05-18-2018, 04:33 PM
(05-18-2018, 04:05 PM)Kane Wrote: [ -> ](05-18-2018, 03:53 PM)rollerjag Wrote: [ -> ]The original laws against hemp and marijuana targeted all non-white people, Reefer Madness reinforced that idea. Statistics clearly show black people are arrested now for marijuana possession at significantly higher rates than white people.Please don't reference Reefer Madness as anything other that silly propaganda (that made WHITE people look crazy for smoking it)
Harry Anslinger said that sure... but the issue at hand during those times was the massive amounts of migrant workers from Mexico.
It's all in the wonderful docu-series America's War on Drugs.
And I don't deny blacks are arrested at a higher rate than whites. That doesn't mean they actually smoke it more.
There is a serious issue to be discussed there but it isn't a marijuana issue. They aren't targeting marijuana smokers that are only black or because they are black.
The real issue is social and economical. The incarceration rate of black men is high, but it isn't just users but sellers as well. If there are more young black men selling drugs trying to make a living based on being brought up in a terrible social and economic climate there are more instances for them to be arrested.
Even still.... regardless of who uses more or who admits to using more, this whole thing came about from the idea that marijuana is still illegal in order to "put the black man down" and that is a silly notion.
You discount the effect Reefer Madness and the attitude espoused by Anslinger had on voters. Yes, the point of Reefer Madness was that it made white people crazy...crazy as black people. It was silly propaganda, that worked. I saw the War on Drugs, I've researched this subject for years, the prevailing attitude was non-white drug users were a menace to polite, white society.
You are correct, blacks use marijuana less but get arrested more. For possession...not possession with the intent to distribute...possession. Maybe not to keep the black man down, but certainly it's used as a way of controlling a segment of the population.