Portland’s liberal Mayor has proposed that the city spend more than $10m on marijuana initiatives for the next year. This is nearly twice the amount requested by the city to hire additional police officers.

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Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D.), made it a point of stressing his intention to increase investment in public safety. He announced in early may that he intended to spend $5.3 Million to hire 43 additional police officers in order to better combat rising vehicle thefts and retail thefts. The mayor did not make it public that the city would spend almost twice as much money on marijuana initiatives.

Wheeler’s proposed budget includes $3 million for an “ongoing Cannabis Fund” and $7 million for a “one time Cannabis Fund”. Of the $10 million allocated to marijuana programs, $2.3 is designated to fund so-called Social Equity and Education Development Grants, which are disbursed to correct “past racist cannabis policies and disparate arrests related to cannabis” and to support “Black and Indigenous peoples of Color (BIPOC), and women-led/owned small businesses initiatives.”

Portland is dealing with an astronomical number of homeless people, drug overdoses and violent crimes. In the past three years, the number of shootings has tripled, the number homicides is at a record high, and the homeless population has increased by 20%.

Mingus Mapps told the Los Angeles Times that “you don’t need to watch Fox News” to see what’s going on in Portland.

Portland is home to the lowest number of police officers per capita among major American cities. Research shows that this leads to increased crime. According to a 2016 Obama administration report for instance, “police reduce crimes on average.” An increase of 10 percent in police hiring results in a crime decrease between 3 and 10 percent.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the mayor’s office said the budget included more money to fund marijuana initiatives because the $10m spent on weed came from the city’s recreational tax. However, there are restrictions about how the money can be spent. The mayor’s office cited Portland Ballot Measure 26,180 which allows city cannabis tax money to be used for “public safety investments such as police DUII enforcement and training.”

Portland’s previous “social equity” marijuana grants went to expunging criminal record and subsidizing marijuana licenses, rent, fees and other costs for qualified BIPOC candidates. A large portion of that money, roughly $7 million, is scheduled to go to Reimagine Oregon. This nonprofit says that “systemic racism has been a virus which has plagued America since its very beginnings.”

The website of the group states that “Black lives are literally shown to not matter in every aspect of American Society.” Remagine Oregon is funded by the city to support “communities that are disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition.”

Portland’s Treasury is not only putting money into liberal causes.

Portland is looking to spend $50,000 to conduct a “Black Reparations Study”, which will “examine how reparations can bring harmed community into parity”. A similar investigation in San Francisco concluded that the city would have to pay each eligible African American $5,000,000, a sum estimated to cost around $175 billion.

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The city has also allocated $115.200 for a “Equity Summit” to be held in the LGBTQIA+ Community, as well as community engagement and training of city staff. Another initiative entitled “Site Assessment for My People’s Market” will receive $137,000 to “fund a site relocation assessment” for a “marketplace aimed at improving opportunities for BIPOC Entrepreneurs.”

The city will also spend up to $109 512 on a government official tasked with “broadening diversity and inclusion” within the city government.