And while the pot proponents claim their cause to be noble - we asked about the little discussed fact that in a legal marijuana setting - your neighborhood "dur" or dealer won't have access to capital to open up a cannabis enterprise:
Jules Vasquez
"You all speak very knowably of, you know, the community empowering, but we have to accept also the gentrification of marijuana culture, that once you formalize these systems, the persons who have borne the brunt of the pain of prohibition, of being run down by the police, of being arrested, of being harassed, these persons are the ones who are excluded because a formal system, once you formalize it, it is set up for people who have access to capital and access to cash."
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"And that is one of the side effects, so to speak, of the illegal trade, of having it for decades long of the small man, remaining the small man in this industry forever."
"That is why I say it's an oppressive, archaic and racist law, because a small man never makes it big in the illegal trade. If he makes it big, it's because he had to strap up with guns, it's because he had to get ready for an all-out war with his competitors."
"That's the nature of turf war in an illegal trade. The young men on Caye Caulker, who are the small men, there are higher-paying jobs in the illegal cannabis industry. You might say, well, they don't want to work 9 to 5, but who's to say they can't be cutters in the industry, they can't be salesmen in the industry?"
"That's what they are now, they're salesmen. So why they can't work out of a dispensary? And so Caye Caulker has a very limited population that's actually involved in the illegal trade that's in the shadows that are willing to come to the light for a better salary."
