As fate would have it, I headed into a reefer store in Denver to buy some marijuana—legal as booze, of course—at roughly the same time Mayor Rahm Emanuel was holding a press conference to pat himself on the back for taking a stand against the mass arrests of young black men.
“Our young people should not be held back by a mistake in their past,” the mayor said. “Automatically expunging these records will help make sure we’re putting young people on a path to prosperity.”
Meanwhile, my colleague Mick Dumke and I were visiting courtrooms around the city and watching as one black man after another was hauled before a judge to face charges of possessing small amounts of marijuana.
In any event, in 2012, the City Council passed a law that gave police the option of ticketing people caught with small amounts of weed instead of arresting and booking them.
It’s pretty clear to me that we’re using marijuana laws as an excuse to lock up black men.
The shop had a vast array of products, including all kinds of edibles, kept in a back room.
