last year, I was merging onto the Bay Bridge when a billboard for "weedmaps" caught my eye (see below). picture my face as I read that, even after the passing of CA Proposition 64,
77% of California's cities and counties still ban the sale of cannabis.
for decades, I've heard tales of California the "trailblazer" state of weed industry: the legend of the Golden State that dares to challenge federal laws criminalizing cannabis. some say California paved the way for Colorado and Washington to decriminalize, regulate, and profit from cannabis... all while drug policy has convicted millions of Americans for criminal charges related to marijuana.
in the name of the "War on Drugs," our state of California has heavily surveilled and targeted Black, Indigenous, Latinx, low-income and disabled folks. for decades, California has funded and empowered law enforcement and vigilante citizen watch-groups to "crack down" on cannabis use and distribution. yet, at the same time there are many Californians who've never been cited for breaking marijuana-related drug laws; in fact, since Prop 64 passed four years ago, many Californians now regularly purchase weed legally, as a taxed "recreational substance" in one of the state's 600 active cannabis dispensaries.
but what makes one marijuana user a "thug," and another an "innovator?"
what makes one cannabis salesperson a "criminal," and another an "entrepreneur?"
what factors are at play when it comes to how the police enforce drug laws?
why aren't all Californians treated equally when it comes to marijuana?
in this post, we'll review the history of California's relationship to cannabis, and how the criminalization of marijuana (at both a federal and state level) has impacted the Golden State's policing and prison policy: perpetuating white supremacy and classism by unequally enforcing drug laws that target *certain* populations over others...
put your feet up, and put one in the air if you want; this is a bit of a longer read than usual.
I. today's federal drug policy and national context
federal drug policy scheduling —
under federal drug law, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance. additionally, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) 🤮 maintains that cannabis has:
"NO currently accepted medical use, and a high potential for abuse."
to stay on topic, I won't be delving into the science supporting the medicinal uses of cannabis; for that, please check out organizations like NORML who provide knowledge about cannabis law and medical research.
do Americans believe marijuana is dangerous? —
across the nation, criminalizing cannabis has filled jails and prisons with folks arrested and convicted on drug charges related to marijuana. in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, civil rights lawyer and legal scholar Michelle Alexander has pointed out a glaring, false belief that “the drug war is principally concerned with dangerous drugs." as Alexander and other scholars have stated,
arrests for simple marijuana possession across the United States "accounted for nearly 80 percent of the growth in drug arrests in the 1990s."
some Americans might believe that marijuana is an inherently "dangerous" drug but, for years, nationwide polling has shown an overall trend toward folks supporting legalized cannabis.
if two-thirds of Americans now favor legalizing marijuana, why don't our drug laws reflect that?
as was mentioned earlier, not all cannabis users have been treated equally under the law. decades of research shows that Black, Indigenous and Latinx Americans are more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white Americans. and of course, this racial bias is as present in the Golden State as it is across the rest of the nation.
maybe what makes marijuana "dangerous" is the level of brute police force civilians are met with when allegedly consuming or selling the plant's products...
later in this post, you will find more info on:
the white supremacy embedded in drafting and enforcing cannabis policy (see: part II), and
statistics/findings on the racism within policing cannabis law in California (see: part III).
a note on federal property within California —
according to a 2020 report, 45 percent of California's total landmass of 104,765,165 acres is owned by federal entities; this includes national parks, military bases, and refuge, grazing, or "wild" lands overseen by agencies like the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). on federal land, local and state laws go out the window; please remember that! we are always at the mercy of federal law, one way or another. the feds stay watching! 👀
the future of federal cannabis law —
in November 2019, H.R. 3884 the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act ("MORE Act") — which seeks to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and expunge records of previously convicted Americans — passed the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. just a few days ago, news broke that the MORE Act could go up for a vote in the House some time this month.
