The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

by Gene Johnson Associated Press

ARLINGTON, WASH. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year sentence. A decade later, Ward, who is Black, recently posed in a blue-and-gold throne used for photo ops at his new cannabis store, Cloud 9 Cannabis. He greeted customers walking in for early 4/20 deals. And he reflected on being one of the first beneficiaries of a Washington program to make the overwhelmingly white industry more accessible to people harmed by the war on drugs. "It feels great to know that I'm the CEO of a store, with employees and…

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Scoopvizion (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2024

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