OUR PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES
• Ensure Racial Equity in the Cannabis Industry - We are a mission driven organization and our driven by the need to ensure that the community most ravished by the criminalization of marijuana, has a strong voice, strong ownership and strong record of employment in the Cannabis industry.
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• Create Viable African American Businesses - Our strong belief is that healthy African American businesses will employ more African Americans, and create wealth within the African American community. The legalization of cannabis is a wonderful opportunity to create those businesses.
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• Reduce Racial Disparities - Business and wealth creation in the African American will lead directly to reducing MN disparities in housing, unemployment and housing.
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• Strengthen the African American Business Voice in MN -
o CREATE seeks to help establish a long term voice for African Americans not just in the MN’s cannabis industry, but also to establish a model of what that can look like in other industries.
o CREATE also realizes that one of the marks of a successful business community is a strong network. We seek to fully socialize the African American business voice into Minnesota’s entrepreneurial community.
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• Eliminate Barriers to the Legal Market - We realize that prior and targeted criminalization of African Americans around cannabis, along with wealth disparities in the African American community could create barriers to African Americans procuring access to the cannabis industry. We will help to ensure those barriers are addressed and/or removed.
• Address Criminal Cannabis Records - While legalization of cannabis is to automatically remove cannabis related misdemeanors, there are more serious offenses that have grown out of the criminalization of the industry - on a case by case basis we seek to ensure that those who have served their time, and moved in a verifiably, more positive direction are able to access the industry, not only for themselves but in order to build generational wealth for their descendants.
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• Minnesota Businesses First - For equity to occur within the industry, Minnesota must create an industry in which local economies and talent are valued first.