II. the history of criminalized cannabis in the U.S.
it was legal for centuries! —
when European colonizers began stealing land and using violent slave-labor to "establish" their settlements on the United States mainland, they were already very familiar with cannabis cultivation. in truth, colonizers planted cannabis to produce hemp (the male cannabis plant) in order to harvest seeds, manufacture rope for sailing, and canvas/textiles for clothing.
in America in the 1600s and 1700s, cannabis farming was legalized, and actually encouraged by several state laws! for example, in 1619 the Virginia Assembly passed legislation that required every farmer in the state to grow hemp. back then, hemp could be exchanged as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland.
additionally, four of the so-called "founding fathers" of the United States 🤢 were rumored to have cultivated hemp during their lifetimes: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. so there's that.
turning point: propaganda and public opinion —
many U.S. historians point to the influx of immigrants following the Mexican Revolution (1910) as a catalyst for the popularization of marijuana-smoking in the United States. prior to the 1910s, most Americans still called it "cannabis," or "hemp," but following the Mexican Revolution, even white Americans started calling it by its Spanish name: "marijuana." (during the 1800s, smoking hashish (a psychoactive extract of cannabis plant) grew popular in European countries like France, but smoking hashish and marijuana flowerbuds wasn't popular among Europeans in America until much later.) unsurprisingly, anti-Mexican xenophobia and racism stirred amongst white Americans following this wave of immigration.
anti-marijuana campaigns and policymakers seized upon white Americans' racist fears. propagandists fanned flames severely during the Great Depression, when so many white people were unable to find work; they sold white folks additional fears that Mexican immigrants were stealing away job opportunities while being lazy, Spanish-speaking, marijuana-smoking foreigners.
propaganda portrayed cannabis transforming innocent people into criminals, turning women into sexual deviants, and corrupting the overall mainstream white culture in America.
the U.S. government began funding research to prove that consumption of marijuana somehow led to violence and crime. with white Americans already associating marijuana with Mexican immigrants, government propaganda then pushed people to associate marijuana and Mexicans with racial, financial, and moral inferiority.
marijuana came to be known as a drug of filth, associated with brown-skinned immigrants and sluts.
this image gallery shows a series of movie posters compiled in a mashable article, showcasing media portrayals of marijuana from the 1930s thru 1950s.
the films portray marijuana users as unproductive lazy people, who become possessed by ecstasy, deviant sexual cravings, and devil worship. by telling stories that perpetuated racism, classism, ableism, transphobia and homophobia, these films showed previously "good" white people being corrupted by smoking marijuana. many of these movies and programs are now available for viewing online, if you're interested in seeing examples of propaganda. the infamous film Reefer Madness (1936) is on YouTube, as well as are decades' worth of news reports of American police seizing and destroying marijuana plants —from this older footage to this more recent kind.
and who could forget this gem from my childhood...
anyone know what strain she had? 👀 asking for a friend.
anyways, in 1930, a new U.S. government task force to enforce drug laws was established: the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN).
by 1931, twenty-nine states had moved to completely outlaw marijuana.
government disinformation and propaganda effectively led to the 1937 passing of the U.S. Marihuana Tax Act, criminalizing marijuana for personal use and possession at the federal level and imposing new tax regulations on its movement across borders (i.e. the government wanted to penalize average civilians for marijuana possession, while allowing existing hemp/cannabis industry heavyweights to do business, updating taxes and regulation).
in the 1950s, American policymakers ushered in stricter federal sentencing laws, like the 1952 Boggs Act and 1956 Narcotics Control Act. with these, federal policy mandated that a first time offense for marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2-10 years and a fine of up to $20,000.
even stricter laws and enforcement —
today's "War on Drugs" was accelerated by Richard Nixon 🙄 in 1971 when he claimed drugs had become America's "public enemy number one." the 1970s' Drug War was subsequently added onto by both Red and Blue parties: by Republican leaders like Ronald Reagan 🤮, as well as by Democrats like Bill Clinton 😷.
in The New Jim Crow, scholar Michelle Alexander explains why Richard Nixon's crack-down on crime was so readily embraced by many white Americans:
"the War on Drugs proved popular among key white voters ... who remained resentful of black progress, civil rights enforcement, and affirmative action. beginning in the 1970s, researchers found that racial attitudes—not crime rates or likelihood of victimization—are an important determinant of white support for “get tough on crime” and anti-welfare measures... the War on Drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward blacks and black progress, without being exposed to the charge of racism."
in 1973, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was established when the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNND, formed in 1968) merged with the Office of Drug Abuse and Law Enforcement. the formation of the DEA ushered in a new era of militarization among drug law enforcement officers.
in 1989, George HW Bush 🤬 delivered an anti-drug speech (reminiscent of Nixon's 1971 drugs-are-public-enemy-number-one-speech) describing drugs as "the greatest domestic threat facing our nation." on the very same day, Joe Biden 🥴 responded, calling Bush’s plan “not tough enough.”
the culture of white supremacy that lives in many American homes has played a major role, with voters and policymakers pushing for harsher sentencing for drug crimes and promoting militarized police as the picture of "public safety" in the neighborhood.
for generations, lawmakers and law enforcement agencies have stoked fear in the public when it comes to drug use and industry, exacerbating xenophobia and white supremacy among Americans in order to incarcerate Black and Brown folks across the nation to uphold the call to be "tough on crime."
