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KANSAS CITY — Now that Missouri is entering the medical marijuana industry, two Democratic lawmakers from Kansas City want to give businesses owned by women and minorities a slight edge in entering the market.
The Kansas City Star reports that the virtually identical proposals by Rep. Barbara Washington and Sen. Kiki Curls give minority- and women-owned businesses a 10-percent bonus when the state scores license applications on a variety of measurements.
Advocates of the bills say affirmative action is appropriate since studies have shown that marijuana-related arrests have typically fallen disproportionately on black and Latino users, even though white people use marijuana at about the same rate.
