Regardless of what history has shown us, as we approach 2020 we are still caging people for drug possession instead of focusing on the real problem; The archaic laws that are creating victims of the people the laws were presumably written to protect.
Kourtney Deonte Johnson, 27, was convicted of murder by a Texas Judge in October 2019. His crime? Murder in the first. Johnson had arranged, over social media to sell an ounce of cannabis to an 18 year Jaimone Joubert. When Joubert arrived with $200 worth of cheaply made counterfeit bills he was shot dead by Johnson.
Just one of thousands of cases where the negative residual effects of prohibition laws are decimating our youth. In this instance, we have 2 criminals, one who wanted to use counterfeit money to steal cannabis from another; and the other who would take a life over money. Can we ever free the world of thieves and murders? Likely not but creating a space, an unmonitored and unregulated market for them all to play out their criminal actions is just irresponsible.
In a regulated market, if Joubert showed up with counterfeit money to make a cannabi purchase he would have either simply been denied the sale or the fake bills would go undetected until sometime after the sale but either way police would be notified to address the issue of theft. The person attempting to steal from the cannabis vendor would be dealt with appropriately instead of losing their life, and the cannabis vendor would have recourse to retrieve anything stolen from them.
In less than 3 months time, Elonte McDowel was tased by police for Cannabis possession in Illinois, Monte Blake was left partially paralized after a confrontation with police over cannabis in Maryland, 60 year old Steven Sutherland was sentenced to 10 years in jail for growing the very plant that was safely treating his chronic conditions in Missouri and Cortez Shepherd was shot dead by police over an incident involving cannabis. How is this acceptable in what’s supposed to be a free society?
How, after over 20 years of some states allowing legal access to cannabis have things not changed? There's a very easy case to be made that these laws are in fact harming, not helping citizens and therefore could be pinned as a public health and safety issue allowing any seated president to sign the executive order removing cannabis from the Controlled Substance Act. Sure, there’s bills on the floor federally to “legalize” or “decriminalize” cannabis but very few see to remove it from the CSA completely.
In less than 100 years, a plant that has never killed anyone was successfully demonized globally by the powers that be. Think about that…. Globally! Why? Perhaps because as things were slowly happening no one spoke out. That time is over. THere’s a new generation of activists creating alliances with the older generation. We now know the power of solidarity and compassionate communication and through that, we are unstoppable.
Yani Tseng, women's world champion golfer and youngest player ever to win five major championships said in an interview, “I will keep smiling, be positive and never give up! I will give 100% each time I play. There are always my goals and my attitude”. Although sports and activism may not go hand in hand, this quote can apply to anything in life. It’s important to create alliances, stand in solidarity and remain positive even in the face of aggressors. The goal after all is to change those aggressors into allies.
Just a reminder to all the amazing civil rights activists out there as we all stand on the front lines of the drug war, keep in mind all those who’ve made a change in history. MLK, Gandhi, Martin Luther none of them reacted with violence or negativity rather with courage and compassion. Channel that energy that exists in you because it exists in us all and is wildly contagious.
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