The struggle to end America's disastrous war on drugs is a struggle for common sense, for human rights, and of course for racial justice. How could it not be, given the extraordinary and disproportionate extent to which people of color - and especially black people - are arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated for drug offenses?
Almost everyone gets it these days. The U.S. Senate recently voted unanimously to reform the racially discriminatory federal crack/powder mandatory minimum drug laws. Last year New York finally approved a major reform of the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws that have sent hundreds of thousands of people - overwhelmingly black and Latino - to prison for absurd lengths of time. In Connecticut a few years ago, the state legislature passed - and Republican Governor Rell signed - a bill to reform the state's crack/powder laws. And this year New Jersey became the first state to reform its popular but notoriously unjust and counterproductive "drug free school zone" law.
I highlight each of these efforts because my colleagues at the Drug Policy Alliance played such a pivotal role, but similar efforts are underway across much of the country. We're increasingly successful in part because of the growing awareness among legislators, community leaders and activists - black, Latino, and white - that reforming these laws is a racial justice priority.
Of all our drug law reform efforts, however, marijuana law reform should be at or near the top of our racial justice priorities. Why? Of the 1.8 million drug arrests made last year, 750,000 were for nothing more than possession of a small amount of marijuana. That represents more than 40% of all drug arrests. The best available national evidence indicates that blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates - but that black people are three times more likely to be arrested for possessing marijuana.
Most of those arrested aren't immediately handed a lengthy sentence. But they are handcuffed, taken to jail, put into databases of criminal offenders, and often end up spending days, weeks, months and in some cases years behind bars. These arrests produce permanent criminal records that can disqualify people for jobs, housing, schooling and student loans. Those 750,000, I should note, don't include the untold thousands of people on parole and probation for other minor offenses who land in jail because they fail a drug test for marijuana or are caught with a joint.
Clearly marijuana prohibition is unique among American criminal laws. No other law is both enforced so widely and harshly yet deemed unnecessary by such a substantial portion of the populace. Recent polls show that over 40% of Americans think that marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol; it's roughly 50% among Democrats, independents, adults under age 30, and voters in a growing number of western states.
What's difficult to understand is how and why the number of people arrested annually for marijuana possession has doubled during the past twenty years - even as support for ending marijuana prohibition has also doubled during the same period of time.
The best explanation I've seen of increasing marijuana arrests is a fine report by Harry Levine and Deborah Small, "The Marijuana Arrest Crusade in New York City: Racial Bias in Police Policy 1997-2007". In New York City, where I live, 46,500 people were arrested for marijuana possession last year; 87 percent of these people were black and Latino. The NYPD arrests Latinos for marijuana possession at four times the rate of whites, and blacks at seven times the rate of whites. It's not that young black and brown men are more likely to smoke a joint in public; it's that they're much more likely than most other New Yorkers to be stopped and searched - and then arrested when the police find in their pockets what they'd also find in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of other New Yorkers, if they looked.
New York City's marijuana arrest rate qualifies it as "the marijuana arrest capital of the world" but this is very much a national problem. In California, 61,400 people were arrested for marijuana possession in 2008, a 300 percent increase since 1990. In California, black people made up less than 7 percent of the state population but 22 percent of people arrested for all marijuana offenses and 33 percent of all marijuana felony arrests in 2008. More black people are arrested in California for marijuana felonies than whites, although there are six times more whites in the state population - and huge numbers of white people involved in growing and selling marijuana.
We can change this! Californians will have a chance to vote this November on a ballot initiative that would legalize possession and cultivation of modest amounts of marijuana and allow localities to choose to tax and regulate production and distribution of larger amounts. One of the first leaders to endorse the ballot initiative was Alice Huffman, the influential head of the California NAACP. A poll in late April found 56% of Californians in favor of legalizing marijuana. Support was 59% among whites, 58% among Asian Americans and 67% among black people; only Hispanics leaned against, with 45% in favor and 53% opposed.
Change is afoot in New York City as well, although it's going to be tough. The Drug Policy Alliance and our allies are working hard to turn the NYPD's marijuana arrest policy into a political issue. Why, we want to know, did arrests for marijuana possession increase from a few thousand a year in the early 1990s to almost 50,000 today? Why are nearly 90% of those arrested black and Latino, mostly young men? Where's the evidence that this arrest policy does anything whatsoever to make the city safer? Indeed, where's the evidence that most New Yorkers even approve of such a policy? So far as I can tell, most New Yorkers would much prefer that police focus their attention on genuine threats to public safety.
Ending marijuana prohibition is a racial justice issue and an essential step in ending the war on drugs. Today, there is an emerging wave of marijuana law reform across the country. While political and community leaders from every racial and ethnic group are generally nervous about stepping out on this issue, more and more are beginning to do so. What's needed now is bold leadership and action. My colleagues and I are getting the word out, raising consciousness and beginning to organize as we have on other drug policy reform campaigns. We hope you'll join us, and encourage other individuals and groups to step out as well. The time is now.