1990s-now —
in the 1990s, the American "War on Drugs" focused on low-level drug offenses. from 1990-2002, for example, the United States's drug arrests increased by 450,000, with 82 percent made for marijuana, and 79 percent for marijuana possession alone. and while marijuana arrests increased by 113 percent during this period, at the same time the number of overall arrests deceased by 3 percent.
since the early 2000s, the War on Drugs has only upped the ante:
marijuana-related arrests now make up over 50% of all drug arrests in the United States, with an estimated 820,000+ marijuana arrests being made each year.
and, of more than 8 million marijuana-related arrested made in the U.S. between 2001-2010, around 88 percent were solely for possession. if polling keeps showing that a majority of Americans favor marijuana legalization, why are over 800,000 Americans facing arrest yearly? who believes they are safer with 800k+ arrests made over marijuana? I suppose the short answer to that is: "racists."
please consider that statistics on arrests/convictions for marijuana do NOT take into account the Americans who are murdered by police before being cited, charged or tried for their alleged marijuana-related crimes...
for a more in-depth look at America's criminalization of marijuana, try this PBS Frontline page, this one from Leafly, or Drug Policy Alliance: A Brief History of the Drug War.
white supremacy in marijuana law enforcement nationwide —
today's national arrest data shows overwhelming systemic racial bias in terms of whom is arrested and for what.
The Color of Punishment, a 2018 Harvard study conducted by Elis Monk, showed that on average Black Americans have a 36 percent chance of going to jail in their lifetime. the study's findings also concluded that having dark skin tones increase Black folks' chances of jail time by as much as 30 percent.
in 2018, the ACLU published a study, "A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform," in which researchers showed that:
Black Americans are now 3.73 times more likely than white Americans to be arrested for marijuana.
the inhumane effects of the War on Drugs have undoubtedly targeted and disproportionately affected Black Americans, disabled, Indigenous, Latinx, and low-income Americans. the militarization of police that has coincided with the ramping up of the War on Drugs has killed and imprisoned millions of Americans. remember how Michelle Alexander so eloquently put it:
"the War on Drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites ... a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward blacks and black progress, without being exposed to the charge of racism."
so while warning signs posted in the Jim Crow era read "NO Blacks allowed," since I've been alive the signs have read "NO loud music," or "NO baggy clothing," in order to signal restricting access for *certain* folks.
the War on Drugs era has imprinted our society with policing practices like "stop-and-frisk" and "shoot-now-settle-later." generations of propaganda have effectively weaponized and worsened anti-Black fears and anti-immigrant sentiments among America's white population.
due to the militarized tactics, training and equipment afforded to police agencies with their billion-dollar budgets, the type of violence that law enforcement agencies have the ability to enact on Americans (with impunity) include:
forcible displacement (evicting people into homelessness, targeting homeless people, etc),
theft by means of civil asset forfeiture (or just outright theft),
sexual assault (including on minors),
and human trafficking.
and the wild part is, you can find many Americans who truly believe we are all safer with police even though this is what's been allowed of law enforcement. when you combine this paradigm of police impunity with a history of white supremacy and classism, you get American society in the year 2020: everything is on fire.
III. criminalized California cannabis
in 1907, California passed its "Poison and Pharmacy Act," banning the sale of cocaine, morphine, and opium without a prescription. six years later in 1913, marijuana was included on the list, even though hemp was being grown industrially in several parts of the state including the Central Valley.
the 1937 "Marihuana Tax Act" made marijuana possession illegal at the federal level, further restricting Californians from consuming cannabis. this and other federal laws like the 1952 "Boggs Act" and 1956 Narcotics Control Act further increased criminal charges/penalties for marijuana possession and use.
