Red, White and Green

Cigarette smoking accounts for 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, according to the Center of Disease Prevention and Control. Alcohol accounts for 88,000 deaths. Both are legal and can be easily obtained from any of your local stores. Marijuana however, which has only one recorded death ever, is still illegal throughout most of the country. There is only one clear reason for the criminalization of marijuana.

Law enforcement made 574,641 arrests in 2015 for small amounts of marijuana intended for personal use, according to a 2016 report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. This is significantly more than the 505,681 arrests made for all violent crimes.

This issue is much deeper than just excessive arrests. The criminalization of marijuana is a tool in the much larger box of institutional racism.

The ACLU report found that whites are more likely than blacks to use illegal drugs, however blacks were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to be arrested for drugs.

“Criminologists say,” writer Timothy Williams explains in a New York Times article, “African-Americans are arrested more often than whites and others for drug possession in large part because of questionable police practices.”

From 1995 to 2015, violent crime arrests dropped 36 percent while drug possession arrests increased 13 percent, according to the ACLU report.

Marijuana is not only rarely dangerous, but it is actually proven to be medically helpful. Marijuana can reduce nausea, decrease pain, muscle control problems and inflammation. Marijuana may also be useful in controlling epileptic seizures and possibly even treating mental illness and addictions. Medical marijuana has also been used for cancer patients.

Why is it illegal?

Cigarettes are the number one cause of preventable deaths; yet, you see them advertised everywhere with strategic placement in movies and television shows.

Consuming alcohol in large amounts can be extremely dangerous, much more so than with marijuana. If one drinks enough alcohol, they can blackout and no longer be conscious of their actions. I’ve heard stories of people drinking in one place then going through a whole night of activities and not remembering one bit.

How is it that using marijuana continues to be criminal but proven killers like cigarettes and alcohol are not?

The imbalances between the arrests of blacks and whites persist throughout the country no matter how many or how few African-Americans live in the area.

In Manhattan, New York, blacks make up only 15 percent of the population. Despite this being such a small percentage, African-Americans are 11 times more likely to be arrested for drug possession than whites.

In Iowa, Vermont and Montana — places with relatively small African-American populations — blacks were more than six times as likely to get arrested on possession of drugs than their white counterparts.

This country was founded upon racism and keeping those of other races down by any means necessary. There is no logical reason for marijuana to be against the law — unless you agree with the logic of the privileged. Law enforcement will continue to use marijuana to justify unjust arrests, the raiding of poor neighborhoods and the public — yet ignored — oppression of African-Americans. There will be no progress without those of privilege taking a stand.