Why New York Needs To Go Back To The Future

Written by RYAN LEPORE

New York, it's about time...it's time we explore our roots, and at the same time leave the past behind. I mean this in the Marty Mcfly sense, we have been stuck in the past - and we have to go back to the future - to being the future. The future that was once the idea of New York, the idea of America - the idea of worldly change. Ending prohibition is a true testament towards transcending our past - a drug war that centered and amplified at its inception within the Big Apple.

When we talk about the American Revolution, nearly one-third of all battles were fought on NY land - a war that created our existence as a country. This has been no different in the context of cannabis - which for many years NYC held the worldwide arrest record and essentially carries the largest law enforcement budget in the world, making it the law enforcement capital of the world. While at the same time, NYC has grown to be the largest cannabis consuming city in the world - even within the midst of criminalization. For the past few years due to its population size and importance nationally, New York is considered the last domino to fall to bring the country towards federal legalization. If we beat back prohibition here - we will alter and influence a future that will be sought after not just in this country but worldwide. We are at the cusp of addressing deeper rooted issues that come from a cultural dynamic set forth from our forefathers.

New York City, was originally a Dutch settlement called New Amsterdam before being sold to the English. Before colonization - it was native to the “Lenape” tribe. It has been a centerpiece of financial markets, some of which, a past rooted in slavery and southern sympathetic economics - something that came from the Dutch and English who were not only some of the biggest slavers but also bankers of the world. Wall Street was infamously known for its slave trade, placing slaves upon a “Wall” for purchase - today Wall Street in the same breath offers a financial opportunity that is again seemingly disconnected from the value of human life for financial gain.

In cannabis, the influence of big money not attuned to social responsibility consistently attempts to shackle and own something it was never entitled to, a theme that is far too old. Within the past couple of years, various state regulated programs experience issues with legalization and licensing due to the same types of forces that seek to control the process in New York.

The idea of America was originally conceived as the means to end the oppressive dynamics in the “Old World”, to create a new future, though sadly our forefathers did this at the expense of natives. If we seek to truly be the future of the country, and the world - we, the natives must fight for our freedom here - to truly step away from an oppressive past. We have an opportunity to finally uplift the people that have been taken advantage of for so long, and for the culture of being the future - the timing has never been better.

In 2021, NY has new state legislative political dynamics (a democratic supermajority), and an upcoming NYC election that will result in new leadership - leaving a timeless opportunity to voice our demands for a better future, unlike we have had in the past.

In other states, the cannabis industry has been able to incorporate first-step measures surrounding social equity and reparations that have failed to be incorporated into traditional and current American industries. These types of measures seek to provide economic opportunity and empowerment towards our true pioneers and legacy market operators, the already existing cannabis industry. Even furthermore - this idea being at the core of ending prohibition in a state like New York, leads us towards a new nationwide precedent that may transcend cannabis policy alone.

The vehicle for the future has been laid out for us - it is just a matter of us determining its course, do we stay where we are? Or do we venture into something we have never seen before.