Nixon's War on Drugs affected policing and attitudes toward drug use in California as much as in any other state. the anti-war messaging and experimental drugs people associate with late 1960s, 1970s counter-cultures in Californian cities like San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles — these existed in a time when the dominant pro-war and anti-drugs messaging was getting louder and louder. the fact that the marijuana industry (not just hemp) has survived in California during the law enforcement's most militarized period of its War on Drugs might suggest that industrialization was always permissible in government's eyes, as long as they get paid off to the tune of millions of dollars in profits.
criminalizing cultivation —
in 1983, the California Department of Justice culled resources from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to form a task force known as the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP). since the 1980s, CAMP has made a name for itself by enacting military-style raids (men in helmets and body armor, head to toe camouflage, wielding long guns for shooting and chainsaws for de-cultivation.
in 2009, CAMP agents seized an estimated 4.5 million plants statewide. here is a video they released recently to blow smoke up their own asses:
watch law enforcement agents smile as they rip plants out of dirt — there's something very unsettling about watching adults find purpose, joy even, in uprooting living plants from soil just because the government says so.
since Prop 64 passed in 2016, the number of plants CAMP seizes annually has dropped significantly. CAMP reports that in 2019 they "eradicated 953,459 marijuana plants from 345 raided grow sites across the state." they also mention "a total of 168 weapons were seized throughout the raids" of 2019. that number for some reason made me think of the recent raid of alleged "Boogaloo Boy" Alan Viarango of Gilroy, CA — in which law detectives found and confiscated 138 guns and several explosive devices, just in this one man's possession. I don't know what made me think of Boogaloo Boy Viarango; maybe the whole thing of who gets deemed "dangerous" by police or what it takes for the law to finally see a white man terrorist as a threat to public safety...
anyhow, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra frames "illegal" marijuana growers as enemies of the state, enemies of regular Californians. AG Becerra claims that these growers:
"disregard life, poison our waters, damage our public lands, and weaponize the illegal cannabis black market."
hmm. that sounds a lot like what government agencies, mega corporations, and police organizations* do to us year after year — but (unlike growers) they all have the law on their side when they do it 🙃.
no one should be allowed to disregard life, poison our water, or harm the land!
I don't exactly know what AG Becerra meant by "weaponizing the illegal cannabis black market," but day after day, we are absolutely seeing evidence that decriminalizing marijuana and expunging records of those previously convicted of drug crimes helps to open up the legal market to average Californians (thereby directing them away from incarceration).
remember earlier when I asked,
"what makes one cannabis seller a 'criminal,' and another an 'entrepreneur?'"
my hunch is it's a particular recipe of skin color + $$$.
the racism embedded in California's cannabis policing —
in October of 2010, the Marijuana Arrest Research Project for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and the California NAACP jointly published a report on marijuana arrests among Black Californians. here are the highlights from the report:
a 2011 study from ACLU found that in Los Angeles, Black folks were cited for marijuana possession infractions 4 times more often than white people. the study also found that
Black Californians were 2.2 times more likely than white Californians to be arrested for marijuana possession.
in addition, the study stated that in Los Angeles, 90 percent of marijuana possession infractions were issued to men or boys.
the Los Angeles area exemplifies that law enforcement targeting drug crimes has been especially deadly and punitive toward young Black and Brown men. the militarization of police that we've seen, especially in cities like LA, has created ensystems for hyper-surveillance of Black and Brown citizens in particular. scholar Michelle Alexander shares:
"in Los Angeles, mass stops of young African American men and boys resulted in the creation of a database containing the names, addresses, and other biographical information of the overwhelming majority of young Black men in the entire city. the LAPD justified its database as a tool for tracking gang or 'gang-related' activity. however, the criterion for inclusion in the database is notoriously vague and discriminatory. having a relative or friend in a gang and wearing baggy jeans is enough to put youth on what the ACLU calls a Black List."
along with ramping up government surveillance on Black and Brown folks, the tough-on-crime culture of the War on Drugs has bred generations of vigilantes and empowered white supremacists acting as citizen-patrols: detaining, surveilling, and even executing Black and Brown folks just like the regular police.
with apps and forums around like Next-door or Neighbors by Amazon/Ring, today regular civilians are using cameras on their own property to help police surveil neighborhoods. the casual digital vigilantism has spurred online conversations that sometimes lead to contacting police over things as simple as people "walking in front of my house."
