ABSTRACT

America’s drug laws have always exerted an unequal and unfair toll on Blacks and Latinos, who are arrested more often than Whites for the possession of illegal drugs and given harsher sentences. In this volume, contributors ask how would marijuana legalization affect communities of color? Is legalization of marijuana necessary to safeguard minority families from a lifetime of hardship and inequality? Who in minority communities favors legalization and why, and do these minority opinions differ from the opinions held by White Americans? This volume also includes analyses of the policy debate by a range of scholars addressing economic, health, and empowerment issues. Comparative lessons from other countries are also analyzed.

chapter |12 pages

Editors' Introduction

Ending a War, or Just California Dreamin'?

chapter 3|14 pages

The Paths Not (Yet) Taken

Lower Risk Alternatives to Full-Market Legalization of Cannabis

chapter 5|14 pages

Winds of Change

Black Opinion on Legalizing Marijuana

chapter 8|11 pages

The Latino Politics of Proposition 19

Criminal Justice and Immigration

chapter 9|13 pages

No Half-Measures

Mexico's Quixotic Policy on California's Proposition 19

chapter 10|15 pages

The “Chronic” 1 and Coercion

Exploring How Legalizing Marijuana Might Get the U.S. Government off the Backs and Throats of African Americans (or, Not)