{"id":3657,"date":"2020-06-19T04:20:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T11:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?p=3657"},"modified":"2020-06-23T08:20:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T15:20:08","slug":"marijuana-legalization-racial-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drugs laws disproportionately impact people of color, who are more likely to get arrested. That\u2019s the basis of a racial justice argument by legalization advocates who say passing a law to make cannabis legal nationwide would end unfair enforcement during the War on Drugs.<\/p>\n

Many have made racial justice part of their argument for legalizing marijuana at the federal level. It\u2019s a list that includes U.S. senators and former presidential candidates<\/a> Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who have backed legalization proposals.<\/p>\n

Another member of this group is Rick Steves, the famous travel writer and host of \u201cRick Steves\u2019 Europe\u201d on PBS. He said in a recent interview with Leafly<\/a> that he feels \u201cvery strongly that smoking marijuana responsibly as an adult is a civil liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that \u201canybody who wants to smoke marijuana responsibly as an adult should be able to smoke, and I think this prohibition we got going is based on lies, it\u2019s racist and counterproductive and it\u2019s just wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steves Is A Long-Time Legalization Supporter<\/h2>\n

Steves\u2019 has been a long-time supporter of making marijuana legal. He\u2019s a board member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). His position is that adults in the U.S. have the right to use marijuana if they want.<\/p>\n

On his website, Steves still has a post up <\/a>that he wrote in favor of legalization in his home state of Washington. In that post, he explains how the issue of race and marijuana first came to light for him.<\/p>\n

He said as he became more vocal about his stance in the 2000s, when a policeman asked why he cared about making cannabis legal when he and his friends \u201ccould smoke pot with discretion all you want, and no one’s going to bother you.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the racial justice element of legalization clicked with Steves.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly then did I realize why I was so committed to drug policy reform. Well-off white guys in the suburbs can smoke pot,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut the majority of the 800,000 people arrested in the USA on marijuana charges this year (and the 9,000 people arrested in Washington State) were poor and\/or people of color. Some have dubbed the war on drugs “the New Jim Crow.”<\/p>\n

Steves Uses Portugal As An Example<\/h2>\n

Steves\u2019 argument goes beyond race issues. Steves said his exposure to European society has helped him see how wrong U.S. laws are when it comes to drugs. On his site, he points out that those against making cannabis legal in the U.S. often call it a \u201cgateway\u201d drug.<\/p>\n

Steves wrote that \u201cEuropean societies have learned that the only thing “gateway” about marijuana is its illegality.\u201d Keeping weed illegal means people must go to street dealers to buy it. He said those criminals have a vested interest in \u201cgetting you hooked on something more profitable and more addictive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also points to what happened in Portugal\u00a0 When drug abuse spiked there in 2001, Portuguese leaders decriminalized all drugs. A decade later, cannabis use remained about the same and the use of hard drugs were cut in half, according to official numbers cited by Steves. Also, drug-related crime dropped.<\/p>\n

In the interview, Steves compared marijuana use to travel, saying it \u201copens doors\u201d and \u201cwe can broaden our horizons.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThe government has no right to say we cannot do it. The government has the right to say we can\u2019t do it and break something, but not that we can\u2019t do it if we\u2019re responsible. That\u2019s my intellectual take on it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new interview, travel show host Rick Steves makes a strong argument that making marijuana legal should be considered in the context of racial justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[942,940,941,246],"yoast_head":"\nIs Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice? | Rick Steves | Drug Laws<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a new interview, travel show host Rick Steves makes a strong argument that making marijuana legal should be considered in the context of racial justice.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice? | Rick Steves | Drug Laws\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a new interview, travel show host Rick Steves makes a strong argument that making marijuana legal should be considered in the context of racial justice.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dispensaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-19T11:20:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-23T15:20:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/marijuana-legalization-and-racial-justice.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dispensariescom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/\",\"name\":\"Is Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice? | Rick Steves | Drug Laws\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-19T11:20:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-23T15:20:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\"},\"description\":\"In a new interview, travel show host Rick Steves makes a strong argument that making marijuana legal should be considered in the context of racial justice.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dispensaries Editor\"},\"description\":\"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice? | Rick Steves | Drug Laws","description":"In a new interview, travel show host Rick Steves makes a strong argument that making marijuana legal should be considered in the context of racial justice.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice? | Rick Steves | Drug Laws","og_description":"In a new interview, travel show host Rick Steves makes a strong argument that making marijuana legal should be considered in the context of racial justice.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/","og_site_name":"Dispensaries","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","article_published_time":"2020-06-19T11:20:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-06-23T15:20:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/marijuana-legalization-and-racial-justice.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dispensaries Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@dispensariescom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dispensaries Editor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/","name":"Is Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice? | Rick Steves | Drug Laws","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-06-19T11:20:33+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-23T15:20:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0"},"description":"In a new interview, travel show host Rick Steves makes a strong argument that making marijuana legal should be considered in the context of racial justice.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/marijuana-legalization-racial-justice\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Marijuana Legalization Tied To Racial Justice?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/","name":"Dispensaries","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0","name":"Dispensaries Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dispensaries Editor"},"description":"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom"],"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3659,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657\/revisions\/3659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}