How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is making the world better

Re:How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is ... by dragontamer on Sunday October 19, 2014 @04:44PM (#8479540)

"Cannabis prohibition, on the other hand, has historically been targeted explicitly at minorities"

Note: targeted at minorities by minorities.

The African American community was hugely supportive of the "War on Drugs", until it became clear that it wasn't helping.

But seriously, in the 1960s through 1990s, plenty of powerful African American politicians supported the War on Drugs. http://prisontime.org/files/2013/07/oberia-dempsey-war-on-dr... . The "War on Drugs" was built with huge support from the African American community, we Americans as a whole thought it would be good for us.

It was believed that the white man oppressed African Americans through the use of drugs. Therefore, by declaring the war on drugs, the Black man would become freer. Things didn't turn out that way :-(

Today, the "War on Drugs" is clearly not helping. Eric Holder / President Obama ordered the FBI / Justice Department to go easier against drug offenders.

So it is clear to our current leaders (as well as African American leaders) that we need to end the "War on Drugs".

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Re:How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is ... by jMyles on Sunday October 19, 2014 @04:49PM (#8479566)

Cannabis prohibition, starting right from the 1914 El Paso ordinance, unambiguously and often transparently targeted Mexicans.

You are talking about a much later stage, when the power dynamic was one of entrenched power.

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Re:How marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington is ... by dragontamer on Sunday October 19, 2014 @05:09PM (#8479628)

Hmm, I was thinking of more recent history than that. Well, fair enough.

I do think it is important to remember that the African American community was pretty happy with the inception of the "War on Drugs" however.

[ Parent | on HN ]