The California NAACP has endorsed a November ballot initiative to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana.

Calling the measure a “civil rights issue,” California NAACP President Alice Huffman, said the current prohibition on marijuana has criminalized young people and hampered the ability of many African Americans to prosper.

"This is not a war on the drug lords, this is a war against young men and women of color," she told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Once a young person is arrested and brought under the justice system, he or she is more likely to get caught in the criminal justice system again, further wasting tax dollars."

Huffman and other leaders - including Aubry Stone, president of the California Black Chamber of Commerce - argued that money currently spent on enforcing marijuana laws would be better spent on education.

In making her case for legalization, Huffman cited a recent study showing that, in each of the 25 largest counties in California, blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at double, triple and sometimes quadruple the rates of whites.

In Los Angeles County, the arrest rate for blacks is 332 percent higher than the rate for whites, though Black people constitute less than 10 percent of the state population.

Furthermore, studies by the federal government have consistently shown that blacks are less likely than their white counterparts to use marijuana.

Prop. 19 would legalize cultivation, possession and transporting marijuana for personal use for people 21 or older. Local governments would be permitted to tax and regulate the production and sale of marijuana. It would still be illegal under federal law.
 

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