Revolution is more than a slogan, it’s a demand for justice, equity, and bold fiscal reform. And regardless personal feeling, if it involves the creation of another billion dollar a year, generational wealth building industry, Black American Descendants of slaves can’t be locked out, yet again.
In Pennsylvania, it means confronting the entrenched inequities that have robbed generations of students of opportunity. That has left politically neglected and left behind Black communities disproportionately burdened with property and school taxes.
It means using the potential legalization and taxation of recreational marijuana not as a novelty to stuff money into the pockets of a privileged select few, but as a transformative tool to abolish outdated property taxes, repair the damage of criminalization, and fund our schools with justice.
Revolution means rejecting outdated property tax formulas that further harm poor communities.
The Crisis: A System Rigged Against the Poor
Pennsylvania’s public schools are underfunded by $6.2 billion, with 51% of the shortfall concentrated in the poorest districts—districts that disproportionately serve Black and low-income students (Public Interest Law Center).
157 districts face a shortfall of $4,000+ per student, leaving children without basic resources, qualified teachers, or safe facilities (Research for Action).
Property taxes, our primary school funding source, are wildly unequal, with some counties using assessments from the 1960s (TribLIVE).
Despite decades of promises, including from the region’s current progressive leadership over the past 8-10 years, federal funding has consistently bypassed the communities most in need, often diverted by outdated formulas, political priorities, privilege, bureaucratic barriers, and performative “Social Club” politics.
Revolution begins by recognizing that Pennsylvania’s funding system isn’t broken, it’s been rigged for generations.
The Opportunity: Marijuana as Critical Reparative Revenue
Left behind Black communities and their schools need a revolution, not more patchwork funding measures.
Current leaders continue pouring taxpayer money into a failed system, chasing and promoting the illusion of progress, while pacifying well-resourced communities and leaving the most neglected ones behind.
Not only have the most in need communities been ignored by leadership, more sinister Black existence, erasure measures are being enacted as law. These communities need entirely new and alternative educational structures.
Legalizing adult-use marijuana in Pennsylvania could generate $1–1.4 billion in tax revenue over four years (Marijuana Policy Project). Gov. Shapiro’s budget projects $540 million annually from cannabis taxes (MSN). States like Colorado and Illinois have already used cannabis revenue to fund education, infrastructure, and community reinvestment (ABC27).
Let’s stop sending our tax dollars to New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. Let’s legalize it here and fund our future (WVIA).
The Harm: Criminalization’s Legacy
Black Pennsylvanians are nearly 4x more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession (ACLU PA). The revolution must include automatic expungement and community-led, targeted reinvestment.
Every year, over 600,000 people in the U.S. are arrested for marijuana offenses—more than for all violent crimes combined.
Despite similar usage rates across races, Black Americans are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white Americans. A single marijuana conviction can derail a person’s life, making it harder to secure housing, employment, education, or even access to public assistance.
Between 2011 and 2016, Pennsylvania alone suspended over 149,000 driver’s licenses for non-driving drug offenses, many tied to marijuana possessions. In 2013, 13,000 people were deported from the U.S. for drug-related offenses, tearing families apart over a substance now legal in many states.
The war on marijuana has filled prisons with Black folks, while corporate dispensaries now profit from the same activity that once led to incarceration.
In Washington, D.C., two years after decriminalization, a Black person was still 11 times more likely than a white person to be arrested for public marijuana use. These are not just statistics, they are stories of lost potential, fractured families, and communities stripped of opportunity.
The Mandate: Cultivating Bold Leadership
Residents in left-behind politically neglected communities must work like never before to cultivate leadership that will demand a revolution, not more decades of delay.
New dedicated leadership that will fight and work to Legalize marijuana with equity reinvestment (Marijuana Moment).
Only 2% of cannabis businesses nationwide are Black owned, despite Black Americans being disproportionately targeted by marijuana criminalization for decades. Without bold leadership, legalization risks becoming another system that profits off Black pain while excluding Black prosperity.
In states like New Jersey, not a single cannabis license was awarded to a Black-owned business during initial rounds, despite Black communities bearing the brunt of arrests and incarceration. This is not oversight; it is systemic exclusion.
Black men receive drug sentences that are 13.4 times longer than white men for the same offenses yet are rarely positioned to benefit from legalization’s economic boom. New leadership must rewrite this injustice into opportunity.
Federal cannabis tax revenue is projected to exceed $100 billion by 2030, but without intentional policy, historically harmed communities will remain locked out of ownership, investment, and generational wealth.
The War on Drugs cost the U.S. over $1 trillion, with Black communities absorbing the deepest wounds. Legalization without reparative leadership is a continuation of that war by other means.
Cannabis equity programs are underfunded, delayed, or dismantled in many states, leaving Black entrepreneurs without the capital, mentorship, or access needed to succeed. We need leaders who will fight for equality, not just talk about it.
Residents in these most impacted communities must New Black leaders who will work together collectively to eliminate or drastically reduce property/school taxes in underfunded districts (ABC27).
Committed leaders who will demand expungement and restorative justice (DocMJ). Reject outdated funding formulas and reassessment delays (TribLIVE). If they won’t fight for us, we must vote them out immediately. This organization has been actively drafting and submitting potential inclusive, Proctective, and tangible policy and legislative bills for introduction by local elected officials.
The Movement: #RevolutionForEquity #Weedoutinequality #weedoutuselessleadership
This is our moment. We must mobilize around a bold, urgent campaign:
- Legalized marijuana could bring over $1 billion in tax revenue to Pennsylvania
- New bipartisan marijuana legalization bill gains momentum
- Disparities in Pennsylvania school districts by funding adequacy
- The harm of marijuana prohibition
- Governor Shapiro’s budget calls for cannabis revenue to close equity gaps
- Proposal to eliminate property taxes in Pennsylvania
Let’s make Revolution more than a word. Let’s make it a movement.
Join the campaign. Share the message. Demand justice. #RevolutionForEquity
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