California’s Marijuana Reform: Progress Made, But Challenges Persist for Black Communities
A Black Voice News Special Report
By Breanna Reeves
A Black Voice News report supported by the The Knight Lab, Medill / Northwestern University, Data-Driven Reporting Project.
As first authorized in November 2016, Proposition 64, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana in California, also provided individuals the freedom to petition the court for the reduction or dismissal of qualifying marijuana convictions. This was followed in January 2019 by AB 1793 that placed the onus for this process on the California Department of Justice to review cases that might be eligible for cannabis resentencing and notify prosecutors of their potential eligibility. Three years later, in January 2022, cases languished in the process waiting to be cleared. Blacks, the most impacted by America’s 50-year war on drugs, were also the ones most affected by delays in clearing or reducing eligible convictions. This is the story of what went wrong.
California’s Marijuana Reform: Progress Made, But Challenges Persist for Black Communities, supported by The Knight Lab, Medill / Northwestern University, Data-Driven Reporting Project.
Part 1: The Legacy of America’s War on Drugs
Breanna Reeves Black people are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates. A 2020 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report, “A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform,” analyzed marijuana…
Part 2: A Fragmented Criminal Justice System Results in Delay
Breanna Reeves There are certain states that Marlon Bivens, a 41-year old mortgage banker, can’t get a license to practice in because of past cannabis convictions that pop up on his background check. Bivens has been stopped multiple times on cannabis charges over the last decade, both in Southern California and in Dallas, Texas, where…
Part 3: Oversight, Consequences and the Promise of Automatic Clearance
Breanna Reeves It’s clear that legislation as ambitious as AB 1793 required more instruction from the state, more communication between local jurisdictions, a public service campaign and generally, more guidance on the most efficient way to clear records of cannabis convictions. Vonya Quarles, cofounder of Starting Over, Inc., explained that this has been a consistent…