At the latest Springfield City Council meeting, a debate over cannabis grants turned into a much bigger conversation about fairness, barriers and the city’s history.
Key moments in the video:
- A push to remove felony-related language and extra documentation hurdles from local cannabis grant contracts, after concerns they’re scaring off the very people the funds were meant to help.
- Questions about why cannabis grant recipients on the east side face stricter scrutiny and more steps than other big-ticket city payments.
- A proposal for a new “1908 Race Riot Repair Commission” to review city systems and identify outdated policies that still create barriers today.
- A blistering public comment linking cannabis revenues, police pensions, insider contracts, and decades of broken promises on the east side — and calling on the council to back the new commission.
If you care about how Springfield spends cannabis dollars, treats residents with records, or addresses historic injustice, this one is worth watching.
