Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us this afternoon at the reagan building. We are thrilled to be back. It has been an incredible and exciting morning of discussions today. Im especially excited about our next talk because it features two people i really admire. One is a professor of digital storytelling and interim provost of education at George Washington university. She is also a close friend an incredible supporter of cannabis advocacy and also an incredible advocate for the power of storytelling. The second person im excited to introduce today is gary chambers, who is running for senate in louisiana. I think if we can talk about the power of storytelling, that mr. Chambers experienced and what we are seeing with him as far as he has captured public attention is a testament to the power of storytelling. Without further ado, i would love to bring our next two speakers to the stage for what im certain will be an interesting discussion. [applause] hello. Good afternoon,
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us this afternoon at the reagan building. We are thrilled to be back. It has been an incredible and exciting morning of discussions today. Im especially excited about our next talk because it features two people i really admire. One is a professor of digital storytelling and interim provost of education at George Washington university. She is also a close friend an incredible supporter of cannabis advocacy and also an incredible advocate for the power of storytelling. The second person im excited to introduce today is gary chambers, who is running for senate in louisiana. I think if we can talk about the power of storytelling, that mr. Chambers experienced and what we are seeing with him as far as he has captured public attention is a testament to the power of storytelling. Without further ado, i would love to bring our next two speakers to the stage for what im certain will be an interesting discussion. [applause] hello. Good afternoon,
This month, a group of nonprofit organizations began distributing $1.33 million in taxpayer funds to Portland cannabis businesses. The program and its financing, called Cannabis Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), are unconventional, for the beneficiaries—cannabis-related businesses—, for the relative speed with which they moved through City Hall, and for the lack of transparency as to where those taxpayer dollars have been distributed. Approved in December 2021, CERF diverts cannabis-generated tax revenue to support the economic recovery.