Cops Are Still Disproportionately Arresting People Of Color For ? In Colorado
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1CK1S
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Since Colorado shops began legally selling marijuana in January 2014, traffic fatalities in the state have fallen, tax revenue has increased, and employment opportunities in a rapidly expanding industry have exploded.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that people of color are still being arrested for marijuana-related crimes at the same rates as before the law was passed, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Drug Policy Alliance, a national organization that promotes drug policies "grounded in science, compassion, health, and human rights," according to its website.
The Drug Policy Alliance reviewed drug arrests in Colorado's 64 counties two years before and two years after the passage in 2012 of Amendment 64, which legalized the possession, cultivation, and private use of cannabis within the state and provided for its commercial sale. The number of criminal charges for marijuana plummeted from more than 39,000 in 2011 to just over 2,000 in 2014.
Unfortunately, the report points out that racial disparities continue to persist in the state's drug law enforcement.Blacks are more often arrested for marijuana possession, distribution, and cultivation than white people.
"Black and brown communities have been the battlefield of the drug war," Art Way, the Drug Policy Alliance's Colorado director, told VICE News.
Amendment 64 states that people 21 and older can possess or purchase up to one ounce of marijuana at a time, and grow up to six plants at home in an "enclosed, locked space." Smoking or consuming marijuana in public remains illegal. Taking weed out of the state and driving under the influence of marijuana are also prohibited.
Data from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation shows that the arrest rate for whites for weed possession in 2010 was 335.12 per 100,000 people, while the arrest rate for blacks was 851.45 — 2.4 times higher. This imbalance was eerily consistent four years later: though arrests had declined, black people were still 2.4 times higher to be taken into custody for marijuana than white people. In both years, black people accounted for roughly four percent of the population, but more than nine percent of arrests for possession.
"The overall decrease in arrests, charges, and cases is enormously beneficial to communities of color who bore the brunt of marijuana prohibition prior to the passage of Amendment 64," Rosemary Harris Lytle, regional chair of the NAACP, said in a statement reacting to the report. "However, we are concerned with the rise in disparity for the charge of public consumption and challenge law enforcement to ensure this reality is not discriminatory in any manner."
Black people are more likely to be stopped, arrested, and prosecuted for violating drug laws despite the fact that whites and blacks consume marijuana at roughly the same rate. Someone is arrested in the United States for weed possession every 36 seconds — a black person is 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for possession than a white person.
Marijuana legalization "is a very important first step, but not a panacea," Sanho Tree, director of the Drug Policy Project, told VICE News. "No respected drug reformer has ever claimed that it would solve our problems in regard to race."
Comments
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What else is new???
Interesting though after the fact ta been decriminalized
Babylon gonna fall soon.... -
If all blacks stopped committing any and all crimes we allegedly commit, they'd literally put us back in slavery.
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but weed is legal?!?!?
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So other than trafficking, what other weed related ? can they prosecute? How are people getting arrested for doing legal ? ?
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So other than trafficking, what other weed related ? can they prosecute? How are people getting arrested for doing legal ? ?
probably smoking outside is still illegal
not sure how you can prove driving under influence.
One of my homies caught a DUI for a weed last year because his car smelled like it lol and he had some shake on the floor in his whip -
leftcoastkev wrote: »If all blacks stopped committing any and all crimes we allegedly commit, they'd literally put us back in slavery.
Even though slavery never officially ended as a whole, which is why we get disproportionately locked up compared to everyone else. -
Play country music when pulled over
Automatic get out of any lituation
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This isn't news. It's pretty much what you would expect to happen. If you make weed legal under certain circumstances, the overall number of weed based arrests should drop across the board, which is exactly what happened. Making weed legal isn't going to do anything to change the systemic racism that is responsible for the disparity between white arrests and black arrests, so that number shouldn't change at all and it didn't.
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Crazy part is idk if you guys have been to Colorado but the black population is like less than 4.5% of the state
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yea I would like to know what they are being charged with since its legal
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yea I would like to know what they are being charged with since its legal
There are still restrictions even if it is legal. Alcohol is legal but you can't just get in a car and drive while guzzling a bottle of Goose. -
But there's certain rules, no?
To possess up to an oz or grow, you must have a medical mj card.
To possess no more than a quarter (I think) w no growing you only must be 21+.
Maybe there's a lot of misunderstood issues.
But outside of that, I'm gonna assume it more so has to do w the public usage of weed, because if it's legal, you can't get busted for the weed itself for no reason. It's no different than drinking. -
But there's certain rules, no?
To possess up to an oz or grow, you must have a medical mj card.
To possess no more than a quarter (I think) w no growing you only must be 21+.
Maybe there's a lot of misunderstood issues.
But outside of that, I'm gonna assume it more so has to do w the public usage of weed, because if it's legal, you can't get busted for the weed itself for no reason. It's no different than drinking.
so u assume blacks are too dumb to understand the law? kys -
Don't
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u tried to explain away the disparity by implying differential offending... u aint slick...
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Nah, there is a lot of misunderstandings from everyone.
Ppl always saying "I'm gonna move there so I can grow and smoke wherever"
And you can't just do it like that
But like I said, the busts can't be for the weed itself since its legal, it's probably more so for using in public. Doesn't change they're profiling and getting charges to stick on ? though.
More info is needed as to how and why this is happening. Until then it's speculation as to how and why. -
Nah, there is a lot of misunderstandings from everyone.
Ppl always saying "I'm gonna move there so I can grow and smoke wherever"
And you can't just do it like that
But like I said, the busts can't be for the weed itself since its legal, it's probably more so for using in public. Doesn't change they're profiling and getting charges to stick on ? though.
More info is needed as to how and why this is happening. Until then it's speculation as to how and why.
so although u acknowledge the profiling, you still insist that differential offending is a major element because blacks are stupid.
although this country's cj system has a history and present of profiling and mistreating blacks, u need more information...
kys -
