OP-EDS
Privatization enriches the
politically connected few
Feeling the
pulse on legal
canabis
Continued from Page 10 obligations.
— to the heart or lungs, for instance
— raises questions about whether secondhand
exposure to marijuana smoke
poses similar health risks.
Currently, state lawmakers are looking
to pass legalize cannabis and have
been holding community forums on the
issue to gauge local sentiment on the
issue particularly amongst underprivileged
but highly incarcerated populations
and getting them involved as the
state nears legalization.
Late last month, Brooklyn’s
Emmanuel Baptist Church (EBC), 279
Lafayette Ave. in Clinton Hill, became
the first church in the United States
to host a summit aimed at educating,
empowering and readying the black
community to participate in the budding
$11 billion cannabis industry,
according to organizers.
The legislation would legalize, regulate,
and tax marijuana under state law
along lines similar to the state’s current
system regulating alcohol, and would
represent a new approach for New York
State after decades of costly, counterproductive
policies that have produced
racially discriminatory outcomes.
The measure was introduced by State
Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan)
last December and would empower the
State Liquor Authority to act as the
primary regulatory agency. The cannabis
industry is currently valued at
$11 billion.
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Thus, privatization of profitable
enterprises or segments not only
perpetuates exclusion of the deserving,
but also worsens overall public
sector performance now encumbered
with remaining unprofitable
obligations.
One consequence is poorer public
sector performance, contributing to
what appears to be a self-fulfilling
prophecy. To make matters worse,
the public sector is then stuck with
financing the unprofitable, thus
seemingly supporting to the privatization
prophecy.
Benefits accrue to
relatively few
Privatization typically enriches
the politically connected few who
secure lucrative rents by sacrificing
the national or public interest for
private profit, even when privatization
may not seem to benefit them.
Privatization in many developing
and transition economies has
primarily enriched these few as the
public interest is sacrificed to such
powerful private business interests.
This has, in turn, exacerbated corruption,
patronage and other related
problems.
For example, following Russian
voucher privatization and other
Western recommended reforms, for
which there was a limited domestic
constituency then, within three
years (1992-1994), the Russian
economy had collapsed by half, and
adult male life expectancy fell by
six years. It was the greatest such
recorded catastrophe in the last six
millennia of recorded human history.
Soon, a couple of dozen young
Russian oligarchs had taken over
the commanding heights of the
Russian economy; many then monetized
their gains and invested
abroad, migrating to follow their
new wealth. Much of this was celebrated
by the Western media as
economic progress.
Continued from Page 10
State Senator, Roxanne Persaud.
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