To follow the logic of Mayor Emanuel’s latest proposal for reforming marijuana laws, you’d think that only black people smoke pot, and poor black people at that.
This is the sad hypocrisy of our marijuana laws as exposed by yours truly and Mick Dumke more than three years ago.
That’s correct: I’m praising the mayor. As far as I’m concerned it was the high point of his administration. Ho, ho, ho.
The point is that if the white residents of, say, Ravenswood, where the mayor lives, got busted for possession at the same rate as their reefer-loving counterparts in Englewood, you’d see a groundswell of support for legalization.
But the mayor made it clear he only supports decriminalization if the General Assembly links it to a law requiring longer sentences for illegally possessing a gun.
That’s because most black state legislators oppose mandatory-minimum sentencing laws on the grounds that we’re already incarcerating too many black people, so we should think twice about automatically incarcerating more.
