NY insanity: we won't legalize pot unless...

Self-defeating mistake.

I don't see the connection... Pot isn't in any way related to slavery reparations.

All the article comments are like "...WTF...?"

A whole episode of NPR's Code Switch podcast advocated for their position.

I guess a shakedown is more important than locking up so many folks in the community

Murrican problems.

r7 Do you think the cons might recriminalize weed in Canada if they win the next election?

New York. BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

So they are never going to be happy until affirmative action applies to every facet of life?

Finally, something good comes out of identity politics.

Code Switch really gives listeners insight into what some people on the edge of certain issues are really like and what they want. Unfortunately, it makes some listeners more conservative because it can be a turnoff.

R11, you're against legalizing marijuana?

Assholes. Greedy assholes. I don’t use pot myself but I don’t think it should be illegal. This is just a money grab using a tenuous reasoning.

Crystal Peoples-Stokes sounds like she’d be equally happy with black-owned private prisons.

Niggaz gon nig

Would one of you neoconservative eldertrolls care to actually state what the reasons are for this? No? Too tired after your evening Sanka? Okay, I'll go ahead.

Blacks in the US were and continue to be a disproportionate number of MJ arrests and jailings. Blacks also receive longer sentences than whites for MJ offenses. It is believed that the reason for the criminalization of MJ in the US was so it could be used as a tool to marginalize black people.

These jailings and fines and ongoing victimization of blacks mean, on a blacks vs whites population average basis, that blacks haven't been able to participate in economic life to the extent that whites have.

Now that MJ is being legalized, it has been learned that most cultivation and sales permits are going to white people. Partly because blacks are too poor to afford the steep fees involved in applying. And they don't have access to nontraditional investment money.

Also partly - and get this - in most places, you can't participate in the cultivation of sale of legal cannabis if you have prior drug or other felony convictions. So blacks continue to be shut out of this new industry because they were busted for pot! Now that's ironic.

So this white boy supports their insanity 100%. Blacks deserve to be given a piece of this pie.

I love the comments to the article.

Because working class blacks will get that piece?

NJ announced today they are close to legalizing recreational pot today. NY will have no choice to follow or risk losing tons of tax revenue.

We may have a bill voted on by the and of the month.

R17 is why Trump will be re elected.

In Murrica today you can’t GIVE anyone anything. It has to be earned unless you are rich enough to buy it.

See Felicity Huffman arrest.

R13, I am in favor of legalizing medical marijuana

You can't earn a cultivation/sales permit, R17. It is a fiat granted by the government. No state with legalized MJ permits anybody to start growing or selling. It's all by government license. And yes, it's a purchased license. The real problem is that Trump supporters lack the thoughtfulness to understand such things; and they are too bigoted to care about the welfare of others. Trump's white supporters don't care about meritocracy at all. They simply want the spoils of the socioeconomic system to accrue only to themselves.

These politicians have a point and they are going to use their leverage.

We all know that sooner or later, pot will be legal. They are just making sure some of the inevitable profits will flow to their neighborhoods, devastated by the anti-pot policies.

More delights by R17:

NY insanity: we won't legalize pot unless... Niggaz gon nig

NY insanity: we won't legalize pot unless... R17 is why Trump will be re elected. In Murrica today you can’t GIVE anyone anything. It has to be earned unless you are rich enough to buy it. See Felicity Huffman arrest.

I fell in love with an ugly man I see ugly couples all the time OP, hang in there it can happen for you too!

Yeah so...

blacks are getting weird politically. We had a black city council member block voter-approved new airport terminal constructions in KC because she wanted HER community to benefit. Its like 40 miles from her district but she wanted some "gimmees", like guaranteed 25 percent minority hiring or some affordable housing bull shit . FAA said no way! they said you don't get pork from airport projects spread about your city!, Its being paid for by the PFC's charged on tickets. I think LA tried something similar years ago and again FAA said NAh uh ah!

So when it’s a crime, black men go to jail.

But they don’t want it legalized.

Okay, then.

Why don’t Beyonce and Jay-Z sponsor a bunch of black women entrepreneurs for marijuana licenses? How about Russell Simmons and Oprah help their people? Start a community lending program? Magic Johnson?

One of the reasons that Asians are successful with small business is that they have community lending practices and generational knowledge. Other ethnicities do the same - my immigrant Lithuanian grandfather and their small community did this. If the big lending institutions discriminate (and they used to, anyway), there was always a way.

I support their affirmative action bid. Give a proportionate number of black licenses. And a proportionate number of Asian and Native and White and Hispanic licenses. Fine by me.

Let’s just divvy up everything by race! Wheeeee!

Stop with your bullshit, Boris @ R28. They do want it legalized. However, they are withholding their support until wrongs committed against the black community in the name of MJ - the incarceration and fining and marginalization of blacks in the name of MJ enforcement - are redressed via sharing the wealth of the new industry with black people. It has been shown that licenses and business go overwhelmingly to whites.

No one wants to smell your addiction.

They deserve reparations.

R29 has the right idea. There are tons of very wealthy black folks(athletes, celebrities, artists,and corporate) who could "afford" to share the wealth. There are ways to set up systems that will benefit affected populations directly as long as someone wealthy, and with connections, can "prime the pump" with their cash. This, along with there being a way to expunge/pardon past incarcerations that were solely non violent drug offenses, could be a good start. Baby steps, not instant "reparations. One reason I don't like Oprah is her hateful, self loathing attitude towards other black folks. She seems to have some deep issues with other black folks and feels like she's been betrayed by them.

So close to legalization...

The progressives pestering Amazon were a real turnoff. Does everything have to be about like weird contract and housing allotments distributed by race? Super weird.

Just fucking legalize it already. I am a deeply resentful white guy who spent 45 minutes in the slammer one New Year’s Even with a buddy after we were busted for taking a puff of marijuana out of a pipe on a side street. The (black) cops were soooo gleeful when they handcuffed us and said “It’s gonna be a looooong night for you two”... Meanwhile, drunken revelers were overturning trash cans on the corners and raising hell, right on the same street. We were being as quiet as church mice, disturbing no one and hurting nothing.

ALL victimless crimes should not be crimes. FUCK the lazy, power tripping, idiotic, and occasionally rapey and abusive NYPD and ALL police officers who fit that description (and 90% of them do).

I don’t even smoke pot anymore. It’s just ridiculous that *Pennsylvania* has legal medical marijuana now, for fuck’s sake, and big, bad NYC doesn’t.

LET’S GO.

Tell us more about these hot black cops that arrested you. Did they use their "night sticks" on you?

R30, and anyone else who knows: do the licenses go to whites because of actual discrimination? Or are they too “expensive” for black people to afford? What about Asians or Latinos or Native Americans? Is anyone gatekeeping the licenses?

In NYC, there are numerous street vendors and food carts and I don’t believe I’ve seen more than one with a white face running them. Some of them cost $100k. Same for taxi medallions, which are very expensive. They’re all immigrants of color. Is someone gatekeeping those? How do THEY afford it?

Fine, give an allotted number of marijuana licenses to black people for free. Let’s see what happens.

I'm so glad they're legalizing in the states. It's time.