CALIFORNIA NAACP BACKS MARIJUANA BALLOT MEASURE

Sacramento - The California NAACP has endorsed a November ballot
measure to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana, calling the
measure a civil rights issue because blacks have a disproportionate
number of arrests for marijuana possession compared with whites.

Accompanied by other African American leaders in California, the
president of the state NAACP, Alice Huffman, said the current
prohibition on marijuana has led to the criminalizing of young people
and consequently has hampered the ability of many African Americans to prosper.

The organization is the most mainstream statewide entity to endorse
the marijuana measure, Proposition 19, to date.

"This is not a war on the drug lords, this is a war against young men
and women of color," Huffman said, adding later that, "Once a young
person is arrested and brought under the justice system, he or she is
more likely to get caught in the criminal justice system again,
further wasting tax dollars."

Huffman and other leaders - including Aubry Stone, president of the
California Black Chamber of Commerce - argued that money currently
spent on enforcing marijuana laws would be better spent on education.

Prop. 19 would legalize cultivation, possession and transporting
marijuana for personal use for people 21 or older. Local governments
would be permitted to tax and regulate the production and sale of
marijuana. It would still be illegal under federal law.

In announcing support, African American leaders pointed to a report
that shows that in the 25 largest counties in California, blacks are
arrested for possession of marijuana at rates that are as much as
four times as high as those for white people. Those arrested are
overwhelmingly young men.

Black people 18 to 25 years old use marijuana less frequently than
whites, according to federal data in the National Survey on Drug Use
and Health.

The report was written by Harry Levine, a sociology professor at
Queens College at the City University of New York, who has researched
similar trends in New York City. It was released by the Drug Policy
Alliance, which is backing the ballot measure.

"In a nutshell, the police are assigned heavily to patrol only in
certain neighborhoods and in those neighborhoods they are looking for
certain suspects who are young, who are male," Levine said, adding
that police would make more arrests for marijuana possession if they
focused on areas with higher concentrations of whites.

Stephen Gutwillig, California State Director of the Drug Policy
Alliance, called the NAACP endorsement a "landmark moment."

"This is the African American community establishment saying 'enough
is enough,'" Gutwillig said.

But the support is not shared throughout that community, as many
black religious leaders are in opposition.

Bishop Ron Allen, leader of the International Faith Based Coalition
and a member of the coalition opposing Prop. 19, said he was
"shocked, stunned and surprised" by the endorsement and said it is
not a civil rights issue.

"If anyone should know what illicit drugs will do to an underserved
community, we expect our civil rights leaders to have a better
understanding than anyone else," he said.

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MINORITIES AND MARIJUANA ARRESTS

The NAACP endorsed Prop. 19, the recreational marijuana initiative,
saying the measure is a civil rights issue. The civil rights group
pointed to a study released by the Drug Policy Alliance, which found,
among other things:

. In every one of the 25 largest counties in California, blacks are
arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites,
typically at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites.

. U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks use
marijuana at lower rates than young whites.

. Marijuana possession arrests have serious consequences. They create
permanent "drug arrest" records that can be easily found on the
Internet by employers, landlords, schools, credit agencies, licensing
boards and banks.

. Criminal records for marijuana possession severely limit the life
chances of the poor, the young, and especially of young blacks and Latinos.

Source: Drug Policy Alliance