By Akola Thompson
In the year 1995, Jamaican artiste and activist Macka B sang the jam, Legalize the Herb. Commenting on the continued criminalization of marijuana that saw many youths and non-violent persons being arrested, Macka sang “You’re only making criminals out of decent folks/ Just because of a little ganja they smoke/ It shouldn’t be a crime/ It’s about time.” 24 years ago, it was time for governments to stop the dehumanizing and economically unsound imprisonment of its mainly young and poor population. The need to change this law that is steeped in a history of racism and imperialism is so long overdue that it is often bewildering to notice the slothful approach our nation’s leaders have to it.
Almost daily, there are reports of persons imprisoned months and years for small amounts of weed. Our priority in imprisoning our own through this Reagan-era drug prohibition law has seen the lives and opportunities of many young and poor persons destroyed. I think we need to be honest about who is usually targeted by these laws. It is not the well-off John with connections. It is usually the young black and brown men from poorer sections of society. This is not to say that our uptown brothers do not smoke weed with the same regularity, it just means that they often have the means to do it privately in protected spaces. Even when these uptown brothers are caught, connections and finances often go a very long way in our less than stellar police and judicial system.