evade accountability um for this program because we know this could be you know we could be so much further along um with a more integrated diverse um just better industry um and so now is the time to get involved um so you know the Coalition um you know we continue to have Community policy meetings and so we’ll make sure that um that link is in the in the description and the show notes uh so folks can plug into those right now those are every other Monday at 5:30 um as we get closer to the end of the session those will move to weekly because there will be a lot more like pressing updates and stuff so we encourage folks to sign up for for those meetings we’ll have emails that go out you know uh every other week with all of the updates so even if you can’t make the meeting you know you’ll have the notes um so that’s first and then the other thing I also say about those is you know those are open conversations so if you have legislation you want the coalition to look into uh whether you think we should support it you think we should oppose it just things you think we should read about you know this is an open conversation we we want to make sure you know um people understand the table is always open we’re not um you know this is not a a this is a community-led process this is not us us doing anything by force um and so that would be first and foremost is plug in with us on those meetings join those conversations be a part you know read the notes be a part of the conversation um so that we can you know ultimately you know get people more informed about what’s going on um and how they can use their voices absolutely uh yeah folks check out that link I go every every meeting and listen in and like Peter said if you can’t if you can’t listen in the the summary emails are great and it’s a way to get involved um speaking of getting involved I figured we could plug this is coming up um this is a great way to get directly involved folks and for our listeners Peter why don’t you tell our listeners what we’re displaying right now and how they can get involved so on on Thursday April 18th the Coalition we’re going to be taking a big group down to Springfield to the state C Capital to see all of what I just talked about up close and personally yeah um we will have a bus coming down from Chicago with 55 seats so we encourage folks to sign up as soon as possible make sure that you get the the sign up for that as well um but sign up add your name to the list even if you don’t want to take the bus you want to drive down or take the train sign up so we can get you you know sign you know all the information you need um because one thing that you know just to really clear with folks people you know we believe that everybody should see our government up close and personal for what it is um you know we mentioned at the top of the conversation all of the different competing interests when you’re in Springfield um there’s one specific area that’s called The Rail that’s right outside of the the House of Representatives kind of uh meeting room and you’ll just see hundreds of lobbyists in their suits just like lined up around this rail waiting for lawmakers to come out of their meeting or to go into the meeting or they’re calling them on the phone like leave your meeting I need to talk to you um we’re going to show you what this is up close and personal you know we’re we’re going to make sure that you kind of you know dispel myths you have about how how the government works um how you can use your voice as effectively as possible um so again we would love for folks to join us Thursday April 18th that will be an all day event so again if you’re coming from Chicago make sure you sign up so we can get you on the bus if you want to take your own transportation that is fantastic we’ll send you everything you need to know um but again um when you leave on the 18th you’re going to have seen the capital we’ll take you around show you all of the the sight sounds um of of our state government you’ll get to you know where our goal is for everybody to meet your respective State reps and state senators um and so we’re going to have little breakout groups based on where you’re coming from in Illinois you’ll go with you know your community members so you can again go see your rep see your senators and remind them like hey I I’m technically your boss I vote for you uh we put you into office we can take you very much out of this office if you’re not listening to to what the people are demanding um whether it’s about can obviously cannabis is the the main agenda for this event but again if people have bills or things you want us to talk about reach out to us and we can talk about adding to the list absolutely absolutely and I just for folks that are watching I I displayed a picture I think this is actually the rail you were talking about um and you can even see I think that’s uh Senate Majority Leader Don Harmon right there um I could be wrong I don’t know if this is in Illinois or not I don’t is that in Illinois can’t tell this is the rail oh cool cool y so yeah just imagine hundreds of people in suits just like you know again from the Coalition dug in myself to to the pork manufacturers to you know the transit Advocates the you know um the people who represents Comet and people’s gas the utilities like all of these people are in one place for better for worse uh and you know we want people