all the footage you see of white Americans acting like makeshift police, drawing and using weapons on their Black/Brown neighbors, blocking Black/Brown neighbors from entering their own housing, harassing, questioning and reporting Black/Brown people in public spaces — all of this is born from the very same white supremacy that created the War on Drugs.
unpacking the violence of white privilege in the cannabis industry —
one man's "cannabis industry" is another man's "War on Drugs."
when white men enter the cannabis industry, whether in navy blue suit-and-tie getups or graphic t-shirts and sandals, they are largely regarded as businessmen rather than as criminals; for Black and Brown Americans, for low-income Americans, this just hasn't been the case. [and — especially considering cannabis' medicinal uses — why the fuck would anybody want marijuana to follow the white American industrialization model anyway?]
in the War on Drugs, white privilege covers some people behind a shield of presumed innocence, while cloaking everyone else in a shadow of presumed guilt...
a few days ago I read this article from FoxLA exposing yet another unfathomable atrocity committed by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD). one of LASD's own has testified that, in June of 2020, LASD Deputy Miguel Vega murdered 18 year-old Andres Guardado in order to gain entry into a local police gang known as, "The Executioners."
there are numerous cops in Los Angeles who would do *anything* to get initiated into gangs like the Executioners; Black and Brown folks in California have known about this reality for decades. other gangs within the LASD/LAPD have included: the 2000 boys, the 3000 boys, the Grim Reapers, the Hats, the Jump Out Boys, the Little Devils, and of course the Lynnwood Vikings. these are the thugs and criminals people should clutch their pearls over — and yet, throughout history, many white Americans have found comfort in this kind of outside-the-law white supremacist violence.
when we talk about violence in this country, if white people don't unanimously perceive Black and Brown people to be human, then they won't see us as victims no matter what violent acts are committed against us. I recall these words from civil rights leader Coretta Scott King:
“I must remind you that starving a child is violence. neglecting school children is violence. punishing a mother and her family is violence. discrimination against a working man is violence. ghetto housing is violence. ignoring medical need is violence. contempt for poverty is violence.”
I don't know about you, but I see the police show up daily to the frontlines of each and every one of those acts of violence that Ms. Coretta Scott King described, and they show up with their knees knocking and their guns drawn. that is,
police officers IMPRISON people for stealing food, and also for giving food away for free;
police are there to physically funnel children from school or home into detention;
police are the ones who show up to forcefully evict folks from their homes;
police are the ones who stop-and-frisk people in their own communities, asking them "what are you doing here?" outside their own homes;
police are the ones who ignore civilians' cries for help (Rest in Peace George Floyd), and cries for air (Rest In Peace Eric Garner) in what never should have been their last minutes on Earth.
and let's be clear: the police shouldn't be executing "guilty" Americans either. the system of policing we have today cannot be justified: it is an active arm of imperialism and genocide in America.
Andres Guardado, may he rest in Peace and Love, had his whole life ahead of him — and he should still be alive.
if you haven't already, please sign the petition calling for #justiceforandresguardado
IV. undoing cannabis criminalization in the Golden State
I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, in what you might call "Prop 215 California." I grew up with friends whose parents used cannabis to treat symptoms of chemotherapy. granted, I also knew friends with parents who wouldn't even let us talk about weed in the house...
let's look at the laws that legalized cannabis for medicinal, then adult recreational use, in California — laws that maybe make it easier for some Californians to talk about this generous, green plant that grows from the earth.
1996
Proposition 215, or "Compassionate Use Act," has allowed Californians to receive a doctor's prescription for medicinal marijuana, to potentially exempt them from criminalization for consuming their prescribed medication.
2004
Medical Marijuana Program Act (SB 420) imposed updated guidelines for medicinal marijuana patients — how many plants and product patients could grow/keep in their possession without breaking the law (up to 6 mature or 12 immature plants and up to one-half pound of dried, processed marijuana). in addition, the bill created a voluntary ID card system for patients and cultivators.
