HOUSE OF CANNABIS
Plans for an NYC cannabis museum are in the works
Former Las Vegas club owner Robert Frey has plans to transform a 30,000 square-foot space at 427 Broadway in the Soho neighbourhood of New York City into a cannabis museum, reports Mixmag.
The House of Cannabis will:
- Showcase cannabis culture art and historical artifacts over three floors
- Aim to demonstrate the evolution prohibition, cannabis culture and social justice movements
- Not sell any cannabis products
“We have so many citizens that don’t belong in jail [because of marijuana], we’d love to tell their story,” Frey said. “We don’t want to be in competition. We want to really help all the dispensaries, whether they want to use us to launch brands or however they see that we can help their programs.”
Enjoy Cannabis Daily each morning at 7 a.m.
NO CLEAN SLATE
Past cannabis convictions in Canada are still only being pardoned, not wiped clean
In an op-ed for Maclean’s magazine, Annamaria Enenajor of Canada’s Cannabis Amnesty advocacy group writes that after four years since legalization, it’s long past time for cannabis convictions to be erased, rather than simply pardoned.
The highlights
- Too much emphasis was placed on the economy and not on social justice in the lead-up to legalization in Canada, according to Enenajor
- The impacts of a criminal record are massive, such as trouble securing employment, housing, or even volunteer coaching a kids’ sports team
- 2019’s Bill C-93 allowed Canadians to apply for pardons, but the uptake has been very slow—only 536 pardons have been issued
- This year’s Bill C-5, which will be debated in the Senate this fall, would remove mandatory minimum sentences for many drug offences and would sequester simple possession conviction records two years after it passes
But neither go far enough, according to Enenajor, because they don’t fully expunge the criminal records. Instead, the system requires a full overhaul, she writes. “People don’t deserve to be punished in perpetuity for something they’ve already served time for, and in the case of cannabis, something that is now legal. We should clear these records. And now is the moment.”
DUTY FREE WEED?
Could cannabis help Toronto’s Pearson airport recover from the pandemic?
Lobbyist Clare Michaels has several ideas to help the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) recover lost revenues due to the pandemic—and one includes cannabis, reports Toronto Star.
In addition to expanding alcohol options and gambling, Michaels indicated in her lobbying disclosure form that she would investigate bringing cannabis retail into Pearson airport.
But the regulatory hurdles could prove to be too difficult. GTAA spokesperson Rachel Bertone said that they are just ideas for now, and the agency doesn’t have concrete plans to open a cannabis store.
