Diversity and inclusion in the cannabis industry with Kevin Ford Jr., CEO of Uplift Maryland. Our next guest is the CEO of a platform that strives to increase diversity and inclusion within the emerging medical cannabis industry, ensuring that all communities, especially those of color, have an opportunity to participate in the economy of the future. Uplift Maryland was founded on the principle to take what the generation before has created and elevated it to the next level. You were able to make something that was once illegal and incarcerated many Black men and turn it into a positive by providing an education of opportunity, especially to those who have been marginalized by oppressive and unjust drug policies. At the time of this recording House, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) announced that lawmakers would soon be voting on a bill to decriminalize marijuana federally, leaving regulation up to the states. The vote would mark the first time either chamber of Congress ever voted on decriminalization of marijuana. In an email to lawmakers, Clyburn said the House would take up the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, first introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), which would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. The MORE Act would also expunge prior marijuana-related convictions, and impose a 5-percent sales tax which the federal government would reinvest in communities harmed by the “War on Drugs” through the creation of an Opportunity Trust Fund.

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