2016
Proposition 64, or "Adult Use of Marijuana Act," allows adults 21+ to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and up to 6 plants — for personal use. Prop 64 created systems for the state to regulate and tax the "production, manufacture, and sale of marijuana for adult use." the bill also moved to reform penalties for marijuana charges.
my concerns from the beginning have been that Prop 64 was perhaps not as much about decriminalization as it was about taxation and regulation. according to the California State Budget (page 87), "the cannabis excise tax is forecast to generate [for the state] $288 million in 2018-19 and $359 million in 2019-20." I've suspected that Prop 64 was a piece of legislation aimed at securing the lion's share of cannabis industry profits for the government and wealthiest cannabis businesses, while continuing to criminalize Black, Brown, low-income and disabled people for their marijuana consumption and entrepreneurship.
let's go back to the statistic shared on that weedmaps billboard I mentioned earlier:
today, 77% of California cities and counties still ban the sale of cannabis.
upon recent investigation, Leafly found that, "only 161 of California’s 482 municipalities, and 24 of the 58 counties have opted to allow commercial cannabis activity of any sort." but some experts estimate around 3 million Californians aged 25+ consume cannabis each month.
in 2018, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) reports making 18,540 arrests for "narcotic" crimes. the same year, LASD made 136 total arrests for criminal homicide, 1,398 for robbery, and 5,589 for aggravated assault. LASD reported their total number of arrests made in 2018 was 83,012. according to these numbers, narcotic arrests made up about 23 percent of all arrests disclosed by LASD for 2018, making drugs the second-most common cause for arrest (with the number one cause being warrant arrests). so while Prop 64 has certainly decreased CAMP raids and arrests for simple marijuana possession, the law has not effectively protected Californians who wish to sell cannabis or enter the industry a different way.
law enforcement's pushback against decriminalizing cannabis —
in 2009, the California Police Chiefs Association's Task Force for Marijuana Dispensaries published a "White Paper on Marijuana Dispensaries," criticizing California's Prop 215 and SB 420. in the conclusion of their report, they wrote: "no state has the power to grant its citizens the right to violate federal law." the CA Police Chiefs Association maintained that medical cannabis was illegal under federal law, and expressed hope the U.S. Supreme Court would get rid of medical cannabis in the state of California entirely.
I remember personally witnessing a severe sweep and shut-down of California dispensaries and cultivators from 2011-2012, led by the DEA and assisted by any state and local police force the feds requested... so imagine my reaction when I saw the cover of this magazine on a newsstand in October of that year:
it's infuriating to see the discrepancy so blatantly plastered across magazine covers like that. think about it like this:
why is your friend who sells weed independently a "thug,"
but the folks at the high-end dispensary are "salespeople?"
why is your friend who makes medicated cannabis products expected to be either
a stoner outlaw or a capitalist "pot baron?"
why doesn't law enforcement push back against the heavyweights of the industry?
expungements —
with the cannabis industry's high-grade hypocrisy so blatantly out in the open for so many years, more and more Americans are now talking about how we are going to repair what's been (and is still being) broken by the War on Drugs.
even companies like Ben & Jerry's are weighing in on the topic of racial injustice and mass incarceration in the United States; they've recently created an action campaign with the ACLU urging government officials to support the MORE Act to legalize cannabis on a federal level and to expunge records of those previously-convicted for marijuana crimes.
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) 😖 said in 2019: "part of my plan for nationally legalizing marijuana is to make sure that those folks who have been previously incarcerated, who have been convicted, who have been designated felons, one, that we deal with what we need to do around expungement but also that they be the first in line for those jobs. that they be the first in line for qualifying for the licenses to run these businesses, because it is something that, on its face, is so patently unfair and wrong."
*blink* *blink* okay, so where are we at with that, Senator?
while Senator Harris served as San Francisco District Attorney (aka "top-cop" prosecutor) from 2004-2011, she claimed to be pro-medical cannabis. according to a report from San Jose's Mercury News, "over Harris’ seven years as top prosecutor, her attorneys won 1,956 misdemeanor and felony convictions for marijuana possession, cultivation, or sale, according to data from the DA’s office." and while those convictions allegedly did not result in 1,956 individuals serving time in jail/prison, it is worth mentioning that Senator Harris' successor as DA, George Gascón, has made moves to expunge all 9,300 of San Francisco's marijuana convictions dating back to 1975. similarly, Los Angeles County DA Jackie Lacey ☹️ announced in February 2020 she would be "wiping" clean over 66,000 marijuana convictions.
expunging records is the very least public officials could do to *begin* to address the racism that has labeled Black and Brown folks' cannabis cultivation as illegal criminal activity while for whites it's been labeled groundbreaking entrepreneurship.
