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Leafly.com reports:
[On Thursday] the United States' capital, Washington D.C. (not to be confused with the state of Washington, which debuted its retail stores last week), officially decriminalizes cannabis. Under the new law, police officers can no longer demand identification from people caught possessing up to one ounce of cannabis, nor can they arrest people if they simply smell cannabis on them. Instead, they will confiscate any "visible contraband" and issue a ticket with a fine of $25.
Possession of amounts greater than one ounce can still result in arrest and being charged with a crime, but this is still a small victory for D.C. residents, especially blacks, who are being penalized and face having their lives ruined over a small amount of cannabis. Now how's about you look into legalization next, Nation's Capital?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Saturday July 19 2014, @04:06PM
Why are you bringing race into the discussion? Race has nothing whatever to do with drug use, legal or not. And the culture you refer to isn't "black culture", it's the culture of poverty. Poor whites are no different than poor blacks, except that blacks are more often targeted by the police. Drive through the rough part of your city, you'll see that the white kids and black kids dress alike, talk alike, and act alike. Same as middle class people; a middle class black man is no more different from me than you are. See Gran Torino, it's exactly like a real life poor neighborhood.
As to harm from pot, the only harm is to the smoker himself. Pot doesn't cause cancer, despite what the idiotic Partnership for a Drug Free America says (this has been proven, pot even helps prevent cancer in cigarette smokers) but it can cause COPD. But then, so does smoking cigarettes or bonfires or burning leaves.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience