Chicago suburbs to introduce hashish tax to finance repairs to blacks

In Evanston, Illinois, city officials are developing a plan for racial equity - with a focus on hashish. Chicago suburbs voted to tax the sale of cannabis - which is expected to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars each year - to fund race-based repairs for its black residents."Our community has been damaged because of the drug war and convictions for possession of marijuana. This is an opportunity to correct this, "Robin Street Simmons, a black city councilor who represents the historically black Fifth Ward, told the Washington Post. “Our disadvantage and discrimination continued well beyond the end of the Jim Crow and slavery laws. "

The plan stems from the idea that African Americans should benefit disproportionately from the sale of cannabis, said Mr. Simmons, because they have been disproportionately affected by the crackdown on marijuana - on a scale national and local. In the past three years, nearly three-quarters of those arrested for possession of marijuana in Evanston have been African-American, according to municipal officials. [link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]