R.I.P - Daily Create Wk 9

Get rid of something in today’s world, put it’s tombstone up at Boot Hill. Those were the directions for todays Daily Create.

Curious about the origins of the criminalization of marijuana I was surprised to find the

demonization of the cannabis plant was an extension of the demonization of the Mexican immigrants after the Mexican revolution.

Exacerbated by the costly and ineffective "War on Drugs" and "Broken Windows Policing," marijuana use is used to oppress. Police made fewer than 800 marijuana arrests in 1991. In 2010, they made more than 59,000.

The racial imbalance is stark. Blacks and whites use marijuana at comparable rates. Yet in all states but Hawaii, blacks are more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana offenses.

As it started, the criminalization of marijuana was a racially motivated war on people of color, along with fear, isms, and other ploys to disconnect us from one another. R.I.P.