Social Benefits of Legalizing Cannabis

Steve Adubato sits down with Ryan Haygood, President and CEO, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, to explore three major policy concerns that have not been addressed by Governor Murphy and shares how legalizing cannabis could help level the economic playing field for African Americans in NJ.

12/15/18 #231

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to State of Affairs. I am Steve Adubato. More importantly, we are coming to you from the Agnes Varis NJTV Studio in Newark, New Jersey. You know the studio well. This is Ryan Haygood, President and CEO, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. Good to see my friend. It's good to be here Steve. Thanks for having me. As always. Anything going on in your world? [laughter] You know, it's a busy time in our world generally. Didn't you just have a conference? We did. Didn't you just have a big conference? We did. We did. Didn't you just use the number 94 percent? Sure. And what does that number mean? I'm sorry, I was gonna joke around, and I realized it was serious business. Yeah. [laughter] 94 percent of what did what? Sure. So there was a Rally for the 94 Percent, which Steve was really inspired by a meeting that I and a bunch of other folks had with the governor back in May. Governor Phil Murphy? Governor Phil Murphy. And it was really a meeting to follow up on one of his transition committee reports. I had the honor of chairing one of Governor Murphy's transition committees. And in this committee we were able to get a number of policy recommendations around economic justice, around criminal justice reform, around voting. So this meeting in May with the governor was really to reassemble a number of folks who were working on the transition document, and who had been advocating for these issues. And Steve, it was at that meeting that the governor shared with us that he'd received 94 percent of the black vote. And this frankly was an interesting thing to share, given that folks in the room, mostly black, were very aware of how Governor Murphy got elected. So yes, he got 94 percent of the black vote. Governor Murphy got 82 percent of the Latino vote. But he only gets 47 percent of the white vote. Put differently, his opponent, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, got the majority, 53 percent of the white vote. So but for this... Why is all of this relevant? Well because, but for this robust support from black and Latino voters, it's unlikely that Governor Murphy becomes the governor. And so for us the question is, what is the value Steve? What's the value of 94 percent of the black vote? What's the value of 82 percent of the Latino vote? What's the value of near unanimous support from a particular demographic? Here, black voters. But okay, you're defining value... let me interpret this. Sure. In terms of public policy, what is it that you think? Sure. And your..."