MLK Day 2025: Cannabis and Civil Rights

It’s MLK Day as soon as once more.

I’ve been writing an MLK Day publish on this weblog for eight consecutive years. The theme of my posts is that hashish is a civil rights problem, and that Dr. King would have advocated for ending prohibition primarily based on that truth.

Annually, I’ve demonstrated with info (upon info upon info) that the Battle on Medication continues in insidious methods. In, 2023, which is the newest 12 months that FBI knowledge is on the market, legislation enforcement officers remodeled 200,000 arrests for marijuana-related convictions. These 200,000 arrests represent roughly 25% of all drug-related arrests.

Sadly, arrests of black folks constituted 29% of all drug arrests in 2023, though solely 13.6% of Individuals are black.

Heading into MLK Day weekend, President Biden introduced that he’s commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 folks convicted of non-violent drug offenses. The main target was predominantly on people “who acquired prolonged sentences primarily based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine…”, versus cannabis-related crimes. Based on the Final Prisoner Venture, “the whole variety of these incarcerated for hashish who acquired commutations is just not is aware of, however 9 LPP constituents will likely be free.”

For all that Biden promised as to hashish, it’s the least we may have requested. Underneath the brand new Trump administration, consideration will shortly return to the irritating marijuana rescheduling course of. If hashish finally ends up on Schedule III, legal penalties for traffickers might soften, however make no mistake: possessing and distributing hashish will nonetheless be a federal crime.

On the state stage, the place most arrest happen, progress has slowed in the previous few years. Out right here the place I reside in Oregon, with our 800 hashish shops, it’s astonishing to consider 200,000 annual hashish arrests– most for easy possession, no much less.

There may be lots of work to do. Listed below are a brief listing of organizations for those who’d prefer to become involved:

For prior posts on this collection: