Willamette Weekly reports. Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty announced her support for no longer “using Cannabis Tax Funds to fill funding gaps for the Traffic Division,” which was part of City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s package of proposed police reforms on Friday. Eudaly has long supported that change.
We believe over the next few weeks there’ll be a tsunami of these types of announcements around the country if cannabis taxes are ending up in the coffers of Police departments
WW goes on to say
The two are closely aligned on police issues. It’s not clear whether Mayor Ted Wheeler or City Commissioner Amanda Fritz will back any of these proposals. (Neither responded to requests made over the weekend for comment on Hardesty’s initial proposal.)
But there is new pressure on Wheeler to make changes at the Police Bureau.
In a June 8 letter to Eudaly from the Oregon Cannabis Association, the trade organization throws its support behind redirecting funds from the Portland cannabis tax from police and law enforcement to “social programs and services that aid African American, Latinx, and Native American people in our communities.”
The letter represents the voices of over 200 weed businesses that say they’re committed to supporting communities of color who they recognize have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.
“It is imperative that you take strong steps to end the distribution of these funds, even in the face of declining revenues, to the same law enforcement agency that very often is the perpetrator of similar actions that caused the demonstrations in Portland these past weeks,” the letter states.
The mayor has said he’ll announce his own package of reforms tomorrow.
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