20190428.0430

One more article that LinkedIN recommended for me was Randi Zuckerbert's 20 April 2019 "Celebrating 420 Is Not Equal for All." The short piece notes socioeconomic impacts of recent legalizations of marijuana in the United States before pivoting to the racial and ethnic biases that appear to underlie the benefits which currently accrue from the legalizations. Zuckerberg reminds readers that there are still people suffering from draconian laws that have been overturned, even as people markedly unlike them benefit from the changes to those laws.
Zuckerberg is, of course, entirely correct in noting the racial disparities in benefits from and incarcerations due to marijuana use, possession, and sales. They are and remain present, as do disparities in popular perception; too often, white folks who indulge in marijuana are regarded positively or benignly, while persons of color who do so are regarded as already-hardened criminals. And it is shameful that those elected to positions of power who currently have the authority to pardon or commute, and who do exercise those powers in cases where justice has been miscarried--and enforcing bad laws is such a miscarriage--do not do more to release those incarcerated who are guilty of things no longer illegal.
I have noted (here and here, for example) that I am in favor of legalization of marijuana. The economic benefits to the states that have done so are clear, and I am not aware of any increase in crime that offsets those gains to any substantial degree. I am certain that if there were, it would be trumpeted to the heavens by those whose interests are in forcing others into ways of life that arise from some source they do not even know, but have internalized uncritically such that they cannot conceive of alternatives except as being "unnatural." But I hear no such fanfares being played, and even my ears are not so bad as to miss such brassy braying as that; I can only conclude that the apocalyptic ends that many have said legalization would bring about are not occurring.
But for many, as Zuckerberg rightly points out, bad ends have already come about and are ongoing. She is right to remind us that things remain skewed, that many still suffer where others now take delight, and that the burden of that suffering is lopsided in strange ways that reflect poorly upon the nation where it is borne. There is still work to do--and every day demands some efforts upon it.