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50 U.C.D. L. Rev. 689 (2016-2017)
The Colors of Cannabis: Race and Marijuana

handle is hein.journals/davlr50 and id is 703 raw text is: The Colors of Cannabis: Race and Marijuana Steven W. Bender* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................... 689 1. REEFER MADNESS: THE HISTORY OF RACIALIZED PROHIBITION AND ENFORCEMENT ............................... 690 II. CAMPAIGN COLORS .............................. 692 III. THE NEW WHITE MARKET: EXAMINING THE COLOR OF THE LEGAL MARIJUANA INDUSTRY ....................... ....... 695 IV. THE RESILIENT BLACK MARKET ................... ...... 698 V. LIFE AFTER LEGALIZATION: BLUNT REALITIES FOR MINORITY USERS ................................................. 700 VI. NEXT STEPS: REFORM TOWARD RACIAL JUSTICE ............. 705 INTRODUCTION The campaign to legalize small quantities of recreational marijuana drew attention from media and law reviews with its successes in Colorado (20.12), Washington (2012), Oregon (2014), Alaska (2014), and the District of Columbia (2014).1 Both media and law reviews concentrated their analysis on the interplay between the continued federal prohibition of marijuana, whether for medical or recreational use, and the onset of legalization or decriminalization of marijuana at state and local levels.2 Having addressed that legal collision myself,3 * Copyright @ 2016 Steven W. Bender. Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, Seattle University School of Law. I am grateful to the UC Davis Law Review for organizing the Disjointed Regulation Symposium, especially the hard work of Senior Symposium Editor Kate Wittlake, and to conference participants for helpful comments and suggestions, particularly Carrie Rosenbaum and Janet Vining. 1 See, e.g., COLO. CONST. art. XVIII, § 16; WASH. REV. CODE ANN.§ 69.50.4013 (2016). 2 For discussion of the many states decriminalizing marijuana to eliminate jail time, see Carrie Rosenbaum, What (and Whom) State Marijuana Reformers Forgot: Crimmigration Law and Noncitizens, 9 DEPAULJ. FOR Soc.JuST., 1, 1-2 & nn. 1-4 (2016). 689