For a pure exercise in seeing what one wants to see, you could do worse than to peruse analysis of a new academic study on race and retail cannabis locations, first that of an Inland Empire daily newspaper and then by a weed-oriented media outlet.
Turns out, one person’s optimal access is another’s opportunistic “targeting.”
Riverside Press Enterprise/The Leaf Online
- In dissecting this paper, which was researched through USC’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute, the Press Enterprise focused on dispensary volume and unsanctioned Mary Jane retail in Black and Brown neighborhoods, highlighting the possibility of worsened health outcomes for minority and poor neighborhoods.
- TLO offered, “The data, while interesting, did not consider the public safety benefits of convenience, which reduces people’s driving time and the amount of gas used to pick up their cannabis. Nor did it consider the health benefits of easier access to medical marijuana as provided by the traditional market or the benefits of social use, such as lowering anxiety and reducing stress.”