to see it up close and personal whether cannabis is the issue for you you care about other drug policy reform you care about other Criminal Justice Reform you care about climate change you care about sustainable agriculture all of these things intersect um and so you know uh you know we mentioned immigration at the top like that’s the same you know all these things are intersectional uh we make sure that everything we do you know we explain kind of why the Coalition believes that you know these things are are connected and you know we we we’ll get to work to to work for proactive policies that that make a real difference absolutely absolutely well uh Peter I want to give you space uh did you want to I I do have one question for you before we go but I wanted to give you space do you have anything else that we didn’t touch about touch on today or um anything else you’d like to speak about no I think just in closing from my side you know just again a reminder that like the first three months of session don’t hold your breath things are slow it’s designed to be that way just know that you know by the time you listen to this things will have gotten a lot busier um I will be a lot I will have a lot less sleep um and you know again especially once we get into April and May like this will be almost around the clock work so if you’re interested in getting involved Now’s the Time To Do It um because it’s only going to get busier and um we need all hands on day absolutely absolutely well uh I wanted to play clip for my next question it’s a just a short clip and I guess I wanted to ask you know this is one of the very real issues and we’ve talked about it some sometimes but I guess my question that I want to give you time we’ll watch the clip while you think uh but I’ll ask you the question beforehand campaign Finance right we’ll have somebody explain what exactly that is in our short clip and why it’s so important um but I I guess what I’m asking you uh is can the public outweigh I guess the dollars um I’m having trouble uh wording this question admittedly but I I’ve been feeling a little um I don’t know um my faith has been destroyed in some ways and so I’m wondering like will We Will We if we come together is that enough or do we need to somehow figure out somebody to cash flow these policies anyways um let’s check out the clip why do you think you’re alone in supporting meaningful reform oh Cole let’s see why am I alone because just like any other commodity in a capitalist system unless you deal with campaign Finance you’re going to be alone I mean I know intimately how this game is played and whoever PID PL I totally understand how this works so you’ll look and say oh you know these people don’t really support her campaign no because I don’t ask them to there is a real fundamental problem in every state in this Union and it is called campaign finance and unless we deal with campaign Finance what we have seen going forward is that they have allowed continuously for them to maintain what they have without having to open it up to the rest of us people believe that they elected and sent me to represent their interest from my community right but in many many cases the people who are in Springfield are lobbyists and they represent the interest of the Cannabis industry so if you think that you’re going to ever stand up you’re going to be fighting this when I’m not a legislator they gonna still be fighting to get into this cannabis industry in all kind of backo ways and we’re gonna be passing legislation From Here to Eternity because what they have done is locked people completely out by Poli hly again big one but I’m curious what are what’s your take on that big topic yeah I could not agree with um representative Ammons more um definitely as a individual you know I firmly see the um you know as a someone who is a a middle schooler when when citizens united Core case happened in front of the states in the the US Supreme Court that drastically changed the situation um it has not gotten any better since then and so I firmly firmly stand behind this as a as an individual Advocate um from the Coalition you know the Coalition was born out of again the promises our lawmakers made about writing the wrongs of the war on drugs and and achieving true equity in this cannabis industry this is a again we talk about how intersectional this issue is this is absolutely one of those things that has to be on our docket because like again the Coalition was formed of people who are impacted by state violence who don’t have a voice in the state government for better for worse um and so the only way you know we can truly achieve change is we either show up with a whole bunch of people or a whole bunch of money um and we can probably get a whole bunch of people before we got a whole bunch of money um and so you know this is definitely something we we firmly agree with you know I know representative Ammons has introduced like public U publicly funded campaigns like everybody has a certain amount of money to lead their campaign and that’s all you get um you know so both of us get 50 Grand to run a campaign versus I have 10 million and you have $10 like um we can finally maybe level the playing field so something I’m firmly supportive of you know the Coalition you know this is conversations we want to have and we got to make these change sooner because uh yeah the more money you know