Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Speaking Out About Weed And Racial Justice

During a Financial Services subcommittee hearing this week, freshman representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out about marijuana legalization. And in an exchange that went viral, AOC asked cannabis entrepreneur Corey Barnette if marijuana legalization is "compounding the racial wealth gap." "According to an industry trade publication, 73% of cannabis executives in Colorado and Washington are male, 81% are white," said Ocasio-Cortez during the hearings. "In the state of Massachusetts, just 3.1% of marijuana businesses in the state were owned by minorities, and just 2.2% were owned by women. Is this industry representative of the communities that have historically [borne] the greatest brunt of injustice based on the prohibition of marijuana?” "Absolutely not," replied Barnette, who is one of the nation's few African-American medical marijuana business owners. "It does not look like any of the people who are reaping the profits of this are the people who were directly impacted," Ocasio-Cortez concluded.