Episode 108 – Botched Legalization in Illinois, National Psychedelic Trends, and Wisconsin’s Arrest Spike

In this episode, I discuss a recent study by a Black advocacy group that described legalization in Illinois as ‘botched.’ Hear statements from an advisor behind the study and the state’s response. I also cover national psychedelic trends and a reported increase in possession arrests in Wisconsin.

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The auto-generated transcript will be available below.

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hello and welcome to the Cole memo in
this episode I’m going to quickly share
a few stories that have caught my eye
the first report we’re going to check
out I encourage you to read this full
report it’s entitled Equity delayed
dreams denied how pritz botched Illinois
cannabis and clean energy programs
definitely check this out I’ll have it
linked in the show notes if you go down
to page five it’s not a long report at
all that’s where you can find the
information about cannabis jobs and what
they have to say this report was
produced by the national black
empowerment action fund who I may refer
to as
nbef going forward if you scroll to page
nine I found it interesting that they
have what they Define as features of
Equitable cannabis programs and how they
feel Illinois doesn’t meet it once again
I am just wisping the surface of this
report I’ll have it linked in the show
notes I highly recommend that you check
it out Richard St Paul a senior advisor
at nbef was recently featured in an
article that I’m displaying now from the
center Square I’ll have this Linked In
the show notes Richard St Paul once
again a senior adviser at NBF suspects
that regulating hemp will further
benefit white entrepreneurs in the
Cannabis industry say St Paul believes
the legislator’s recent push to ban hemp
derived products could be a deliberate
attempt to keep blackowned hemp
businesses from competing with the
dominantly white-owned Cannabis industry
St Paul said because black o illinoisans
can’t get their hands on cannabis
licenses the hemp industry was an
alternative similarly with the signing
of the climate and Equitable jobs act in
20121 which also promised economic
empowerment for black illinoisans the
outcome has been far from prosperous for
black people once again this article
that I just read from will be linked in
the show notes as well as the full
report which actually doesn’t I I don’t
didn’t recall it mentioning him so
that’s why I wanted to mention this
article because I thought it was notable
that this uh Richard St Paul had some
statements regarding him and I’m about
to play a response from the state of
Illinois there’s also a brief statement
from Richard St Paul who once again is a
senior adviser at nbe AF let’s take a
listen to the clip an advocacy group
says the pritsker administration is
falling far short when it comes to
minority participation in Illinois’s
growing cannabis industry but a top
state official says the picture is a lot
brighter than they say Richard St Paul
with the national black empowerment
action fund says Governor priter
promised 63,000 jobs would be generated
by the legalization of recreational
marijuana mostly for people in
communities hurt by the War on Drugs but
the promise he says hasn’t been been
kept you were supposed to be first in
line to be able to get a license whether
it be dis disp dispensary or cultivation
of the
4,000 social Equity licenses that were
uh applied for only 21 were granted
Aaron Johnson the state’s cannabis
regulation oversight Officer says there
were growing pains since Illinois was
the first state to focus on Equity but
there are now strong results
103 social Equity dispensaries are open
um and serving the public around the
state uh we have 16 craft Growers open
11 infusers um and over a 100
Transporters we talk about cannabis and
equity on our at issue program this
weekend and you can hear more Sunday at
9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. once again
everything that we’ve discussed in this
episode will be linked in the show notes
I sent this article to a friend and I
found what they said to be very
interesting basically they said the the
idea that there were growing pains and
that we’ve been on a rule since is
delusional this Market has plateaued and
some new operators can barely stay in
business despite this Market only
meeting the needs of one-third of
cannabis users in Illinois once again
those are just thoughts from a good
friend of mine uh who I sent this story
to and they sent those thoughts back I
wanted to share those thoughts and let’s
check out our next report which has to
do we’re going to shift gear and talk
about psychedelics this is a national
report from NPR let’s take a listen
research shows new details about how
Americans are using psychedelic drugs
nprs will Stone reports the findings
indicate that about 8 million people
tried so-called magic mushrooms last
year the report from the Rand
Corporation estimates that about 3% of
adults tried psilocybin last year making
it the most popular psychedelic the
runner up was MDMA or ecstasy at just
over 1% followed closely by LSD half of
people who took mushrooms said they
chose to micro do Dr Joshua willly a
researcher at UCSF says micro doing is
increasingly popular but much of the
evidence on psychedelics is based on
people taking much larger doses while
also receiving therapeutic support we
don’t actually know that much about
micro doing meanwhile another study from
UC San Diego has found that internet
search terms related to micro doing have
grown by more than a th% since 2015 will
Stone NPR news I thought that story was
very interesting the last story that I
wanted to discuss is regarding our my
neighbors to the North Wisconsin the
headline for this story which I’ll have
Linked In the show notes is as
neighboring states legalized pot
Wisconsin State Patrol arresting more
people for possession it looks like the
article highlights that in 2022 there
were more arrests than in 2019 looks
like in 2022 there was 1,66
6 meanwhile in 2019 there was
1,292 this is according to arrest data
kept by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation I’ll have that Linked In
the show notes folks what do you think
about the stories that we discussed in
this episode once again the reason that
I link everything in the show notes is
so that you can do your own research if
you’re having troubles finding the show
notes just go to the memo.com and use
the search functionality in the top
right hand corner of our website to
search up the episode number it’s going
to be episode
108 which you’re not seeing right now
because I’ve not released it yet but
let’s say you come here later and we’re
200 episodes in if you just type in
episode 108 you’ll be able to find it I
hope you found value in this episode of
the coal memo we’ll see you on the next
one take care
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