Ethan Nadelmann is the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org)
* This article originally appeared on Change.org
Follow Ethan Nadelmann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EthanNadelmann
It began with slavery when"cotton is king" was the cry. Anyone could grow Hemp and make their own clothes and cotton would have a much lower value, so slave owners lobbied to make it illegal. Now that most of today's fabrics are plastic made from oil, the oil companies wants it kept illegal to grow, so they lobby to keep it in place.
The strangest thing about every law congress passes, the "bottom line" is to earn money for those who have it already and take it away from those who need it most.
In your haste to pump out a piece you didn't do your homework.
You say CA is only 7% black.
You also say CA has six times more whites than blacks [42%].
You didn't take into account that most drug problems are in the cities and that cities have different Demographics than the States average.
- You took the % black vs white from the WHOLE State.
- You took the arrest numbers only from cities. Presumably only some Cities.
[Arrest data by race isn't calculated for the whole State because no agency in CA does that. I know this because my brother is a Cop in CA and I called and asked for said numbers.]
Sacramento - 14.4% Black - 38.3% non-Hispanic White [not 7% - 42%]
Los Angeles - 9.9% Black - 29.3% non-Hispanic White [not 7% - 42%]
San Bernardino - 18.4% Black - 28.2% non-Hispanic White [not 7% - 42%]
There is also a significant Asian population in CA.
Calling them 'white' to empower the illusion?
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The drug companies are going to latch onto it and it might well get more expensive.
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Prisons are the one industry in America that continues to expand even throughout the current recession! How disturbing is that?!
Since it's primarily activities are IN OTHER COUNTRIES, please explain what it has to do with arrest rates or prison populations within the US.
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do you SERIOUSLY need someone to explain it to you? how about reading the article? that usually helps.
The truth is, it's accomplished nothing other than adding a lot of non-violent individuals to our prison system! It's allowed our government to behave like an intrusive police state. It's created dangerous gangs and cartels who battle for the profits. It's increased crime! It's stifled industry! It's caused unnecessary suffering for sick people. It's wasted huge quantities of taxpayer money with absolutely zero positive results!
There's a myriad of reasons the "Drug War" should be dropped. But even if the only reason were to allow some people to get high, it would be no business of yours, the government's or any group that might call itself "Mad Mothers Against Adults-capable-of-taking-responsibility-for-their-own-actions."
I tend to see these things as being closely related. The Drug War created black markets for selling drugs that concentrated in the inner cities, where coincidentally the law enforcement efforts are also concentrated, which results in higher numbers of minorities being arrested (even though drug trafficking occurs in white areas, as the author has pointed out), which then results in higher incarceration numbers and felony records that impede the ability of an individual to get a job or a school loan (also as the author pointed out)..which then creates a poverty cycle that results in more criminal activity to replace the legitimate economic activity that gets driven away by higher crime rates.. and around and around again. Legalizing drugs would eliminate the black market for drugs which would reduce the law enforcement type of presence in the inner cities away from interdiction efforts and back to a more peace keeping presence that protects citizens, which would also bring lower arrest rates, less individuals having criminal records impacting their futures, lower crime rates that would encourage more economic activity, education opportunities, etc.. We learned these lessons from alcohol Prohibition: the black market then was run by Mafia and crime rates exploded.
http://www.americandrugwar.com/
Enforcement of marijuana laws is just straight racism.
We got into the conversation about his arrest record. I really wanted to challenge him on it. His answer disarmed me. He basically explained that it's not that he treats people differently. It's that he's going to do his job wherever they put him. They put him in a mostly Black and Hispanic area in Queens. So, of course, he's going to pick up mostly Blacks and Hispanics.
But, the issue is that the higher ups put more pressure on cops in minority areas. When he was working downtown Manhattan, there was little to no pressure to make marijuana arrests. I believe this is why you could go down by NYU and find a lot of White folks smoking up in that area. You can find smoke shops and even tables with pipes, grinders, and stash kits, and so on. The culture is promoted freely with cops walking by like they see nothing.
Anyway, while locked up, the common question going around is: What you do? Most of the people were locked up for minor possession.
One guy's situation was sad because he didn't even smoke marijuana. It was his cousin's dime bag but it was in his car. Another guy, older, was in there for 2 dimes worth of marijuana. Yet, another guy was arrested for having the baggy but no weed. He'd already smoked it. It was just the specs of dust in the bag. There were some DWI's, open container, assault/battery, etc. There was one White kid that I saw the whole time in there for cocaine. But, the majority of the people, Black and Hispanic, were in there for simple marijuana possession.
NYC does NOT hand out tickets for marijuana possession. They arrest you, fingerprint you, and put you in front of the judge.
What's crazy, as a grower, I am usually always with marijuana. I've yet to be picked up for marijuana. I keep knocking on wood wondering if I'll ever get caught with it. I think it's all in how I carry myself. Yeah I got it, but it's nothing to think about.
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