As the present conversation is trending around the country about social equality, racial justice, criminal justice and policing, the war on cannabis must play an important part. For many years, the war on cannabis has been a means to target black Americans. The protest and policy around the country seek to change a lot of processes and institutional racism that leads to the outcome of such processes.
The main course of the African American racial inequity is the American Drug policy.
The book entitled “Marijuana a short history”, explores the roots of the cannabis racist history in the United States of America and the war on drugs. It lays particular emphasis on how politicians use the cannabis industry as a means to divide America. The government in the US first proclaimed cannabis to be a harmful substance moving across the border like Mexican immigrants.
The government further described cannabis as a drug for only blacks while passing lies leading to rape, insanity and murder. Since the beginning of this chaos, the nation has focused its interest on communities of color. With research being conducted, the average white and black American consumes cannabis equally, blacks are mostly arrested for cannabis offences at a rate of 4:1 compared to whites.
For half a decade, some states have passed legalization and decriminalization reforms to reign in arrest on victims. In states where cannabis has been legalized, the arrest has reduced drastically except for the fact that racial disparities have still been on the increase.
CANNABIS POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES.
The future of cannabis policy in the United States must include expungement or automatic expungement, and more detailed efforts to protect communities that have previously suffered from the war on drugs. As states seek to adjust their present cannabis policies there are ways that their policies can help individuals who have been affected by the war on drugs.
To begin with, there must be police reform. The police should be retrained to avoid racial disparities between whites and blacks. The redeemed law on cannabis should be well dictated to them as regards to the negative consequences that may be incurred if they remain bias.
Furthermore, there should be effective policies to aid black-owned cannabis opportunities in America. As states tend to lay a heavy tax on cannabis, checks and balances should be conducted. The government needs to channel the money to effective use. Funds should be used for development in communities that suffered in the past as a result of the war on drugs, such as infrastructure, housing, education, mental health facilities to name a few.
For years, the criminal justice system in the United States has extracted from money, opportunities and the ability to get loans among African Americans. The legal cannabis industry can help restore what was previously taken. The history of the cannabis industry demonstrates that racism was enforced and institutionalized in communities of color and it is the only legislation that can bring about a positive recovery.
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