@thesweetfeminist⠀ ⠀ Happy 4/20! I love cannabis! I use it both medicinally and recreationally - it helps me with chronic pain, anxiety, and it’s also just fun! But we absolutely have to talk about how there are huge disparities in who has access, who is able to profit from the legal industry, and who is arrested/incarcerated for using it. ⠀ ⠀ Black people and white people use cannabis at similar rates, but Black people are *3.6 times* more likely to be arrested for possession than white people (source: @aclu_nationwide ). This rate is much higher in some states/counties (we’re talking up to 15 times more likely). In 2018, 663,367 people were arrested for a cannabis law violation - of those arrests, 608,775 were for possession only (source: @drugpolicyalliance). Enforcing cannabis laws costs approximately 3.6 billion dollars a year (ACLU again), with no benefit! Even if someone does not receive jail time, there are often still serious consequences from being arrested/convicted, like: losing your job, being ineligible for public housing, having your drivers license suspended, and jeopardizing your eligibility for federal student loans. ⠀ ⠀ More than 50% of Americans believe that cannabis should be legal. As we are decriminalizing and legalizing it across the country, we have to make sure that every single person is released who is in prison for a cannabis charge, and expunge records. We need to meaningfully support people after they are released. We also have to make sure that people and communities who were harmed by criminalization are included and prioritized in the legal market. ⠀ ⠀ PS: while I’m specifically talking about the evil and hypocrisy of incarcerating people for cannabis today, I want to be very clear that prisons are not a place for *anyone* to be, and we need to completely abolish them.⠀ ⠀ #effyourbeautystandards #420 - @rainbowchatman