Stephen Gutwillig gets to the real heart of the matter:
How can the notion that marijuana is “here to stay” coexist with these rates of marijuana arrests? Apparently because the people caught in the crossfire aren’t considered part of the mainstream. In California, African-Americans are three times as likely as whites to be arrested for a pot crime, according to the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice. If you’re young and nonwhite, you are especially targeted.
The increase in marijuana possession arrests of California teenagers of color since 1990 is quadruple that group’s population growth.
In New York City, blacks and Latinos — who represent about half the city’s population — accounted for 86 percent of everyone charged with pot possession in 2008. The NYCLU report says federal studies show young whites use marijuana at higher rates than blacks and Latinos.
Supporters of marijuana prohibition often argue that few possession busts lead to incarceration. First, that argument ignores the countless parolees and probationers sent back to jail and prison nationwide for failing drug tests or being caught with a joint. And it seriously diminishes the lifelong stigma any criminal conviction has for many young people of color, whose educational and professional opportunities are severely curtailed as a result of racist enforcement.
[via Pete Guither]
I’m not a fan of Tom Wolfe’s often retrograde right wing attitudes, but in The Bonfire of the Vanities, Wolfe states that if there were magically and suddenly no black people in New York City, street crime would be virtually non-existent.
Is arresting a black street criminal for pot possession the equivalent of putting Al Capone in jail for tax evasion?
@1
Is arresting a black street criminal for pot possession the equivalent of putting Al Capone in jail for tax evasion?
No. Most young black people who smoke pot aren’t committing other, more serious crimes. But they get treated like they do – because they’re black. Young white people who smoke pot are not treated this way. It reveals the biases in how we view drug use.
Hmmm, I wonder what’s causing the huge upswing in drug crime when other crime rates are falling? Maybe Californians are too stoned to commit rape, murder, and mayhem?
Little by little, the laws against marijuana will crumble until it’s a fully-legal, taxed and regulated substance for adults who choose to enjoy it.
As far as young black kids and white kids go, marijuana wasn’t a problem until middle and upper class white kids started smoking it. As long as it was viewed as “something black people did among themselves,” it wasn’t a problem. Once whitey got into the act, however, then whites took notice and started raging against it.
Looks like vigorous enforcment of marijuana laws reduces violent crime.
CLASSIC!
Tim Lincecum, perhaps the best pitcher to ever come out of this fine state, got busted for marijuana possession a couple days ago in Clark County on I-5. He handed over the evidence and made no excuses. You have to respect a guy like that.
re 4: The Marihuana busines, as it is, is a perfect example of the free market in action.
Why would a good libertaRian like yourself want to tax it?
What’s wrong Lee? Running out of bail money for your CA. stoner pals? Waaahhhh!!! Cough, hack! Whoa! Dude!
By all means, feel free to pack up your Prius and take a trip to CA. :)