The Truth to Marijuana Legalization & Commercialization & Minority Communities. Will Jones.

What does a young, black DC urbanite think of marijuana legalization?

“Let’s not legalize a third drug, isn’t two enough?”
“It’s my people that will pay the cost.”

Will Jones, spoken word. The truth to marijuana legalization and commercialization. In DC, more whites voted for weed for blacks than blacks voted for marijuana in their communities. Here’s what the chattering intellectual class is missing…

Excerpts:
The amount of stores selling liquor to blacks is disproportionately high and it’s the same for cigarettes.
If we want to change statistics of people of color locked away let’s be realistic and act in a more rational way.
Let’s address racial profiling and unjust discrimination and clean up the defiling of our criminal justice system,
Let’s work to create better jobs and school opportunities, instead of changing the rules, lets try and change our communities.
Let’s make our voices heard above the media and all their stuff, let’s not legalize a third drug, isn’t two enough?
They say it’s about civil rights and equal opportunity but we’re in a fight targeting black communities. Not a war with guns and knives but with smooth, strategic words. Still the cost will be our lives if the voice of truth is not heard.
They say it’s about discrimination so their plan is untouchable, but I say it’s an indication that some people are gullible. They’re deceived to believe what the media breathe…

Have they helped to create responsible men or just boys trying to have fun?

The Grey Lady Gaffs — NY Times Out-of-Touch on Marijuana

NY Times Marijuana Editorial Leaves Thinkers Scratching Their Heads“It’s a remarkable weekend when one finds the Grey Lady arguing for state’s rights, and worrying huffily about arbitrary Presidential powers. But when it comes to smoking dope, the mind of the New York Times has fully boggled. Against careful science, sound public policy, and even liberal politics that defends the vulnerable, the venerable editors have decided that what America needs now is marijuana, and more of it. …

In his poignant article, “Comparing Alcohol and Marijuana: Seriously” for the Hudson Institute, David Murray underscores what we’ve been thinking.  At a time when journalistic integrity is being ground away under the rolling stones of unvetted internet journalism there are few places we look for the bar to be held up. The New York Times in one of those places. So imagine the dismay when that venerable institution takes a stand on a movement that is fully exploiting “easy to sway journalism” as a cornerstone of a greed-driven manipulation campaign the likes of which we haven’t seen since the tobacco industry fooled us into thinking that smoking was okay. Continue reading The Grey Lady Gaffs — NY Times Out-of-Touch on Marijuana

For The Sake of Journalism, Marijuana Reporters Need To Take a Deeper Look

Accuracy in reporting on marijuana - 5 waysWe search the web for marijuana coverage on a regular basis. We also look at the best research done on the topic. There’s simply no doubt that a pot-friendly media, saturated in misinformation about the drug, has given the cannabis crusade a big boost in recent years.

With the demise of most print journalism, and the rise of on-line stringers, news reporting on this subject has lost much of its rigor. Quick reports using old canards, rather than the high standards of legitimate journalism, has clouded the public’s access to well-informed news analysis on the 21st century science and political history of the current marijuana movement.

Because the public has become so alarmed by the vast number of Americans who have been incarcerated, they somehow bundle that issue with marijuana. The connection of the issues is thin. There is broad agreement that marijuana is a public health problem. And unfortunately, an unbridled pot industry in reaction to an incarceration problem will create much more human suffering and dysfunction than most people have had a chance to consider.

For the sake of credible journalism, writers and reporters everywhere need to take a deeper, better, updated, look.

Continue reading For The Sake of Journalism, Marijuana Reporters Need To Take a Deeper Look