City of Somerville header
File #: 212241    Version: 1
Type: Resolution Status: Placed on File
File created: 8/24/2021 In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/26/2021 Final action: 12/9/2021
Enactment date: 8/26/2021 Enactment #: 212241
Title: Requesting the establishment of a restitution program for current and former residents who have been harmed by the war on drugs.
Sponsors: Wilfred N. Mbah, Jefferson Thomas ("J.T.") Scott, Ben Ewen-Campen

  Agenda Text

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Requesting the establishment of a restitution program for current and former residents who have been harmed by the war on drugs.

 

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Official Text

WHEREAS:                     In addition to and separate from reparations for slavery, Somerville also needs to grapple with its historic and ongoing complicit role in the racist war on drugs that has traumatized thousands of Black and Brown residents, and cheated many of their freedom, education, economic prospects, and in some cases their very lives, necessitating both an apology for the harms done and an effort to offer restitution; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT

 

RESOLVED:                      That the Mayor's office is hereby requested to direct the appropriate City staff to establish a restitution program that would take a to-be-determined percentage of revenue from local cannabis sales and distribute these monies to current and former Somerville residents who have been harmed by the war on drugs, with a targeted launch date of July 2022; AND BE IT FURTHER

RESOLVED:                     That the Mayor's office is hereby requested to report back to the City Council on any progress made toward this endeavor by October 4, 2021.