As leaders of the California NAACP, it is our mission to eradicate injustice and continue the fight for civil rights and social justice wherever and whenever we can. We are therefore compelled to speak out against another war, the so called “war on drugs.” To be clear, this is not a war on the drug lords and violent cartels, this is a war that disproportionately affects young men and women and the latest tool for imposing Jim Crow justice on poor African-Americans.
We reject the oft-repeated but deceptive argument that there are only two choices for addressing drugs — heavy handed law enforcement or total permissiveness. Substance abuse and addiction are American problems that affect every socioeconomic group, and meaningful public health and safety strategies are needed to address it. However, law enforcement strategies that target poor Blacks and Latinos and cause them to bear the burden and shame of arrest, prosecution and conviction for marijuana offenses must stop.
The California NAACP does not believe maintaining the illusion were winning the “war on drugs” is worth sacrificing another generation of our young men and women. Enough is enough. We want change we can believe in; thats why were supporting Prop. 19. Instead of wasting money on marijuana law enforcement, Prop. 19 will generate tax revenues we can use to improve the education and employment outcomes of our youth. Our youth want and deserve a future. Lets invest in people, not prisons. It is time to end the failed war on drugs by decriminalizing and regulating marijuana to save our communities.
via Alice Huffman: Marijuana Law Reform Is a Civil Rights Issue.
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[...] marijuana on the ballot in California, cannabis is finally becoming mainstream. But while some supporters are pretty obvious, others can be quite [...]
[...] marijuana on the ballot in California, cannabis is finally becoming mainstream. But while some supporters are pretty obvious, others can be quite [...]
[...] marijuana on the ballot in California, cannabis is finally becoming mainstream. But while some supporters are pretty obvious, others can be quite [...]
Let’s just hope the majority vote in favor and hopefully more states will soon follow.
This has been all over CNN this morning; with DFAF puppet and token African American prohibitionist Ron Allen saying NAACP head Alice Huffman is “trying to keep black kids high”.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/07/09/tsr.snow.naacp.marijuana.flap.cnn?iref=allsearch
This is great news. Eloquently said. The time is now that we must end this failed policy of cannabis prohibition. It would be a respectable move for those that impose these draconian laws on us to do an about face after apologizing for dragging our country, and its families through their mess for far too long. They are using our tax dollars to promote their propaganda that using cannabis is wrong. Imagine that; using a plant is wrong according to our government, so they needed a war on its own and spent billions. NEWS FLASH. . . it failed, and we have science to prove it. There is no debate anymore. I thought we didn’t like propaganda and totalitarianism, you know keeping the tyranny of the few off the backs of the many, here in the good old US as we’d be told by those in law enforcement, the government, and military leaders. But when it comes down to promoting those values in our own country, they won’t stand with us. Isn’t that what we fight for. . .in other countries. . .freedoms? At some time or place, they will be forced to admit failure, and that time is near on the horizon. If we’re not able to fund our schools in these tuff economic times, how is it that we’re to send police out to arrest non-violent people who like to use cannabis? Where in this do you see failure? Where in their failed and dying logic does it tell you that you should spend your last dime on the “war on its own” effort now underway? The DEA machine is breaking our backs in terms of economics to prop up their false economy bank-rolled by us, who believe that an end to cannabis prohibition is a just, fair, and logical step forward out of their mess. However many ever million of us there are out there should be loud enough that they will hear when we come calling on them. We will not back down, non-violent is the way!