V. for review:
today, 77 percent of California cities and counties still ban the sale of cannabis; so although two-thirds of Americans now favor legalizing marijuana, most of our local, state and federal drug laws have yet to reflect that stance.
this is America; so of course, not all are treated equally when it comes to enforcing marijuana law. studies have found that Black Californians were 2.2 times more likely than white Californians to be arrested for marijuana possession. and, Black Americans are 3.73 times more likely than white Americans to be arrested for marijuana.
for generations, lawmakers and law enforcement agencies have stoked public fears when it comes to drugs, exacerbating xenophobia and white supremacy among Americans in order to incarcerate Black and Brown folks across the nation. American propaganda films from the 1930s-50s portrayed cannabis corrupting the mainstream white culture in America. rather quickly, marijuana became known as a drug of filth, associated with brown-skinned immigrants, homosexuals, and sluts 😘.
marijuana-related arrests now make up over 50% of all drug arrests in the United States, with an estimated 820,000+ marijuana arrests being made each year.
when white men enter the cannabis industry, whether in suits or sandals, they are largely regarded as businessmen rather than as criminals; for Black and Brown Americans, for low-income Americans, this just hasn't been the case.
in the War on Drugs, white privilege covers some people behind a shield of presumed innocence, while cloaking everyone else in a shadow of presumed guilt.
decriminalizing marijuana and expunging records of those previously convicted of drug crimes helps open up the legal market to average Californians, directing them away from incarceration.
VI. what can be done to make change for the better?
#buyBlackcannabis — support Black owned cannabis businesses!
support the Last Prisoner Project, and if you buy from @Evidencebag (owned by Ocean Grown) some of the proceeds go to the LPP
support local efforts to decriminalize marijuana near you, visit norml.org/act to see what's happening near you
replace politicians who perpetuate white supremacy, classism, and ableism by promoting "tough on crime" drug war policies
follow groups like @cagefreecannabis and @criticalresistance on social media to keep up to date on cases and efforts you can advocate for by signing petitions, making phone calls, writing emails, etc
write to your local politicians urging them to show their support for the MOVE Act as it makes it way toward being voted on by the U.S. House
don't conflate industrialization of cannabis with its decriminalization — just because big companies can now cash in on legal cultivation in states like California and Colorado doesn't mean that regular civilians' rights to consume and sell marijuana have been positively affected. industrializing cannabis cultivation and mimicking the agri-business model currently dominating the American marketplace actually has major environmental impacts (power consumption, water use, waste production from packaging, etc), and economic monopolies and inequalities are already in place in the cannabis industry as of right now. mega-corporations entering cannabis industry only means more of that...
so support local, family-owned cultivators as much as possible, especially now!
thank you for reading! questions or comments? @IDKCalifornia on Instagram and email at thesussery@gmail.com
view this post as a slideshow:
additional resources:
SF Chronicle open forum: local bans on cannabis choking off promised Prop 64 revenues
majority of CA municipalities prohibit commercial cannabis activity
California now has the biggest legal marijuana market in the world. its black market is even bigger (LA Times)
"is there green to be made in California's cannabis industry?" (California Centers)
Cannabis jobs pay 11% more than the US median salary, and demand is up 76%
Marijuana Enforcement Disparities In California: A Racial Injustice (May 2016)
Arresting Blacks for Marijuana in California, Possession Arrests in 25 Cities, 2006-08
Marijuana Use in the Past Month among Individuals Aged 12 or Older, by State: 2017-2018
Leafly: "After a rough 2019, California’s cannabis industry will bloom in 2020"
CANORML: Racial Justice, Equity, and Cannabis Addressed at Cal NORML’s July 1 Meeting
CANORML: California’s Billion-Dollar Medical Marijuana Market Offers Millions in Tax Revenues
CANORML/CityWatchLA: "CA Cannabis Collective Law to Sunset on January 9, 2019"
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=167933
CNBC: how to stop police from asking for videos from ring doorbells
"Delivery services can operate in regions that don’t allow dispensaries, except for a handful of localities that have banned deliveries altogether.
It is legal for any adult to buy or receive an ounce of cannabis from another, and to give away up to one ounce without compensation to other adults. Adults can also grow up to six plants at their residence.