MLK Day 2026: Cannabis and Civil Rights – Canna Law Blog™

It’s MLK Day as soon as once more.

I’ve written an MLK Day submit on this weblog for 9 consecutive years. The theme of all these posts is that hashish is a civil rights situation, and that Dr. King would have advocated for ending marijuana prohibition based mostly on that reality.

Every year, I’ve demonstrated with info (upon info upon info) that the Struggle on Medicine continues in insidious methods. In, 2024, which is the newest yr that FBI information is offered, regulation enforcement officers made practically 190,000 arrests for marijuana possession and distribution, comprising over 22% of all drug-related arrests. Of these arrests, 92% have been for marijuana possession. The opposite 8% of marijuana-related arrests have been outlined as “gross sales/manufacturing.”

These numbers are a slight and welcome downtick from 2023, however they continue to be shockingly giant. Sadly, marijuana-related arrests of black individuals proceed to be disproportionate to inhabitants measurement, at 42% of all recorded arrests. (Black individuals comprise roughly 14% of the U.S. inhabitants.) I doubt this troubling dynamic will change anytime quickly.

Heading into MLK Day weekend final yr, President Biden introduced that he was commuting the sentences of practically 2,500 individuals convicted of non-violent drug offenses. The main target was predominantly on people “who obtained prolonged sentences based mostly on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine…”, versus cannabis-related crimes. It wasn’t what he promised, however a minimum of it was one thing.

Trump hasn’t made an identical effort, saving his pardons for giant scale narcotraffickers and people who can afford to pay. Elsewhere, the President will get some credit score for choosing up the ball on Biden’s stalled marijuana rescheduling effort, however rescheduling isn’t any answer to the plague of marijuana-related arrests nationwide. As we’ve defined many occasions, shifting marijuana to Schedule III is not going to legalize the plant federally, and it does nothing to alter state legal guidelines—the place most arrests are made.

Forgive me if I sound somewhat grouchy at present: within the 9 years I’ve been penning this MLK Day submit, scant progress has been made on hashish decriminalization. As a substitute, we’ve seen states roll out hashish licensing applications, with enterprise alternatives for many who can marshal assets. That’s all properly and good, however so many individuals are left behind—some actually behind bars, and on account of race.

On MLK Day, it’s vital to recollect that there’s nonetheless numerous work to do on the intersection of race and drug regulation enforcement. Here’s a quick listing of organizations in the event you’d prefer to become involved:

For prior posts on this collection: