Breaking News

war on drugs

Black Cannabis Entrepreneurs Say State’s $30 Million Fee Waiver Fund May Not Be Enough
BusinessEconomyFamilyLifestyleNews (Business)News (Family)

Black Cannabis Entrepreneurs Say State’s $30 Million Fee Waiver Fund May Not Be Enough

Edward Henderson | California Black MediaDecember 9, 2021

Alphonso “Tucky” Blunt, the owner of a marijuana product store in Oakland called Blunts and Moore, says his business is located in the same zip code where he was arrested for selling weed illegally in 2004.   Now that he is legit in the business – he opened his store a little over three years ago– Blunt says it is nearly impossible for Black and other minority-owned cannabis startups like his to make a profit in California.   “Where’s the tradeoff? I’ve been in the business for a few years and I’m still in the red. California has one of the highest

World-Class Sprinter Sha’Carrie Richardson Is The Latest Casualty Of Decades Of Racist Application Of Marijuana Policies
Marc MorialOpinion

World-Class Sprinter Sha’Carrie Richardson Is The Latest Casualty Of Decades Of Racist Application Of Marijuana Policies

Marc H. Morial President and CEO National Urban LeagueJuly 15, 2021

“… ‘the rules are the rules.’ Yet, rules aren’t inherently neutral — more likely than not, rules are an extension of a status quo of racism, and are often written by people who have never faced the sort of marginalization that their rules create. While marijuana is widely legal, and widely used by people of all races and backgrounds today, that wasn’t always the case. And while plenty of legal weed businesses are helmed by white people, prisons across the country are still filled with Black and brown drug offenders, sentenced for marijuana use. There will always be racist implications

Experts Say It’s Rare that a ‘Jury of your Peers’ Applies to African Americans
NewsOpinionPolitical

Experts Say It’s Rare that a ‘Jury of your Peers’ Applies to African Americans

Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire CorrespondentJune 3, 2021

“When a juror is unable to relate to a person accused of a crime, the defendant is more likely to face stiffer penalties, up to and including life in prison,” said Charlotte, N.C.-based Attorney Darlene Harris, who after trying a recent murder trial, spoke to a White male juror who shared that a lot of the jurors could not understand the African American defendant.

As Opioid Crisis Hits Home, Black Media Outlets Step Up to Get Word Out
HealthSafety

As Opioid Crisis Hits Home, Black Media Outlets Step Up to Get Word Out

Tanu Henry, California Black MediaJanuary 3, 2020

By the late 1970s, drug traffickers were shipping so much cocaine to the United States that the street price of the powdered stimulant dealers cook to make crack – the smokable rock form of the stimulant – dropped by nearly 80 percent, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Los Angeles City Council Secures Multi-Year Funding for Cannabis Social Equity Program
Daily BriefsLocal

Los Angeles City Council Secures Multi-Year Funding for Cannabis Social Equity Program

Sentinel News WireApril 23, 2019

Council President Herb Wesson   The Los Angeles City Council has voted to move forward a measure to provide the Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) with $3 million annually for the next three year to fund the City’s Cannabis Social Equity Program, in addition to $1.5 million to be allocated immediately for the program. “As a Council it’s our job to do right for the people in our city whose lives have been adversely affected by the War on Drugs,” said Council President Herb Wesson. “The City’s Social Equity program is at the crux of our efforts to

Los Angeles County Proposes to Ban the Sale of Menthol Cigarettes But Serious Unintended Consequences
HealthOpinion

Los Angeles County Proposes to Ban the Sale of Menthol Cigarettes But Serious Unintended Consequences

Reverend K. W. Tulloss, Special to the SentinelMarch 14, 2019

The National Action Network (NAN),one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations with chapters throughout the entire United States, is focused on promoting a civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice and equity for all people regardless of race, religion, nationality or gender.

Black Prisoners Join National Prison Strike 
HealthNationalNews

Black Prisoners Join National Prison Strike 

Barrington M. Salmon, Contributing Writer/Black Press USA August 30, 2018

“I think we have as a country has been involved for so long in the War on Drugs and the War on Crime that we have forgotten that it’s not normal. We have a whole generation of children for whom it’s normal to be pulled over, be arrested and shuttled into the system. We have been in a catastrophic prison crisis for decades now. And conditions have gotten even worse. South Carolina was a wake-up call for people.”