Something's in the Air: Race, Crime, and the Legalization of Marijuana

Description

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. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables Editors’ Introduction: Ending a War or Just California Dreamin’? This Is Our Exit Strategy: The Case for Legalization California Dreamin’: The Case against Cannabis The Chapters in This Volume Notes 1. Criminal Justice Costs of Prohibiting Marijuana in California Existing Estimates of the Cost Marijuana Prohibition Imposes on California Calculating the Costs for 2010 Community Corrections Other Costs Results Discussion Notes 2. Public-Health Considerations in the Legalization Debate Drugs, Drug Laws, and African Americans Case Study: Marijuana Arrests in Illinois Marijuana and the Community Justice Model Other Public-Health Impacts of Criminalizing Marijuana Conclusion Notes 3. The Paths Not (Yet) Taken: Lower Risk Alternatives to Full-Market Legalization of Cannabis Reflections on Prop 19 Home Cultivation The Dutch Cannabis Coffee-Shop System Cannabis Clubs and Licensing Models Conclusions Notes 4. Why Did Proposition 19 Fail? Theoretical Foundations Our Survey Statewide Electoral Data Conclusion Notes 5. Winds of Change: Black Opinion on Legalizing Marijuana Growing Support in the Black Community Explaining Black Support for the Legalization of Marijuana Conclusion: A New Direction in the Debate 6. The Highs and Lows of Support for Marijuana Legalization Among White Americans Modern Debates over Marijuana Legalization Generational Explanations are Insufficient Putting the Marijuana Debate in Context The Emergence of Medical Marijuana Conclusion and Discussion Notes 7. Building Minority Community Power Through Legalization Black Deviance–White Innocence The Blumstein Effect: The Problem with Race Disproportionality and the War on Drugs Getting High versus Getting Free: Legalization as a Step toward Carceral System Reform Conclusion Notes 8. The Latino Politics of Proposition 19: Criminal Justice and Immigration The Anti-Mexican History of Marijuana Laws Criminal Justice Politics Immigration Politics Conclusion Notes 9. No Half-Measures: Mexico’s Quixotic Policy on California’s Proposition 19 Mexico’s Battle Against Organized Crime U.S. Cooperation in the Drug War Mexico as a Consumer Nation Previous Mexican Drug Decriminalization Mexican Voices for Change in Drug Policy Questionable Potential of Proposition 19 Tracing Calderón’s Statements on Proposition 19 An International Drug Prohibition Regime Change Other Expert Analyses Conclusions Notes 10. The “Chronic” and Coercion: Exploring How Legalizing Marijuana Might Get the U.S. Government off the Backs and Throats of Americans (or, Not) The War Against the Chronic (or, the Chronic War) Legalization Drug “Wars” and Breaking Blacks: On Disciplining and Punishing Chronic Conclusions Notes References List of Contributors Index