By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Among those getting a new job in the New Year is Toi Hutchinson.
She is a former state senator from Chicago’s south suburbs and has been Gov. JB Pritzker’s chief advisor on cannabis. But she is taking to the national stage as president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project.
“I’ll be interfacing with donors and funders and legislators and stakeholders and congressional folks and the industry itself and advocates and social justice warriors,” Hutchinson said. “A new day is here, the conversation has elevated, the conversation has changed, and I could not be more proud of it.”
Hutchinson says there has long been an unfairness in enforcement in that people of color are far more likely to be arrested for a marijuana-related charge than whites are. She says we can look back over the decades and say, marijuana was not as harmful as feared.
She was one of the “marijuana moms” in the General Assembly who put together Illinois’ recreational cannabis program. “We had a governor who was very adamant that we were going to concentrate on people first over the money,” Hutchinson said. “That’s why in Illinois we have 45 percent of all the money that comes in from cannabis either goes back to people or the community where they come from.
“That’s a good story to tell and its turning out to be a model for the rest of the country.”
Hutchinson says she will continue to live in Illinois.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
