The Marijuana Legalization Thread
flimbro said:
And then cap it off with a link to some Black entrepreneurs who are being denied licenses/permits to enter into this new billion dollar market because they... wait for it... that's right, they have weed related arrests on their record.
You understand that the bill that got voted down included a pretty straightforward mechanism to expunge the records of people (regardless of race) who had weed related convictions, don't you?
New polling from the Center of American Progress and GBA Strategies shows that 68 percent of voters support marijuana legalization. Support for marijuana legalization includes majorities of all partisan, gender, and racial groups: 77 percent of Democrats; 62 percent of independents; 57 percent of Republicans; 66 percent of men; 69 percent of women; 69 percent of whites; 72 percent of African Americans; and 64 percent of Latinos support legalization.
Gov. Murphy. Corzine Part Deux.
Another totally ineffective Democratic rich guy with zero political experience. He must have zero influence in Trenton.
Klinker said:
flimbro said:You understand that the bill that got voted down included a pretty straightforward mechanism to expunge the records of people (regardless of race) who had weed related convictions, don't you?
And then cap it off with a link to some Black entrepreneurs who are being denied licenses/permits to enter into this new billion dollar market because they... wait for it... that's right, they have weed related arrests on their record.
Yes I do. I also understand that oftentimes the devil is in the details. The example I cited and you quoted was obviously in a locale where weed was legalized.
@Formerlyjerseyjack - which line?
yahooyahoo said:
Gov. Murphy. Corzine Part Deux.
Another totally ineffective Democratic rich guy with zero political experience. He must have zero influence in Trenton.
It was just as much Senator Sweeney's failure.
nohero said:
It was just as much Senator Sweeney's failure.
to me that was the big surprise. But Sweeney doesn't hold much sway in Essex County. Obviously.
flimbro said:
Nah. That's not the issue at all, but you know that, right? Right?
I was going to write something about the War On Drugs and the racist drive to fill up for profit prisons with Black and brown people and then maybe slip in a little something about arrest rates for Black folks in states that have legalized weed still being 3X that of white folks. And then cap it off with a link to some Black entrepreneurs who are being denied licenses/permits to enter into this new billion dollar market because they... wait for it... that's right, they have weed related arrests on their record.
Then I was going to explain that the law never treats/sees/benefits Black and brown folks the same way it does white folks. That's why Black law makers know that the only way to ensure that communities that were ravaged by decades of unfair policing and sentencing based on a racist 'drug war', actually benefit from any new legislation.
Yeah, I was going to do all of that and then I realized that you have the same letters on your keyboard that I have on mine and that if you really wanted to know why Black folks are suspicious you could simply type four words in that box- "legalized" "weed" "black" "people" and faster than you could light a fatty, pages and pages of info would appear. Crazy right?
well, actually, I have not researched the issue in regards to New Jersey. What I was responding to was news reports which characterized, either fairly or unfairly, that black leadership opposition was focused on the subject of drug abuse in black communities. I heard nothing about whether they were demanding other concessions to make up for past scourges of drug policy.
Do you have instances of the latter in NJ?
drummerboy said:
flimbro said:well, actually, I have not researched the issue in regards to New Jersey. What I was responding to was news reports which characterized, either fairly or unfairly, that black leadership opposition was focused on the subject of drug abuse in black communities. I heard nothing about whether they were demanding other concessions to make up for past scourges of drug policy.
Nah. That's not the issue at all, but you know that, right? Right?
I was going to write something about the War On Drugs and the racist drive to fill up for profit prisons with Black and brown people and then maybe slip in a little something about arrest rates for Black folks in states that have legalized weed still being 3X that of white folks. And then cap it off with a link to some Black entrepreneurs who are being denied licenses/permits to enter into this new billion dollar market because they... wait for it... that's right, they have weed related arrests on their record.
Then I was going to explain that the law never treats/sees/benefits Black and brown folks the same way it does white folks. That's why Black law makers know that the only way to ensure that communities that were ravaged by decades of unfair policing and sentencing based on a racist 'drug war', actually benefit from any new legislation.
