Elizabeth Warren Warns Of Amazon And Big Tobacco Entering Marijuana Market At Anti-Monopoly Event

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) delivered remarks at a cannabis event this weekend, emphasizing the need to legalize marijuana in a manner that prevents domination by big business and aims to repair what the senator called “a century of racist policy” under prohibition.

Warren was among a number of speakers who addressed attendees at an event organized by Parabola Center, an equity-focused cannabis advocacy group. The two-day conference includes an “anti-monopoly cannabis crash course” on Saturday and a leadership training session on Sunday. She was joined by others, including TV personality Jonathan Van Ness of the Netflix show Queer Eye.

“Legalizing marijuana is about more than just allowing recreational use or the money that can be made from this new market, or even about the potential medicinal benefits,” the senator and former presidential candidate from Massachusetts said in a prerecorded video played at the event. “It’s about undoing a century of racist policy that disproportionately targeted Black and Latino communities.”

But it’s also clear, Warren added, that “legalization alone is not enough.” She warned that “industry giants will try their best to swoop in before small businesses and those most harmed by the war on drugs have a chance to enter the market.”

“We must make sure that the communities that have been harmed most by the war on drugs are at the front of the line for reaping the benefits of legalization,” she urged. “And we need to make sure that legalization doesn’t just pave the way for big tobacco or big alcohol companies or retail giants to come in and dominate the cannabis market.”

“Let’s keep this in mind when we see companies like Amazon lobbying for cannabis legalization,” Warren continued. “I’m deeply skeptical that their lobbying is anything more than a self-interested move to monopolize yet another market, blocking Black and Latino entrepreneurs from breaking into the industry.”

Elizabeth Warren Warns Of Amazon And Big Tobacco Entering Marijuana Market At Anti-Monopoly Event: “Industry giants will try their best to swoop in before small businesses and those most harmed by the war on drugs have a chance to enter the market.”https://t.co/nXkzpAtm0Z pic.twitter.com/wUNl1j1Twh

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The current moment presents “a rare opportunity to shape how a new industry develops from the ground up,” she continued. “And that means we have a chance to avoid repeating the same old story of big corporations pushing out small businesses and dominating markets.”

“Massachusetts has already taken important steps to tackle these injustices, but we have more work to do,” Warren said of her home state’s approach to legalization. “Now is the time to get creative and think big about how we can ensure fairness and competition in the cannabis industry.”

Shaleen Title, director of Parabola Center, said Warren is “one of the leading public officials in America when it comes to curbing corporate greed.”

“She knows a thing or two about how hard it is to reign in big monopolistic corporations once they’ve consolidated and metastasized,” Title told Marijuana Moment. “But she’s right that with cannabis, we have a chance to prevent that before it happens—to focus on fairness and justice instead. That’s what our crash course and leadership training is all about.”

The group’s event was held at Providence Public Library in Rhode Island.

Van Ness, of Queer Eye, thanked conference attendees “for showing up for marijuana legalization in a way that puts people over profits.”

“The marijuana industry is at such a crossroads,” he said in a video message. “While we have made so much progress, we have so much further to go. And now the cannabis industry really finds itself at such a pivotal place. We have alcohol [and] tobacco that are seeking to make this industry even more corporatized and exploitative. That really doesn’t help small businesses and doesn’t help individuals. We have an opportunity here with marijuana to help heal so much injustice and help people get ahead honey.”

“Marijuana can not only make you feel so much better, but it also is really an opportunity for us to create a more equitable, fair, just world through the lens of marijuana,” Van Ness added. “Remember, this is a long fight, and we need our resilience, we need our patience.”

It’s not the first time Parabola Center has hosted big-name speakers—or even Warren herself. About a year ago, Warren and her fellow senator from Massachusetts, Ed Markey (D), addressed attendees at an earlier Parabola event.

Warren’s latest comments echo the earlier ones, with warnings about the influence of Amazon and other big businesses and a call to prioritize equity in cannabis policies.

Markey, for his part, said last year that “we know all too well that the war on drugs was a failure,” adding that the same communities that have been disproportionately criminalized under prohibition “stood up and fought for a different future.”

“It is because of their leadership that we are seeing a significant change to cannabis law all across the United States,” he said.

Like Warren, however, Markey emphasized that “our work is only just beginning.”

“A patchwork of local and state laws creates confusion and barriers that big business exploits to make big bucks at the expense of communities already decimated by the war on drugs,” he said at the time. “Congress must legalize cannabis and prioritize equity.”

Meanwhile, a new survey released by Parabola Center in May indicates that Americans in general want to limit the influence of big business on the cannabis market. In it, nearly two thirds of American adults said they wanted legalization laws to prioritize social equity (68 percent), end cannabis arrests (68 percent) and ensure that people have legal access to marijuana products (65 percent).

The vast majority—85 percent—also thought legalization should benefit people who use marijuana as medicine, while 63 percent said the policy change should benefit those who use cannabis for pleasure.

Fewer than a quarter of respondents, meanwhile, trusted pharmaceutical company executives (24 percent), the federal government (22 percent) or tobacco (18) or alcohol (13 percent) executives to make good policy.

“These survey results refine the idea that most Americans support legalization—it’s because they support people, not because they care about corporate profits,” Parabola Center co-founder Shaleen Title told Marijuana Moment when the survey was published. “As policymakers navigate the evolving cannabis landscape, if they want to be responsive to voters, then they should prioritize the needs and concerns of the public, particularly those communities most harmed by the War on Drugs, over the financial interests of large corporations.”

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Photo element courtesy of Gage Skidmore.