Racist Policing Persists Despite Cannabis Legalization, Bemoans New Report from Drug Policy Alliance – News

Photo “Even after legalization, racial disparities in the enforcement of the remaining marijuana-related offenses have persisted,” the DPA report remarks.

“Racial profiling needlessly entangles communities of color, youth and young adults, in the criminal justice system for nonviolent activities that are not enforced in other communities, such as public marijuana use. The targeted enforcement of minor marijuana-related activities ensnares hundreds of thousands of people in the criminal justice system while breeding mistrust of the police in these targeted communities, thereby reducing public safety. “

In a deep dive into the data behind the DPA study, 2016 Colorado Department of Public Safety report that shows cannabis-related arrests decreasing by more than 10% for white teenagers, while similar arrests increased by 50% for black teens.

In a look at the consistent policing threats against black women and their place in the changing tide of cannabis legalization, “You sit up there and look at a man who’s doing his job,” Nija Guider, one of the women arrested at the Georgia houseparty told the Huffington Post about her experience in jail, “while you can literally feel your life turning to shambles. “

It’s an amazing experience to be able to watch cannabis transition from outlawed weed to legal cash crop, but without also seeking justice for the people who were most seriously harmed by prohibition, legalization will be never reach its full potential, a sentiment that Jones expressed perfectly: “Reckoning with cannabis use in America is not as simple as legalizing it; not when racial biases within us – deep as the marrow – inflect our every experience with it, in industry, incarceration and elsewhere.

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