CA Prop 19: Is It Me, Or Somebody High For Real This Time?

If anybody is going to get marijuana legalized, the “free love”  generation is gonna get it done.  But at who’s expense? The federal  government still hasn’t decriminalized marijuana. The state of  California still hasn’t quite worked out all the kinks on the prior  piece of legislation and with medical marijuana dispensers popping up on  every corners faster than liquors stores used to, municipalities were  forced to regulate “medical high” treatment.

Conflicts over who really needs it versus who really wants it has  marginalized the intended consequences of the legislation with a host of  unintended consequences. California is not ready to have the discussion  about marijuana being legal for recreational use, but the state’s  financial crisis has opened the door—and anything that can be taxed is  fair game. Pot included. Prostitution is next (but that’s another  article).

What really makes Proposition 19 stranger than fiction is that the  state chapter of the NAACP has endorsed the referendum. Since when did  legalizing marijuana become a civil rights issue? We know, the past few  years, the state NAACP has become awfully proficient at endorsing ballot  initiatives. Initiatives that coincidentally fund independent  expenditure campaigns run by the chapter president’s consulting firm for  hundreds of thousands of dollars. Okay, this is America, where  opportunity—no laws appear to be broken but the appearance of  impropriety of a state chapter civil rights group endorsing initiatives  its president is paid to run couldn’t be more clear. But this is way out  of bounds for the NAACP. The only one that looks high on this  endorsement is the NAACP. Legalize marijuana, for real?

Now I really don’t like criticizing the NAACP because it is where my  advocacy was born. It’s sort of like badmouthing the ole neighborhood.  It’s hard to talk about where you came from, but sometimes you have  to-to get the ole hood to move out of the past into the future. So, I  have critiqued them in the past, and will in the future. I recently gave  them a pass on an issue that clearly wasn’t a civil rights issue, nor  was it a discrimination, nor was it a hate crime. The Hallmark  card, so-called “Black Hos” issue (the talking card actually said “black  holes, like holes in the universe…), showed really how off base the  NAACP (Los Angeles chapter) has gotten in its advocacy. I can’t give em a  second pass. The NAACP tries to be everything to everybody. Legalizing  marijuana is not a civil rights issue. But armed with statistics, the  President of the California NAACP, Alice Huffman, rationalized the  endorsement by suggesting that because blacks (black males in  particular) are arrested more for weed stops even though they smoke less  weed. Well, blacks are stopped more for everything and arrested more  for everything. It’s a statewide racial profiling issue, when stopped on  violations equivalent to their white counterparts, whites are diverted  out of the criminal justice system and blacks are directed (not  diverted) into the criminal justice system. Why doesn’t the California  NAACP call out the statewide racial profiling of blacks or black males?  That’s a civil rights issue. It’s one of those things that make you go,  hmmmm…for real. The statistics don’t lie, but NAACP put emphasis on the  wrong aspect. Black men are not going to stop being pulled over, and are  not going to stop being arrested because marijuana is legalized.

What will happen instead is that a host of unintended consequences  will occur that exceeds those that results from the medicinal use law.  Legalized marijuana will be sold to 21 year olds and allow one ounce to  be in their possession. Since the new initiative prohibits smoking while  driving, or smoking with children in the car, instead of being stopped  for “suspicion” of DUIs (drinking under the influence), blacks will be  stopped on suspicion of SUIs (smoking under the influence). The racial  profiling will still continue. Consumption of alcohol and drugs (and  marijuana is a drug—no one refuses that) occurs most where people are  poorest, jobless and most depressed. Has the NAACP calculated what the  impact on our (black) community, ones with highest unemployment, lowest  incomes and wealth ratios and the worst mental health care in the state,  will be-just from this perspective alone? Or has Huffman only  calculated how much money will be spent on getting the ballot initiative  passed? Will legalized marijuana become the new cigarette where instead  smokers smoking a pack a day, they smoke an ounce a day?  Has Huffman  been following the robberies and violence tied to the medicinal use  outlets? What legalization advocates are not looking at is the access to  marijuana. We know liquor stores are gathering spots for illicit crime  activity. Will marijuana (head) shops replace liquor stores as the  neighborhood blight spot? Where will the tax money go, into the general  fund or to help community clinics and people with addictions? I haven’t  raised question with the slowness that occurs with weed use and the  impacts on our children with potheads as parents (and  grandparents-that’s scary). We know people high on pot demonstrate  erratic behavior. How do police interpret that? Then there’s still the  issue of the federal government considering pot illegal. Seems to me if  the NAACP really wanted to be an advocate on this issue, it would lobby  federal decriminalization before the state passes its  initiative. I’m sorry…the California NAACP missed it on this one.

In conclusion, this legalize pot issue is about money—and not the tax  side. I’m sure this state president hasn’t missed that since  it is part of what she does as her business. But the NAACP’s place in  this debate is highly suspect and badly positioned. The state president  is well positioned, however, which calls her motives for endorsing the  initiative into question. Maybe it’s me. But NAACP can’t be so high they  can’t see the downside greatly outweighs any contrived upside to  legalizing marijuana. I’m jus sayin.

Anthony  Asadullah Samad, Ph.D., is a national columnist,  managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of the upcoming book, REAL EYEZ: Race, Reality and  Politics in 21^st Century Popular Culture. He can be reached  at www.AnthonySamad.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DrAnthonySamad