MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights
It’s MLK Day once again.
I’ve been writing an MLK Day post on this blog for eight consecutive years. The theme of my posts is that cannabis is a civil rights issue, and that Dr. King would have advocated for ending prohibition based on that fact.
Each year, I have demonstrated with facts (upon facts upon facts) that the War on Drugs continues in insidious ways. In, 2023, which is the most recent year that FBI data is available, law enforcement officials made over 200,000 arrests for marijuana-related convictions. Those 200,000 arrests constitute roughly 25% of all drug-related arrests.
Sadly, arrests of black people constituted 29% of all drug arrests in 2023, although only 13.6% of Americans are black.
Heading into MLK Day weekend, President Biden announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses. The focus was predominantly on individuals “who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine…”, as opposed to cannabis-related crimes. According to the Last Prisoner Project, “the total number of those incarcerated for cannabis who received commutations is not knows, but nine LPP constituents will be free.”
For all that Biden promised as to cannabis, it’s the least we could have asked. Under the new Trump administration, attention will quickly return to the frustrating marijuana rescheduling process. If cannabis ends up on Schedule III, criminal penalties for traffickers may soften, but make no mistake: possessing and distributing cannabis will still be a federal crime.
At the state level, where most arrest occur, progress has slowed in the last few years. Out here where I live in Oregon, with our 800 cannabis stores, it’s astonishing to think of 200,000 annual cannabis arrests– most for simple possession, no less.
There is a lot of work to do. Here are a short list of organizations if you’d like to get involved:
- The Last Prisoner Project
- The Marijuana Justice Coalition (comprising many national advocacy organizations)
- National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws
- Students for Sensible Drug Policy
For prior posts in this series:
- MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights (2024)
- MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights (2023)
- MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights (2022)
- MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights (2021)
- MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights (2020)
- MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights (2019)
- MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights (2018)
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