April 20 [was an] unofficial holiday within the stoner community, and I hope everyone who chose to celebrate enjoyed it! However, I also hope that you took time out of your day to reflect on the detrimental effects the criminalization of cannabis has had on generations of communities of color. Black people are almost four times as likely to be arrested for cannabis use than white people, despite similar usage rates. The vast majority of these arrests are for possession. Furthermore, states spend billions of dollars each policing these drugs.
The majority of Americans support the legalization of cannabis, as do an overwhelming majority of young people. As an organizer with NextGen North Carolina, I talk to young North Carolinians every day who want our elected officials to legalize cannabis. We’re going to the polls in November with cannabis legalization in mind, and that’s why we’ll be voting Sen. Thom Tillis out of office.
Sen. Tillis is against cannabis legalization, and he has voted several times to maintain the criminalization of both recreational and medical cannabis. While Tillis may accept a criminal justice system that disproportionately targets black Americans and wastes money doing so, voters do not — and we’ll make that clear in November.
— Max Wimer
Weaverville
I applaud your initiative and you have my support but…law enforcement loves their “low-hanging fruit.”
For example, take the two law enforcement officials the State sandbagged the Hemp commission with: Chief Tony Goodwin (ret.) and Sheriff Tim Manning.
These two were pushing to ban smokable hemp flower from the state last year. Their reasoning? Goodwin felt that the hemp would lead to the legalization of marijuana and Manning suggested , without any evidence, that hemp is a gateway drug. It’s going to be an uphill battle when you have willfully ignorant “dinosaurs” entrenched in Raleigh making legislation, based not on constituant will or data and science, to further their own antiquated beliefs. This is what we are up against.
In the end, law enforcement doesn’t want to lose the easy money they’ve been collecting for years through fines and seizures, because, you know, that’s what it’s really about.
I wish you the best.