”Pot is the new gay marriage. And by that, I mean it's the next obvious civil rights issue that needs to fall”, said Bill Maher on his HBO show ‘Real Time’. He was referring to the way support for legalization of marijuana has been ‘steadily rising for decades’, reaching 50 percent last year. A new Gallup Poll shows that a record 58% of Americans think that marijuana should be made legal. The trend mirrors that of another hot button social issue: Same-sex marriage. It became more and more accepted as Americans came to know gays and lesbians as friends and relatives. Marijuana has been on a similar run-up to this spring's historic milestone when CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta came out in favor of medical marijuana.
In 1988, only 10% of Americans approved of gay marriage. Today, almost 60% of Americans approve of gay marriage. So what happened? What made gay marriage so normal, so quickly? Bill Maher said it was because “gays simply demanded it. They didn't care that gay marriage wasn't popular, they put it on the agenda, and they made it popular.” Maher went on to say “...Certainly, that must also be true of potheads.” Not really. Support for same sex marriage and now legalization of marijuana has been resisted in the black community. Black people do not fully embrace legalization of marijuana, even as the vast majority of American’s embraced it. In an informal survey we conducted on 125th street in Harlem several black people gave representative answers.
As to legalizing marijuana, one well dressed middle age black man angrily said, “I didn’t march one inch, one foot, one yard, for a man and a woman to smoke marijuana”. And the same anger was heard from black women. One agitated black woman said ‘legalize marijuana will open the floodgate to drugs leading to acceptance of harder drugs like ‘heroin and cocaine’. The majority of blacks surveyed gave variations of the answers above. But one enterprising young black man said he didn’t want to see marijuana legalized because he was a ‘marijuana dealer’. “I make $5,000.00 a week and legalization would affect my business” he angrily said. Many of the young black men asked not only smoked marijuana, but many sold marijuana too.
Truth is told marijuana (Cannabis) use has existed for over ten thousand years, and it is one of the oldest crops used for cultivation. The use of marijuana by native Africans can be traced back to the 14th century Ethiopia. Marijuana was called “dagga” by the Khoikhoi people (or Khoe), which means ‘men of men’ or ‘the real people’. The Khoe people are the earliest
inhabitants of Ethiopia. They were smoking marijuana before Europeans came in contact with them. Members of the Rastafari in Jamaica also use marijuana as a part of their worshiping and as an aid to meditation. Many say it is the Tree of Life mentioned in the Bible. Bob Marley, amongst many others, has quoted Revelation: 22:2, "... the herb is the healing of the nations."
But, in black communities here in America, especially in New York, there is silence and many are running scared on the issue of legalization of marijuana just like they did at first on same sex marriage. It’s almost embarrassing to be a black New Yorker and know so many blacks who smoke marijuana but won’t support legalizing it. In fact, I bet there is one marijuana smoker that we all know. He doesn’t smoke marijuana anymore but back in high school with his posse, the Choom Gang, he smoked marijuana regularly. He is President Barack Obama. Nineteen states in the United States have passed some form of medical marijuana law. In New York, Senator Liz Krueger (D. Manhattan) wants to submit legislation seeking legalization of marijuana in New York next year and we are wondering where are black people from Harlem, Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, and the boogie down Bronx on legalizing marijuana? We better speak up or we are going to get left behind again on a big issue that represents jobs and money; legalized marijuana.
Dennis Levy is founder of ‘The American Pot Smokers Association’. For more information: E-mail Americanpotsmokers@gmail.com
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