| RIPTIDE | ▼ FLORIDA GENEVA CONTENTION riot law, which they say violates a long-stand- ing international treaty against racial discrimination. After racial-justice protests swept the coun- A try and the world in 2020, numerous states, in- cluding Florida, passed laws that broadened prohibitions against civil disobedience. Florida’s House Bill 1, the Combating Public Disorder Act, spurred major backlash from local civil rights groups who claimed it would disproportionately affect Black and brown communities who protest racial injustice. The Act, pushed through the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April 2021, broadened the definition of an il- legal “riot,” criminalized the act of blocking roads in protest, increased penalties for peo- ple found guilty of rioting and made it more difficult for municipalities to lower their po- lice budgets. In a report filed with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), local civil-rights groups, including the Community Justice Project (CJP) and Dream Defenders, claimed the bill effectively discourages people from protesting for fear of being arrested or worse. “Under…HB 1, Dream Defenders fears when disruptions by agitators happen again, rather than protect those exercising their First Amendment rights, police will be emboldened to respond with mass arrests of protestors or even physical force. This has GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS ▼ FLORIDA CANNABIS MARKETPLACE KUSH.COM TO TRANSPLANT ITS HEADQUARTERS TO THE SUNSHINE STATE. BY ALEX DELUCA GREEN PASTURES F 44 or the neighborhood dealer and big-shot cannabis CEO alike, selling weed can be stressful. There’s sourcing products and securing clien- tele; gaining exposure and outfoxing competi- tion; branding; and, of course, distributing. That’s why buddies Chase Nobles and Matthew Clise founded Kush.com, an online marketplace to help licensed cannabis producers, processors, and retailers connect and conveniently purchase and offload wholesale weed products via a mas- sive network of vetted sellers and buyers. MIAMI CIVIL-RIGHTS GROUPS URGE UN COMMITTEE TO CONDEMN FLORIDA’S “ANTI-RIOT” BILL. BY JOSHUA CEBALLOS group of Florida civil-rights attorneys flew to Switzerland last week with a mission: to tell the United Nations (UN) about Florida’s so-called anti- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through an “anti-riot” bill after 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests. Photo by Michele Eve Sandberg made members afraid to participate in demonstrations,” the groups write in a report entitled, “Chilling Public Dissent.” Reached by New Times via email, DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw sent a state- ment asserting the law was passed to give law-enforcement agencies the ability to quell riots in the interest of safety. “Peaceable assembly and free expression are respected in Florida, with countless pro- tests and demonstrations for various political groups and social causes organized around the state on a daily basis. However, there is no constitutional right to political violence,” Pushaw writes. The civil-rights groups claim the law vio- lates provisions of the International Conven- tion on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, an international human rights treaty that dates back to the 1960s and ostensibly guarantees all people a right to peaceful assembly regardless of race, color, ethnicity, or national origin. Though civil-liberties groups promptly sued DeSantis over the law in the U.S., CJP attorney Denise Ghartey, who is in Geneva along with fellow activist Ben Frazier of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, says bringing the fight to the UN is another prong in an effort to get the law overturned. “We’re here to present what’s been going on in Florida pertaining to HB 1 and talk about its racist nature and the threat to free- dom of speech the legislation poses on Black and brown communities in Florida,” Ghartey tells New Times. “If they’re not gonna listen to us on U.S. soil, we need to speak on the world stage.” Ghartey and Frazier are addressing CERD all week in hopes that the international com- mittee will urge the U.S. government to repu- diate anti-protest laws and get the Florida legislature to repeal HB 1. “We are saying that the state of Florida and governor have launched an all-out racially discriminatory attack on Black people and trying to turn back the hands of time, turn back the progress of the civil rights move- ment,” Frazier said in a press release. “So we are asking the international body to take a closer look at what the governor is doing.” This year’s CERD session ends on August 30, when the committee will issue its conclusions and recommendations to the U.S. delegation. Since its inception in 2014, the company has been headquartered in Seattle, the largest city in the first U.S. state to legalize recreational canna- bis. However, as first reported by Axios, the wholesale cannabis marketplace recently re- vealed that it will be relocating to Tampa. “We think Tampa is the ideal choice now and for the future,” John Lynch, Kush’s CEO, told Axios’ Selene San Felice. “Florida’s role in the global cannabis industry will only become more significant.” Though Florida only has legalized medical marijuana, the state is already home to a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry and boasts the nation’s largest medical cannabis market, dominated by giants like Trulieve and Surterra Wellness, which are consolidating the industry and expanding at a rapid clip. According to MJBiz, the Colorado-based news outlet for “WE THINK TAMPA IS THE IDEAL CHOICE NOW AND FOR THE FUTURE.” cannabis industry professionals, Florida’s medical marijuana industry is expected to rake in somewhere between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion in sales this year. If and when Florida legalizes recreational, adult-use weed, Kush stands to benefit in a big way. In 2014, Nobles and Clise founded Kush Tourism, which offers customers behind-the- scenes experiences of the industry in states where marijuana is legal. The network they built helped them launch Kush. com, which is now considered America’s largest business-to-business network of cannabis products. The online marketplace, accessible to anyone 21 and older with internet connection (but requiring a membership in order to sell products), features various storefronts and thousands of items, from wholesale CBD gummies to raw materials and grow equipment. The site allows users to filter products and stores by location, potency, price, testing, certifications, and environment. According to its website, Kush has more than 65,000 registered buyers and sellers and close to 30,000 active product listings. Axios reports that Kush recently purchased the Tampa-based cannabis brand strategy firm TradeCraft Origin, adding to TradeCraft’s lucra- tive network of restaurant chains, beverage com- panies, and retailers and appointing Lynch, the company’s founder, as Kush’s new CEO. [email protected] MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 AUGUST 18-24, 2022 NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com
