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...