Yeah, I was going to do all of that and then I realized that you have the same letters on your keyboard that I have on mine and that if you really wanted to know why Black folks are suspicious you could simply type four words in that box- "legalized" "weed" "black" "people" and faster than you could light a fatty, pages and pages of info would appear. Crazy right?
Do you have instances of the latter in NJ?
As Nohero suggested, the situation is relatively complex. Some politicians and activists understand that decriminalization and expungement should be a prerequisite to legalization. Others are enticed by the opportunity for taxation, investment and profit from recreational use of marijuana (with expungement as an add-on). So, one faction is driven by profit and the other by social justice (and not necessarily by 'drug abuse' as you say).
The profit oriented group offers expungement as an eventual by-product, financed in part by a percentage of the revenue generated by recreational use. The decriminalization and expungement group is more concerned with people currently incarcerated for non violent marijuana related convictions and the expungement of their records as well as the records of residents not currently incarcerated. They know that once weed is legalized any attention to decriminalization and expungement will fall by the wayside.
The profit oriented group has an expungement piece but it doesn't discuss the red tape around expungement and the cost of redesigning the system to handle the onslaught of petitions (in NJ this could be 900K+). Currently approximately 12 to 15,000 petitions for expungement are filed each year. This is not a DIY project, it requires court appearances, an attorney, and obviously court records from the original infraction and conviction. In NJ there is one expungement court per county.
I could continue but you get the idea. You can find this info on your own by googling the words I mentioned up thread. You could also search for state Senator Ron Rice who I believe is an opponent of legalization without social justice.
Marij. is illegal within 1,000 ft. of a school. Probably every house in M/So. is within 1,000 ft. of a school. Has this been addressed?
nohero said:
yahooyahoo said:It was just as much Senator Sweeney's failure.
Gov. Murphy. Corzine Part Deux.
Another totally ineffective Democratic rich guy with zero political experience. He must have zero influence in Trenton.
Sweeney didn't campaign for governor and make this one of his main selling points. The buck stops with Murphy on this one.
yahooyahoo said:
nohero said:Sweeney didn't campaign for governor and make this one of his main selling points. The buck stops with Murphy on this one.
yahooyahoo said:It was just as much Senator Sweeney's failure.
Gov. Murphy. Corzine Part Deux.
Another totally ineffective Democratic rich guy with zero political experience. He must have zero influence in Trenton.
As far as I can see, the main thing wrong with NJ is Sweeney. That dude stinks.
Klinker said:
yahooyahoo said:As far as I can see, the main thing wrong with NJ is Sweeney. That dude stinks.
nohero said:Sweeney didn't campaign for governor and make this one of his main selling points. The buck stops with Murphy on this one.
yahooyahoo said:It was just as much Senator Sweeney's failure.
Gov. Murphy. Corzine Part Deux.
Another totally ineffective Democratic rich guy with zero political experience. He must have zero influence in Trenton.
Let's not forget our own Senator Codey also opposed the bill. He is very powerful in Northern NJ.
yahooyahoo said:
Let's not forget our own Senator Codey also opposed the bill. He is very powerful in Northern NJ.
anyone know why Codey opposed it? Or does he just suffer from being an old white man?
flimbro,
what do you think of this article? Is it an unfair representation of Black opposition?
excerpt:
The others outlined a dark future of young and old marijuana users being injured on the job, barred from employment and progressing to harder drugs, while non-users fear driving among stoned motorists and even taking their children on neighborhood strolls in a haze of pot smoke.
"It will devastate the African-American community," Bishop Jethro James of Paradise Baptist Church in Newark told lawmakers at the first Legislative Black Caucus hearing on marijuana, held Wednesday, Feb. 21, in Jersey City. "It will devastate any chance of our children having a future."
Flemington attorney David Evans, a former public defender in Newark, said legal marijuana would be responsible for everything from mental illnesses to school cafeterias that reek of weed.
"Is legalizing marijuana going to improve the spiritual health of the people of New Jersey?" Evans asked. "I don't think so."
Second sentence of middle paragraph is not clear to me. Please rewrite or expand on your thought.