Criminalization of Marijuana: Why Marijuana needs to be Legalized
There are several hundred thousand arrests for marijuana possession every year. The arrested are largely skewed by race. Black people are 264 percent more likely than white people to be arrested for cannabis possession, even though they use at similar rates. Even where cannabis is legal, Black people are still arrested more often than white people for possession.
Overall, there were about 693,000 cannabis arrests in 2018. 90 percent of them for possession. People were arrested for possession in states that have been legalized.
An estimated 80 percent of those arrested for marijuana violations in New York CIty over the past decade were either the Black or Lantinx. The enforcement was so appalling in NYC that twice over the past decade, lawmakers had to pass decriminalization of cannabis legislation just to reign in police misconduct and still people of color continue to be disproportionately targeted by police.
Marijunana prohibition is commonly used as an excuse for law enforcement to shield themselves from misconduct violations and punishments. For example, Philando Castile was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop. The officer in the case cited the smell of cannabis as his justification for the use of lethal force, stating, “I thought I was gonna die. And I thought if he’s, if he has the guts and the audacity to smoke marijuana… what care does he give about me.”
There have been numerous other incidences where suspected marijuana use was the key factor in police engagements that resulted in civilian murders.
“Entire communities have lost generations of citizens to cyclical poverty and incarceration due to the collateral consequences of having a cannabis-related conviction on their record.”
This criminalization causes many the loss of child custody and access to higher education as well make those who have been incarcerated unable to qualify for government-subsidized housing which leads to increased rates of homelessness.
“In large part due to the modern War on Drugs, the United States’ prison population has skyrocketed by over 500 percent over the last 40 years, with nearly 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States at the beginning of 2019.”
Legalization would decrease the amount of people incarcerated every year which would allow the federal government to fund new programs with less money going to federal prisons. Legalization would also allow the federal government to tax sales to fund new programs. For example, with taxation on the sales of legalized marijuana, the federal government could fund programs for treatment for people with drug use disorders.
“As Americans look for alternatives to punitive prison sentences that turned the US into the world’s leader in incarceration, legalizing a relatively safe drug seems like low-hanging fruit.”
Read more at the following sites I used to research:
https://www.businessinsider.com/racist-origins-marijuana-prohibition-legalization-2018-2
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/502489-criminalization-that-never-should-have-been-cannabis