MARIJUANA LAW REFORM IS A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." So said the
late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, when he spoke out
against the Vietnam War. At the time, he was roundly criticized for
speaking out on an issue considered outside the purview of civil
rights leaders. King understood better than most at the time, the
true cost of war - in lives lost, in futures squandered, in dreams
deferred and in misspent resources. Eventually, a majority of
Americans came to agree with him about the war in Vietnam. His moral
courage lay in speaking out in the face of no agreement, caring more
about his integrity than his popularity.

It is the mission of the California NAACP to eradicate injustice and
continue the fight for civil rights and social justice wherever and
whenever we can. We are therefore compelled to speak out against
another war, the so called "war on drugs."

This is not a war on the drug lords and violent cartels. This is a
war that disproportionately impacts young men and women and is the
latest tool for imposing Jim Crow justice on poor African Americans.

We reject the oft-repeated but deceptive argument that there are only
two choices for dealing with drugs - heavy-handed law enforcement or
total permissiveness. Substance abuse and addiction are American
problems that impact every socioeconomic group, and meaningful public
health and safety strategies are needed to address it. However, law
enforcement strategies that target poor blacks and Latinos and cause
them to bear the burden and shame of arrest, prosecution and
conviction for marijuana offenses must stop.

The report released in June by the Drug Policy Alliance confirmed our
view that marijuana law enforcement in California disproportionately
target our youth. Despite consistent evidence that black youth use
marijuana at lower rates than whites, 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. We believe whatever potential harms may be
associated with using marijuana are more than outweighed by the
immediate harms that derive from being caught up in the criminal
justice system.

Given the current economic crisis and high level of unemployment,
particularly for black men, do we really want to permanently handicap
a person's ability to get an education, make a decent living and have
a productive life because they used marijuana? Equally important - is
arresting people for possessing marijuana the best use of our scarce
tax dollars? Can we justify wasting millions attempting to reduce
demand for cannabis through law enforcement? How many more years do
we wait before declaring that strategy a failure?

The California NAACP does not believe maintaining the illusion that
we're winning the "war on drugs" is worth sacrificing another
generation of our young men and women.

Enough is enough. We want change we can believe in, and that's why
we're supporting Prop. 19. Instead of wasting money on marijuana law
enforcement, Prop. 19 will generate tax revenues we can use to
improve the education and employment outcomes of our youth. Our youth
want and deserve a future. Let's invest in people, not prisons.