America Cannabis
Recently I read an article about smoking marijuana in America. Just reading the comments have me wondering whose working on overturning the convictions of so many that are serving time or for those who are paying hefty fines for the possession of marijuana?
It aches my stomach knowing that our courts are backlogged with cases of many African Americans who are simply awaiting a bench trial in some cities for months just to go before a judge. But there are some who are able to slip through the system by getting a free pass. I am shocked at how many politicians now agree to pass this new cannabis law while others serve or pay their debt to society and still have a tarnished record that follows them.
Oh by the way the article I'm referring to is “New Study of Drug use Confirms What Black People Have Been Saying this Whole Time” by Phillip Lewis is on point. Now lawmakers are making provision for reviving the users of opiates instead of handing them a conviction. Abusers are immediately released back into society so they can do it again. I guess doctors are informing them take less next time.
The law is so one sided towards a demographic especially to those who know they can get away with it. Imagine a black family just going out to the patio before Thanksgiving dinner to smoke a joint. Law enforcement would be there to lock everyone up, place the children in state custody and split the family up. It would take months sometimes years for them to get back together as a unit. Awful when thinking of it, it’s disheartening, cruel, all because they broke the law. But for some crossing state lines to gain cannabis from a certified or authorized physician and travel back to your town for your whole family to just simply get a high seems absurd for me to accept. Tell your congressman or lawmakers to overturn the convictions of others while passing this cannabis law in your state first. People have found a way to wiggle themselves out of convictions, what about the ones who couldn’t even afford to do likewise or even have the type of connections you may already have?
Maybe they are too busy deporting those with DUI’s back to Mexico. Yet still your child gets his/her arrest and convictions overturned and their records expunged. Why is government so one sided towards a demographic? I still ask this question in my mind.
Another article by Lisa Belkin “The family that smokes together”, Mike the parent describes the “Pass, pass, puff,” with his daughters. He’s smoking marijuana with them at a thanksgiving gathering for recreation purpose. This seems disturbing to me knowing that many are being crucified for even possessing pot on them. So Mike gets an interview and a write-up on his use to enhance readers online? This is America we live in “the have’s and the have not”. Mike has the ability to dodge the law by having good representation, but across the tracks Fate Vincent Winslow gets life for the same crime. We see this handwriting on walls on so many levels in our country and yet the thought of speaking against it either makes you a target or tabooed by others. It is not fair, Mike gets to make a request to his congressman who would lobby for this cannabis purchase for whatever reason yet he fails to lobby for those who are incarcerated having the same possession rights.
Thanks Mike for being such a great role model to your children and others and for representing weed and the perfect American family. Make America Great!
Today many states have legalized marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes. They are bringing in billions in tax revenue since 2014. Now white entrepreneurs and those in politics are cashing in on its thriving industry. While Fate Vincent Winslow is currently serving life without parole in a US prison for distribution . Somehow lawmakers found a way to benefit from the same drug creating distribution companies citing it for therapeutic and recreational use. For decades this drug has shown racial disparities in arrests around the country. The numbers are astonishing to nearly a four to five times difference between whites and blacks. Cities like Colorado, New York, LA and many more the numbers speak for themselves.
White people who are benefiting from legal marijuana must work to reverse convictions of those serving time. People in this industry and lawmakers should also speak of it's racial history and note the impact it's having in communities. They should press for policies to decriminalize marijuana. Mr. Winslow who sits in jail while Mike the lawyer gets to enjoy his freedom with his children to smoke recreationally. It's a wow factor and nobody wants to point out these things. While articles upon articles are published for this decade debate over cannabis, lives are being destroyed. As white people find more ways to make money from this drug, black people are sitting in jail for doing the same thing.
