Race Relations Remain “High” In Colorado

Most times when the topic of race and law come into play it becomes a taboo subject to address. However since Colorado opened its doors to recreational marijuana back in 2014 there has been an increase in tax revenue, a decrease in fatal car accidents and finding jobs within the cannabis industry have been popping up all over.

However there is a flipside to this, which is people of color are being apprehending by law enforcement for marijuana related offenses at the same ratio as before pot become legal in Colorado.

The Drug Policy Alliance went over the arrest records for people in Colorado, 64 counties who have recorded arrests for marijuana related offenses 2 years prior and 2 years after the state legalized cannabis. The ratio of charges dropped from around 40,000 in 2011 to a reported 2000 charges back in 2014.

The report highlights that racial issues continue to grow in drug law enforcement. People of color are often times more likely to get arrested for marijuana related offenses than white people.

“Black and brown communities have been the battlefield of the drug war,” Art Way, the Drug Policy Alliance’s Colorado director, said to VICE News.

“The overall decrease in arrests, charges, and cases is enormously beneficial to communities of color who bore the brunt of marijuana prohibition prior to the passage of Amendment 64,” Rosemary Harris Lytle, regional chair of the NAACP, stated as a rebuttal to the report. “However, we are concerned with the rise in disparity for the charge of public consumption and challenge law enforcement to ensure this reality is not discriminatory in any manner.”

Winning the fight to legalize cannabis “is a very important first step, but not a panacea,” Sanho Tree, said to Vice News. “No respected drug reformer has ever claimed that it would solve our problems in regard to race.”

Though dealing with race issues have come a long way, there is still much needed improvement to be made in order to ensure a better quality of life.