marijuana at comparable rates yet we are almost 4 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. You could round up 10 friends to protest but it wouldn’t change much. A better plan is to round up 10 friends and invest in the emerging recreational marijuana industry, like Mike Tyson is doing. Now that California has legalized recreational use of the drug, Tyson is opening a 40-acre resort to grow marijuana and fund research into its medical effects. While marijuana arrests have been used to damage and oppress our community for decades, we can either continue to hope that an unjust society will suddenly love us or begin owning the industry.
The marijuana market is large enough for everyone to get a slice of the (weed) pie. Colorado has a population of only 5.5 million and yet it took only 8 months for its marijuana sales to eclipse the $1 billion mark in 2017. Just imagine the potential in a state like California, where Tyson is setting up shop! Mike Tyson has enough money to fund his own ventures but few of us are so fortunate. That doesn’t mean we can’t get in the game, however. Do you know ten friends who would like to make some money? How about pooling your cash, brains and labor together to get your own legal marijuana business off of the ground? There is even a Black owned incubator devoted to helping ordinary people break into the legal cannabis business, if you need help. If you have a desire to get in the business, the opportunity has never been greater.
It is painful to think that so many Black men and women have had their lives ruined for simple marijuana possession. It is devastating to see how White politicians are now responding with compassion to other White heroine users. Racism, however, is not new and it should come as no shock in America. These are the realities we have lived with since 1619. We can continue to point out the obvious, which the larger culture has no true interest in reforming, or take advantage of actual opportunities to build power for our communities. As marijuana laws begin to slowly change nationwide, lawmakers have unwittingly opened a small window for us to climb through. We can choose to stare at it or utilize it.
The Emancipation Proclamation was a small window opened by Abraham Lincoln and we did the rest, securing our freedom from chattel slavery. The Civil Rights Act was a small window that we chose to climb through leading ultimately to a Black POTUS. Rosa Parks took a seat and Colin Kaepernick took a knee — both were merely cracks of a window, through which their respective generations climbed through. Lawmakers probably didn’t have Mike Tyson in mind when they decided to legalize cannabis in California but that doesn’t mean Mike can’t play ball. Now it’s time for us to swing the bat.
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