republished by Paddy Ryan
Efforts
to legalize and regulate marijuana in Colorado got a boost today when
Amendment
64
was endorsed by the regional conference of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People for Colorado, Montana and
Wyoming. Amendment 64 is currently on the ballot in the state. If
approved by voters this November, the initiative would make marijuana
legal under state law for adults over the age of 21, with it
regulated and taxed in a manner similar to alcohol.
The
NAACP felt compelled to endorse efforts to legalize marijuana
primarily because marijuana laws are disproportionately enforced
against minorities. For decades African-Americans have been more
likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites and more likely to
face harsher punishments. This is true both nationally
and in Colorado. For example, in Denver African-Americans account for
over 30 percent of all arrests for private adult marijuana possession
even though African Americans make up just 11 percent of the
population of the city.
The
NAACP endorsement helps highlight the fact that marijuana reform in
addition to being about personal liberty, government
fiscal responsibility,
and reducing crime, is also a civil rights issue. While laws
prohibiting marijuana in America are technically color blind, they
were often conceived, designed and implemented in a clearly racially
biased manner.
The
endorsement of one of the nation’s most prestigious civil rights
organizations should help the campaign in its outreach to the state’s
African-American community. While African-Americans only make up 4.3
percent of the state’s population, with the initiative polling
so close to
even, a few percentage points could make the difference between a
narrow win and a narrow loss this November.
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