Legalizing Pot in California

The failure of California voters to legalize pot in this state is another setback for the reform of our criminal justice system.  You may find it strange, unusual, even immoral or irreligious that the pastor of a church would advocate legalization of marijuana.  My reasons are quite simple and have to do with racial and criminal justice in America.

One of the most deadly legal drugs in America that has certainly decimated communities of color as well as households throughout the nation is alcohol.  Most of us do not need me to rehearse the effects that this drug has on the mind and body, and yet lethal doses are readily available in pints and fifths and half-pints throughout the country.  In our work at Glide Memorial, a substantial number of recovering addicts in our programs suffer from addiction to alcohol, and yet it is sold less than a block from our church in either direction.  There is nothing we can do about it, because the business owners have licenses from the government to sell alcohol.

The failure of prohibition came about in part, not because alcoholism was on the decline, which it was, but because of the gang violence associated with the illegal trafficking of alcohol across and beyond the country.  America found that it simply did not have the resources to outgun, outwit and out perform the national and international trafficking of alcohol by so many citizens in the nation. 

So many young black men are in state prisons and county jails today because of drug-related offenses.  While Congress took some steps to adjust the sentencing disparities between users of crack cocaine and powdered cocaine, the truth is that many of our trade partners in other developed countries, especially in Europe, have long ago decriminalized drugs as a way of assisting drug users in their recovery, and eliminating drug abuse as an uncontrolled source of pain and violence in their countries.

The failure to legalize marijuana in a state where one can almost literally get a "contact-high" walking down a city street is not only absurd, but also unjust.  It is also fiscally irresponsible to ignore a potential source of tax revenue in a bankrupt state that is not collecting any taxes on the numerous illegal sales at present.  It is no secret that the largest number of criminal prosecutions of African American and Hispanic American men are around the use of pot.  The sale and use of this drug often results in suspension and permanent loss of civil rights, employment marketability, voters rights, access to public housing and services, and other stigma in the larger community. 

In the weeks ahead I would like to share a few facts and concerns about the need to reform the criminal justice system and to demonstrate how it is now being used to rob a whole new generation of African Americans of their civil rights, their dignity, their futures and how it is destroying any sense of community and generational and familial stability, while educational opportunities become even more scarce and jails and prisons are becoming a growth industry everywhere, albeit without tax benefit to the larger community.