Via TalkLeft comes a list of the “Top 100 Women in Weed” (compiled by Skunk magazine and listed at CelebStoner) Pleased to see that Jeralyn made the list.
The list is a combination of activists and celebrities who have publicly come out in support of cannabis and/or cannabis law reform.
I’m not a big fan of the word “weed,” but I understand that for a very large portion of the cannabis aficionado crowd, it’s the bee’s knees, it’s hep, and it’s where it’s at.
The original list came in at 114, and then CelebStoner noted an additional critical group that should have been on the list, and I can still see some important omissions (including some very amazing women in the U.S. SSDP ranks).
So I guess the point can be made that this is another area where we have made great strides. To have problems narrowing down the list of public and powerful female activists to 100 in a reform field that has often been dominated by males says something about how that reform field has grown.
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Speaking of changes in the look of the reform field, it’s worth reading Ethan Nadelmann’s piece in The Nation: The Next Frontier Of Drug Policy Reform
The [sentencing disparity] victory also showed that traditional civil rights leaders are finally beginning to prioritize criminal justice reform. Black support for the late-’80s drug war helped legitimize the policies that led to the incarceration of millions of young African-Americans. The dawning realization of what they had wrought led the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Representative Charlie Rangel and then–SCLC president Joseph Lowery to start calling for reform of the crack/powder disparity in the early 1990s — but it never became a priority for them, the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights or the CBC. […]
Change is clearly afoot. Black legislators are often at the forefront of sentencing and other drug policy reform efforts in state capitals. Michelle Alexander’s powerful new book, The New Jim Crow
, in which she calls out civil rights organizations for failing to grasp that the drug war is accomplishing what Jim Crow once did, is stirring up much-needed debate. And the endorsement of California’s marijuana legalization initiative, Proposition 19, by both Alice Huffman, the influential head of the California NAACP, and the National Black Police Association proves that courageous leadership is possible.
This is an extraordinarily positive, and probably necessary, development.
“it’s hep”?
Nice play on words Pete.
You could have chosen “it’s hip” or “it’s hemp.
Nice article. Thanks.
One of God’s false prophets needs our help in finding the light:
http://tinyurl.com/37qe4dj
Sure took long enough. You would think black leadership would have recognized the racist nature of the drug war long ago and opposed it. Good to see them coming around, though.
Well, Malcolm, if you her asked patients, 99% would probably prefer paying 50 bucks (or less) for an ounce of quality inspected, medicinal grade, fully legal cannabis from a store rather than paying what she charges.
In the end, it’s always the money.
And as for the subject of the thread, all I can say is “It’s about freakin’ time!”.
Drug prohibition has fostered a kind of ‘battered wife syndrome’ amongst those most negatively affected by it: they support their oppressors as their oppressors are busy demeaning, arresting, beating, tasering and all-too-frequently murdering them under color of law.
Well, the ‘battered wives’ are starting to realize their insane ‘hubby’ won’t stop. And it cannot happen at a worse time for ‘hubby’, as the cost of that oppression is adding to the general financial decline of the nation. It’s either more money for (failed) drug prohibition and its’ insane ‘hubbies’, or more money fro vitally needed social safety nets dismantled after 20 years of intense effort by drug prohibition’s ideological supporters.
A silent clock is counting down the time we have to make necessary decisions that cannot be avoided, and one of those decisions will be to jettison drug prohibition for the unaffordable nonsense it is. Either that, or this country really, truly does face fiscal Armageddon, with all the social disruption that implies.
A silent clock is counting down the time we have to make necessary decisions that cannot be avoided, and one of those decisions will be to jettison drug prohibition for the unaffordable nonsense it is. Either that, or this country really, truly does face fiscal Armageddon, with all the social disruption that implies.
This is what is needed, take way all their(D’s and R’s) toys. The only way to do that is take way their ‘Allowance’.
Well, Malcolm, if you asked her patients, 99% would probably prefer paying 50 bucks (or less) for an ounce of quality inspected, medicinal grade, fully legal cannabis from a store rather than paying what she charges.
I fully agree Kaptin’, but I hate that fascist preacher so much more.
nadelmann, however, remains completely underwhelming:
“The third priority, I would argue, has to be national reform of marijuana prohibition laws.”
the third priority? despite the fact that marijuana is the cornerstone in the wall of prohibition, the ridding of which is the one thing that will cause it to all fall apart, our glorious “leader” insists it’s the third priority.
i’ve said it before and i’ll continue to say it: the guy is working hard to keep prohibition intact — apparently at least until he can comfortably retire.
beware of false prophets — and their profits.