The War on Marijuana in Black or White? A new report by the American Civil Liberties Union examines the consequences of strict marijuana laws at both the state and federal levels. The ACLJ points out that the current system has created an unjust and ineffective criminal justice system and has left communities of color with limited access to medicine and legal assistance. In addition, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars on drug arrests, more than half of which are for marijuana possession.
The War on Marijuana in Black or White focuses on the explicit racism of marijuana policy in the U.S., which was a major component of the War on Drugs. The ACLU says that politicians from both parties have used marijuana to divide the country. They portray marijuana as a dangerous and unsavory import from Mexico. They say that blacks are arrested at 2.6 times the rate of whites, and they make up 30 percent of those who are arrested for marijuana offenses.
The disproportionate rate of blacks in arrests for marijuana possession is a troubling trend. A new video by hip hop legend Jay Z depicts the consequences of the drug war on the Black community. The video follows the drug war from Nixon’s Rockefeller Drug Laws to the rise of the aboveground marijuana industry. While the emerging marijuana industry creates millions of new jobs and investments, generations of black people have spent years in jail for being caught with marijuana. And as the U.S.’s criminal justice system continues to fail the most vulnerable communities, it is important to remember that we are still at the beginning of a movement that needs to end the drug war.
In 1937, Harry J. Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, sought to ban marijuana. He claimed that blacks were more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites, and that marijuana was more widely used by minorities. Ultimately, the federal government made the decision to ban the drug. Regardless of the fact that it may be a safer way to deal with drug abuse, the results have been devastating.
While it is still difficult to determine the cause of the drug war in America, it has been proven that black communities are disproportionately arrested for marijuana. However, the disparity between black and white arrests in the United States is staggering. In Missouri, for instance, blacks were arrested for possession of marijuana at nearly twice the rate of whites. In other words, the War on Cannabis in the US is a racially based crime that aims to punish non-whites.
While the U.S. has a disproportionate number of black people in jail, the war on marijuana is a disproportionately racial crime. In addition to black and Hispanic arrests, whites are nearly four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than black people in the same state. Sadly, this disparity isn’t going away anytime soon. Further, legalizing marijuana is a great opportunity for many in these communities.
As the legal status of marijuana in the US has changed, its impact on the black community is now more problematic. In addition to affecting black communities, the war on marijuana also disproportionately affects thin mint girl scout cookies seeds Hispanics and people of color. Further, the drug’s racial impact on society was further exacerbated by its widespread use in the 1930s. As a result, the War on Marijuana has become a largely racial problem.
Despite the growing demand for legal marijuana, the United States’ marijuana-related arrests are disproportionately black and Hispanic. In fact, a study published in 2013 found that marijuana possession arrests accounted for 61 percent of all drug arrests in Wisconsin in 2018. The report also found that white people were 4.2 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than blacks. Those statistics were a far cry from the reality in the U.S.