Now about that promise to address structural racism.

It hasn’t even been two weeks since Gov. Gavin Newsom, shaken by a night of violent upheaval over the death of George Floyd, stood in front of a camera at a black church in Sacramento and told all of us Californians that government had a duty to fix what was broken.

“The black community is not responsible for what is happening in this country right now,” he said. “We are. Our institutions are accountable.”

And yet, at a time when “defund the police” has become the mantra for those demanding justice for black lives, state lawmakers are getting ready to pass, and Newsom is presumably getting ready to sign, a budget bill that would shift dozens of sworn law enforcement officers to the Bureau of Cannabis Control — and make way for hiring more.

In all, a consolidated force of about 90 people will be tasked with uprooting California’s illegal cannabis market.

Of that number, more than half already work as sworn officers and managers for the Department of Consumer Affairs’ Division of Investigation Cannabis Enforcement Unit. The rest account for open positions, including about 30 jobs for special investigators that will be reclassified for sworn law enforcement officers.

Newsom’s administration insists the intent of the bill isn’t to turn non-sworn investigators into sworn officers. Rather, the language of it was necessary because the Bureau of Cannabis Control didn’t have any officers on staff and…