Incarceration - Part 2

While it may seem like the tide has already turned on legalization, the criminalization of cannabis is still very much ongoing. Perhaps surprisingly, a majority of Americans - 57% - live in a state where recreational cannabis is not legal. Despite the progress we’ve made in legalization, there are still 40,000 people imprisoned in the United States on cannabis related charges. Today we’re continuing the conversation about cannabis incarceration and the criminal justice system. The number of cannabis prisoners unfortunately doesn’t even fully reflect the damage done by our current cannabis laws. Insider News estimates that law enforcement still spends billions of dollars a year enforcing cannabis laws. Hundreds of thousands of people are arrested every year for cannabis offenses and up to 6% of those people will be convicted of a felony. They estimate that 90% of those charged with possession had no previous criminal history. For those who end up with a felony on their record, they could see their lifetime earnings potential drop by 20%. Even without a conviction, legal and court fees could total over $5000 for a misdemeanor and much higher for a felony charge. We discussed the overwhelming racial disparities in the application of these laws in our previous post, and it’s important to keep that fact in mind as these punitive actions could cause long term trouble for already marginalized individuals.

Living in a legal state doesn’t mean all your problems go away either. Even in places where cannabis is legal, some people who were released from prison have been put back behind bars for using cannabis while on parole. Worse, people who were locked up for cannabis offenses are now finding themselves remaining behind bars in states where cannabis has been fully legalized. Take Virginia for example, where cannabis is set to become recreationally legal on July 1 - but with no provisions for those already in jail, thousands of people in Virginia will remain behind bars because of a plant that is no longer illegal in their state.

The racial disparities continue across the country as well. In Colorado and Washington, Black people are still twice as likely as white people to be arrested for cannabis offenses. We’re not just talking about petty misdemeanors, either. In Florida, where there’s a booming medical market and dispensaries all over the state, unlicensed possession of over 20 grams (less than 1 ounce) of flower is considered a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Possessing any amount of unlicensed concentrates is also a felony with the same punishment. Louisiana has among the harshest laws in the country, where growing even one plant is punishable by up to 30 years. There is still lots of work to be done to fix this shameful situation, and it will take the cannabis community coming together to continue to advocate for justice even after legalization.