Indopedia All Things Marijuana
A recreational cannabis legalization bill was filed in the New Jersey state senate last month, but with anti-weed Governor Chris Christie still in office until January, most lawmakers are waiting until 2018 to make any significant moves. For the national cannabis advocacy group the Drug Policy Alliance, though, a dead-serious legalization push has already started. To set the tone for New Jersey’s fight for legalization, the group already released a new video detailing the racial injustices of prohibition and positive social justice changes that could come with full-scale legalization.
In the video, a host of New Jersey’s social and political leaders talk about the dangers of the war on drugs, including the stark racial divide in cannabis arrests by race, with black residents three times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite similar rates of use across racial lines. The video was directed by Brave New Films, a California based social justice non-profit and features local New Jersey leaders like Richard Smith of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference, Reverend Charles Boyer of Bethel A.M.E. Church of Woodbury, and Kathy Wright of the New Jersey…
