Weed debates and root problems

I didn’t vote for Amendent 64, which legalized marijuana for recreational use in my home state of Colorado. I had mixed feelings about it. When marijuana was legalized for medical use in 2000, the effect on my small mountain community wasn’t something to celebrate. The majority of people who got licenses for medical marijuana were young men under the age of 34. At least legalization for recreational use will put a stop to that farce.

In my two-stoplight town, two medical marijuana “dispensaries”—along with a paraphernalia shop and a “grow” shop—opened within five blocks of one another. In the four years that these facilities were open (two of the four are now closed), there were three robberies and one “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” crime associated with them. That's a lot for my small community. 

At the same time, I am aware that our laws around marijuana are ineffective and that the “war on drugs” has had deeply damaging effects. I know that the 1980s’ tighter drug laws led to one in five black men being locked up, in the establishment of what Michelle Alexander has called the “New Jim Crow.” I am not opposed to changing the structure of these laws, nor am I opposed to legalization of marijuana on the whole, but I do not think legalization is anything close to a panacea. A great deal of structural, social and legal shifts will be necessary before any true, positive change can take place.