again the governor’s a billionaire like yeah let’s call it what it is um you know I guess to put it in a bottle it sounds like you are optimistic that we could come together and and enact some change I am optimistic you know I definitely you know I don’t want to um I don’t I’m not a rose tinted glasses person I’m you know I’ve very much become jaded through this process and you know these last five years have been very difficult for us and we’ve learned and and been burned unfortunately by by you know this process um but you know we are optimistic that we can bring people together it has happened before there have been people led movements in this country in this state of Illinois um and you know I think a lot of it is just like making sure people understand the history like people have organized and led done amazing things um and a lot of those campaigns you know our government do doesn’t want us to know about um you know the Coalition we were you know born under the same vision that that the the rainbow Co Coalition was born with the Black Panthers the young Patriots and the young Lords like this is um you know it only works if we’re all at the table together working beating the same drum um and able to work at the same Mission and you the same goals um or else we’re all going to be fighting at the bottom for scraps you know this is this country is built on the people at the very top having everything and controlling everybody else um it only can work if we realize our power collectively we use our voices and and we show up yeah and I will just say before we go uh that this I have I feel and maybe it’s anecdotal but I feel I’ve seen a lot more energy this session than I have in a in quite a long time and I think I’m trying to give you a compliment here I think that can be credited to uh the alliance for cannabis equity’s proposals that were unveiled and if people are curious I wrote an article about this on January 22nd 2024 which includes the one pager and some of my thoughts um but definitely check out the one pager I’ll have uh the that Linked In the podcast show notes as well um and if you’d like to see my thoughts check out the article um but I just I wanted to say that uh that that I am also hopeful not that not that you asked me um but I wanted to end it on a happy note I’m also hopeful um because I feel I’ve seen more support for these proposals than than I ever have and you know I credit it to the fact that there are some community-based proposals in other words they’re not just industry focused proposals I always say if you know you want to get people to call into their legislator you got to give them a reason to and sorry but I’m not going to call in for the Illinois rail R Association just like I’m not going to call in for you know some cannabis industry person that I may not even know exists um but when you give me something that it’s like oh hey that would benefit me and my life and my loved ones and we’ll give somebody else something sure I’ll call in you know so anyways I just want to end that on a positive note by saying that I’m also hopeful so thank you Peter and and I just want to also say thank you to you and Doug for doing what you do folks uh just to I meant to add this earlier but the meetings truly are open and you give people plenty of space uh you know to to learn and participate and I just want to say that I’m not I I’m not personally aware right now of anybody else that’s doing that holding these weekly regular public meetings where you get everybody together give them updates on what’s going on and I just wanted to say thank you because uh I know that sometimes it might it might be a thankless uh position and I just wanted to make sure to let you know that that I appreciate you and I know so many other people that appreciate the work that you Doug and everybody else does um so thank you Peter no and sincerely appreciate that Cole and you know everybody who who supported you supported this movement like this is something that um this is the greatest privilege of Our Lives to do this work it is incredibly difficult it is taxing it is exhausting but like there’s nothing more that you know we’d rather be doing than this um and so again really appreciate you know all the support that comes from our community um and and one thing that that you said that I think really needs to be harped on is like if we don’t have political imagination if we can’t Envision what we want to see we will never achieve it and so so again I can be jaded I can be frustrated I am I’m a pessimist for sure um I say that proudly but like you know that does not mean that we can lose sight of our goals like we have to continue to keep that Vision in front of us um because yeah if if we lose sight of it you know we’re we’re going to be five years later and and not know where where we left and you know how we got off the course so um we just need folks to keep keep believing keep you know again like see what you want to create and and we’ll get there well said Peter well said well hey I will see you here in a little bit at the uh the advocacy meeting and folks I hope you to I hope to see you all at Future ones um and I hope you found as much value in this conversation as I did check out the show notes to get involved um definitely check out the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition at cannabis Equity il.org thank you once again Peter