Pubdate: Wed, 24 Nov 2010
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Copyright: 2010 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n926/a06.html
Author: Beverly Marie

19 WAS NOT GOOD FOR BLACK FOLK

Re: "Prop 19 Didn't Resonate With Minority Voters," Full Disclosure, 
11/9I almost spit the fried rice out of my mouth reading the last 
paragraph. While it might be worthy to visit race and Props 8 and 19, 
you would have to first start with the basics and how social values 
and economics play in and stop overestimating how socially liberal 
black folks are.

There is no benefit to black people to pass prop 19, even with the 
"pushers" of Prop 19 trying to sell us that the black arrest rate for 
pot crimes vs. whites will somehow go down. Dale Gieringer from 
California NORML laid it out real well, "the fact is that blacks and 
Latinos are targeted for ALL crimes, and so marijuana just isn't 
different in that regard." It is also insulting to think that that is 
the only thing we would care about. Most blacks know that even with 
passage nothing would have changed, in fact, crime would have gone up 
and there would be MORE nickel and dime street dealers trying to 
"come up" selling pot, hence, more violence in our streets and more 
arrests. And really access is not an issue either, today anyone could 
pay a yearly $150 fee to the thousands of prescribing doctors, get a 
medical card, and grow a nice personal decent amount - EVEN IF 
NOTHING IS MEDICALLY WRONG WITH YOU. (Just look in the Express ads, 
you'll find at least 50.)

What Prop 19 proponents FAILED to discuss was how specifically black 
communities were going to benefit economically. The pyramid scheme 
had already been worked out with the local and state government, the 
Big 4 grow houses, the permitting process, and the Pharma industry. 
Where and how were black and brown folks going to fit in?? Was it in 
the role of the $10.00 an hour hired security guards or the 
minimum-wage pot-picking farmer?

One other thing to note is that those grow houses and lil' weed shops 
were not going to be placed in the neighborhoods of the very same 
loud white people arguing and financing the legalization of pot. They 
did not have to worry about their neighborhoods becoming a 
militarization zone, or property values going down, because they are 
not going to accept that shyt in their own backyards.

Lastly, the biggest failure was not being up front about what the 
social impacts were. I am a consumer of pot and one of those blacks 
who voted NO when I got into the booth. I didn't trust Prop 19, and 
knew deep down inside that "no good" could ever come out of 
legalizing "another "drug that might impact the overall wellness of 
my people and community - a community that already was in danger and 
fragmented with poverty, single parenting, failing schools, and 
unsafe neighborhoods. Lest I mention, a community that never 
recovered from that nagging crack cocaine epidemic that decimated 
lives, families, and neighborhoods forever, but pot is cool and 
sanctioned? Really!??

As for proponents of Prop 8, they missed the mark on a lot of 
"inconvenient truths" - but that is a different post.

Beverly Marie, Oakland
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom