cannabisnews.com: NAACP Signs Onto Pot Legalization Measure
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NAACP Signs Onto Pot Legalization Measure
Posted by CN Staff on June 28, 2010 at 14:58:28 PT
By Josh Richman, Oakland Tribune
Source: Oakland Tribune 
California --The state NAACP is expressing "unconditional support" for the November ballot measure to legalize marijuana, continuing proponents' framing of it as a civil rights issue. "We are joining a growing number of medical professionals, labor organizations, law enforcement authorities, local municipalities, and approximately 56 percent of the public, in saying that it is time to decriminalize the use of marijuana," state NAACP President Alice Huffman said in a news release Monday. "There is a strong racial component that must be considered when we investigate how the marijuana laws are applied to people of color."
The measure, Control and Tax Cannabis Initiative 2010, was designated Monday as Proposition 19.The Drug Policy Alliance will join the California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition at a news conference Tuesday morning in Sacramento to release a report, "Targeting Blacks for Marijuana," based on marijuana possession arrests of African Americans in California's 25 largest counties. The alliance says the report shows African Americans are arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites — at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites — even though the U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks use marijuana at lower rates than young whites.Huffman said data from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice shows half of California's marijuana possession arrestees in 1990 were nonwhite and 28 percent were under age 20, but in 2009, 62 percent were nonwhite and 42 percent were under age 20. Marijuana possession arrests of youth of color rose from about 3,100 in 1990 to about 16,300 in 2008 — a surge about three times greater than that group's population growth, she said."We have empirical proof that the application of the marijuana laws has been unfairly applied to our young people of color," Huffman said. "Justice is the quality of being just and fair and these laws have been neither just nor fair."San Diego-based nonprofit Californians for Drug Free Youth hosted an event Friday in Universal City so community leaders — including some African Americans — could speak out against the legalization measure."I had a good year in 2009; I only buried six youths related to drugs and drug overdoses," said Bishop Ron Allen, president of the International Faith Based Coalition. "If marijuana is legalized in the state of California, crime will increase, murder will increase. If marijuana is legalized in my community, and is legalized in my world, and our youth have an opportunity to be able to use, we will see more dropouts, we will see an increase of crime, and we will see more individuals hanging out on the corner, and I am seriously afraid we will lose generations to come."Former Los Angeles City Councilman and state Senator Nate Holden said he believes legalization won't stop Mexican drug cartels with big investments in marijuana. "They are here to stay, and they are going to destroy our society if we let them. We are going to fight them and we are not going to let them destroy us."Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)Author: Josh Richman, Oakland TribunePublished: June 28, 2010Copyright: 2010 MediaNews Group, Inc. Contact: triblet angnewspapers.com Website: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/vkmyl3YdCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by Storm Crow on June 30, 2010 at 11:44:10 PT
Canis...
I think they will get hit pretty hard when California legalizes this fall! Not fatally, but enough to sting! 
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Comment #5 posted by Canis420 on June 29, 2010 at 16:10:03 PT:
This comment
"Former Los Angeles City Councilman and state Senator Nate Holden said he believes legalization won't stop Mexican drug cartels with big investments in marijuana." it is true to some extent. The Cartels will not take a serious hit until the whole country legalizes Cannabis. 
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Comment #4 posted by MikeEEEEE on June 28, 2010 at 17:33:25 PT
racist without a doubt
I believe the first marijuana law was meant to keep out mexicans, then african americans later.
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on June 28, 2010 at 16:30:19 PT:
A major piece of the puzzle
has just fallen into place. That the drug laws were not only racist by application but racist by design is beyond question. By their own writings are the progenitors of the laws damned as bigots. http://www.drugwar.com/blackfiends.shtmYet, for the longest time, the minority community had been silent. It is silent no more. Those who may have once been ardent supporters of the very means used to re-enslave them have realized they are wearing manacles and have chosen to shed them. And are now defying their would-be slave-masters by repudiating the means of that re-enslavement.A major obstacle has been removed from our way. The DrugWar has always been a race -based war; 1 hour's worth of scholarship will prove that. But it's always been difficult to get the point across with certain organizations...whose members suffer disproportionately from the DrugWar. But now, the point's been made, and in doing so, a gauntlet has been thrown down. Attack the NAACP for its' contention that the DrugWar is racist, and you risk alienating a powerful voting bloc. With lasting repercussions. A minority political party that forgets that may remain a minority party in the coming elections if it attempts such a fool-hardy move.This will be another hot summer.
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on June 28, 2010 at 15:49:18 PT
Yes,
This Is Good.Minorities have paid a high price to maintain cannabinoid prohibition. But then that was the plan from the beginning; prohibit cannabis to punish, cage and to control minorities. Ending cannabis prohibition is another step in ending racial discrimination.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 28, 2010 at 15:07:34 PT
This Is Good
One step at a time. We have come far in not too many years.
[ Post Comment ]


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