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Aug 25 2012

NAACP Endorses Amendment 64

The nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has endorsed Amendment 64, the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Colorado, because, as they say, marijuana prohibition “does more harm to our communities than good”. In a statement announcing the organization’s support, the president of the NAACP Colorado, Rosemary Harris Lytle, highlighted the disproportionate impact of marijuana prohibition on communities of color and said Amendment 64 “presents a more effective and socially responsible approach.”

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  • Robert Chase

    Thanks, NAACP. You are absurdly late to the party, but welcome. I excoriate the prohibitionists for their racist laws, but I am Caucasian — we sure could use some more activists of color at all the battles we have been fighting! No one should be incarcerated for their use of drugs alone, and America’s mania to use the criminal law to enforce society’s mores has turned “the land of the free” into the Land of Prisons: the United States puts more people in prison than any other nation on Earth, and those people are disproportionately minorities. I hope that we can work in solidarity with organizations like the NAACP that have a history of fighting oppression to end Prohibition and turn our collective energies to productive ends.

  • TimothyTipton

    Sorry, But Badly written Laws are no reason to pass the law. Prohibition is Well in Place still under 64, in fact Even More Violations of the law will be available. The Department
    of Revenue/ Medical Marijuan Enforcement Division has Proven abuses of Financial absurdities having more Black Tinted $70,000.+ SUVs than Employees. It is Well Agreed, the Failed Drug War continues to disproportionately victimize our young black men, however, this does literally nothing to curtail the decades long abuses. The Educated Colorado Voters know to vote NO on 64!

    • Robert Chase

      There is no excuse for your misrepresentations: Amendment 64 establishes no new laws or penalties. While the Amendment does not overturn any prohibitionist statutes explicitly, it does declare that it shall no longer be unlawful to grow and use some cannabis — this is a revolutionary improvement in our laws, and a major blow against Prohibition! The immediate effect of passing Amendment 64 would be that adults who grow six or fewer cannabis plants (no more than three flowering) or carry an ounce of cannabis could no longer be charged with a felony or a petty offense, respectively. Coloradans who want to wind down Prohibition will vote for the Amendment.

      As an absolute opponent of Prohibition, I acknowledge that Amendment 64 does not go far enough — we need to abolish our existing laws against cannabis and other drugs and start from scratch to enact statutes that respect individual liberty and serve the public health. As a realist, I understand that people who use cannabis comprise less than 1/5 of the electorate even in Colorado, tend to be abysmally (politically) ignorant, are almost completely disorganized, and are almost unrepresented in government. Voters in Colorado have a choice between making a modest reduction in criminal liability for using cannabis — to the extent of in effect legalizing the private cultivation and use of six plants at a time — or leaving complete Prohibition of all non-medical use of cannabis in place. No activist against Prohibition can urge us not to legalize some use of cannabis!