Reply to Who else voted against weed legalization for rec use in MD?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you vote against weed legalization, you’re voting in favor a racism.  Because that’s how the current laws are applied. [/quote]

Wait, what?  Is there a certain race that smokes weed?  What does that even mean?

I know plenty of people of various races that enjoy pot.  [/quote]

It's pretty common to partake across races.  But one race gets arrested for it disproportionately.  So criminalizing it means creating a greater negative impact on people of that race.[/quote]

So, nobody is arresting explicitly for weed.   There are drug arrests, but they are to get at the associated violent crime.   Drug related homicides in Montgomery County at least, are exclusively over marijuana.  That won't go away.  The black market won't go away.  And the associated violence won't go away.

And yes, there is more violence in lower income black and brown communities.  So that's where police get called.  That's why they have more contact with Black and brown people.   That's why there are arrest disparities.   Control for where the 911 calls come from, where the violence occurs, and the racial disparities substantially, if not completely, disappear.

Want to end racial disparities?  [b]Get rid of concentrated poverty.[/b] [/quote]

This is the answer to so many of our woes, but how to go about it in a way both political parties can agree on [hint:  unfortunately that will never happen][/quote]
This is off-topic, but in a free market negative externalities get priced into real estate values and people can and do pay a premium to avoid those externalities. How much is it worth to live in a neighborhood where there is peace and quiet at night versus a neighborhood where there is frequent police lights/sirens while you are trying to sleep? How much is it worth to live in a neighborhood where an alcoholic spends all day-every day drinking in public, causing a commotion and making lewd comments to passersby, including you and your kids? Etc.

Availability of marijuana contributes to this public disorder/tragedy of the commons. Do you want to be able to enjoy a peaceful day in your backyard without the smell of marijuana? Do you want to be able to sleep with your windows open on a fresh spring evening without neighbors weed smoke wafting in? These are real issues that lead to real diminishment of peoples peaceful enjoyment. If the answer is that we must accept lowest common denominator behavior, most people will figure out a place to live where they do not have to. [/quote]

HOAs and apartment complex property managers will ban it.  Like they ban smoking.   People who violate it, especially in places like apartments and other multi-family dwellings, will be evicted.  Again hurting lower income people of color more than UMC whites.

In Colorado most counties ban retail establishments.   So they are concentrated in just a few counties.   Since cannabis is still illegal federally, those retail establishments need to deal in cash only.   Which means they are ripe for robbery and burglary.   I guarantee Moco will have recreational use dispensaries.  So we will have the associated violent crime near them.  Look at G Leaf dispensary in Rockville, near the Flagship Car Wash.  There was a double stabbing there a couple months ago and one person was killed.  There was just a shooting there a couple of weeks ago.  Not sure if that person died or not.  I have lived here for decades and there was never violent crime like that in that part of town.

Political leadership better open its eyes to how it's about to really hurt our most vulnerable communities. [/quote]

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