UK advised to recruit former dealers if cannabis legalized

Shaleen Title, Commissioner in charge of legal cannabis sales in Massachusetts, has advised the UK to follow her state's example and recruit former dealers or people involved in the illegal cannabis market in the event of legalization.

Massachusetts has legalized cannabis in 2016 and is currently championing a project to rehabilitate former drug dealers and help them enter this now-legal market. 150 people, both former dealers and residents of certain areas in and around Boston where drug-related arrests were most frequent, have so far been recruited.

«They already have skills acquired over the years. It's a way of giving the people and voters who supported the legalization of our referendum what they wanted. They didn't want to entrust industry to a few giant companies who will exploit it.

«We're on our first project with 150 people and have launched an offer to vendors that can teach them how to produce regulated cannabis. It also includes a home ownership program to train people who were once entrepreneurs in the underground market.»

Title defends the plan to absorb ex-dealers and convicted drug offenders, stating, «The general model, not only in Massachusetts, but in Illinois and California, is to bring a now legal industry to these communities, it's a a fundamental issue of equity and justice.»

If during the drug prohibition, If, after legalization, you put the safety of these communities first, you can't just tell them: too bad, only big business can do your job for you. How could that be fair?»

Shaleen Title's speech was held on the sidelines of discussions with parliamentarians in Westminster this week, and was accompanied by two other American medical cannabis experts. In particular, they argued for the need to liberalize british drug laws, as many American states are doing. New York and New Jersey are expected to be the next two states to legalize cannabis use in the United States, and Mexico, Luxembourg and the Netherlands at national level.