By Cat Packer
I went into law school thinking that I wanted to be a civil rights
attorney. As a black queer woman, I understood many of the social
injustices experienced by marginalized communities and wanted to use my
law degree to fight the many systems of oppression that plagued and
terrorized the communities that mattered to me. It wasn’t until my third
year of law school, that I that recognized current cannabis policies as
a legitimate social justice issue – particularly due to the way
marijuana prohibition is enforced.
In the United States, despite similar rates of consumption and sales across racial and ethnic lines, African Americans are 4x more likely to be arrested for a marijuana offense.
According
to Michelle Alexander, legal scholar and author of The New Jim Crow,
“Nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of
people of color in the United States than the War on Drugs.” During the
past two decades, this war, has been fueled largely by marijuana
arrests.
A 2010 ACLU report exposed
that almost half of all drug arrests were for marijuana and that 88% of
those arrests were for marijuana possession only.
For decades
police have targeted communities of color, using marijuana laws as their
legal excuse to stop, search, arrest, prosecute and criminalize Black
and Brown individuals while simultaneously and comparatively ignoring
the same conduct happening at similar rates in many white communities.
This is what is meant when folks say that the war on marijuana is a war
on communities of color.
This, however, should come as no surprise
as marijuana prohibition was racist from its inception.
Over 80 years
ago, America’s first Drug Czar, Harry Anslinger crusaded marijuana’s prohibition claiming
that black people and Latinos were the primary users of marijuana, and
that it made them forget their place in America’s society. The same
racial stereotypes and race mongering that allowed marijuana to be made
illegal are alive and well today.
Although more Americans than ever before want marijuana legalized,
communities of color continue to be disproportionately impacted by its
illegality. These disparities persist even in states that have made
reforms to cannabis policies through decriminalization, medical
legalization and adult use legalization. These continued disparities
further reinforce the ‘war on communities of color’ narrative.
As
long as there are penalties associated with marijuana use, and police
officers are able to continue to disproportionately enforce those
penalties without accountability, Black, Latino and low-income
communities will continue to be harmed by cannabis laws. And make no
mistake this harm is real.
In fact, the policing of communities of
color for marijuana offenses can be deadly. In July of 2016, St.
Anthony, Minnesota Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez killed Philando Castile
after Yanez allegedly feared for his life after Castile ‘had the
audacity to smoke marijuana’ in front of a 5-year-old child. Apparently
Castile’s second-hand marijuana smoke warranted death.
Furthermore, policing often haunts Black and Brown persons alleged to associate with cannabis even after their tragic deaths. Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray and
countless other deaths have been further stigmatized by police and
media who seek to use past experiences with marijuana to convey
criminality and justify what can only rightfully be described as
injustice.
Even non-fatal encounters with police carry negative
impacts that can last a lifetime. The collateral consequences of a
marijuana offense and accompanying record affect eligibility for public
housing, student financial aid, employment opportunities, child custody
determinations and immigration status. Moreover the experiences that
Black and brown communities have with law enforcement officials
regarding cannabis have diminished faith in, and respect for the law and
those that disproportionately enforce it.
Communities of color
are long overdue for relief in this racially enforced war on drugs.
Those who care at all about Black and brown communities must too come to
realize that past, current and future cannabis policies are a social
justice issue and that the war on drugs and the policing of communities
of color, particularly for marijuana possession, must come to an end.
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