#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby To Congress: Decriminalize And Legalize Marijuana

Episode Date: July 19, 2019

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby testified Wednesday morning before a congressional panel to support federal decriminalization and legalization of marijuana possession. On Thursday, Mosby spoke with #RolandMartinUnfiltered guest host Dr. Greg Carr, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University about her testimony before Congress, the failed war on drugs and what she is doing to decriminalize marijuana in Baltimore. Watch the 7.11.19 edition of #RolandMartinUnfiltered https://youtu.be/P5DYfyoQgfU - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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on drugs has failed. She joins us now to talk about why she believes that marijuana should be decriminalized on a federal level. State's Attorney Mosby, are you there? I am here. How are you today? Well, better, better now that you've joined us. And thanks as always for your continuing work on behalf of not only our people, but all the citizens of Baltimore, for the example. So you were here in the district to testify before Congress, this subcommittee, on this issue of decriminalizing marijuana and doing it on a federal level. Could you walk our viewers through why not only this is an important issue,

but how your distinction between what you're already doing on the ground there in Maryland and what you really want the feds to do? So I was honored to be invited to the subcommittee of the judiciary. And it's the Crime and Terrorism in Homeland subcommittee. And it was chaired by Karen Bass of California, who convened this hearing. And it was about racial justice, marijuana laws in America, and racial justice and the need for reform.

And I was honored because it gave me an opportunity to kind of talk about the discriminatory enforcement of laws against poor black and brown people. We know that this war on drugs that Congress signed off on has really been a war on black poor, black and brown people. And essentially it has been at the disservice and the disadvantage to our communities. And so I was given the opportunity to address Congress. I had several sort of proposals.

And one of those proposals is I'm advocating for not just the decriminalization, but the legalization of marijuana federally. And that's for a number of reasons. Right now, federally, it's against the law. The Controlled Substances Act says that you cannot be, it's a Schedule 1 narcotic right next to heroin, which in and of itself is a problem because it's not as dangerous as that type of drug. But it's a Schedule 1 narcotic, and you have 11 states who have already legalized marijuana, and that's a conflict of interest. And furthermore, the issue that I saw in this was that we have to allow the states to regulate tax and to be able to make the determination about what to do with marijuana laws. is because with the regulation of marijuana, it diminishes the black market or the distribution

of marijuana. We know that distribution of drugs fuels violence. And you look at my city, you know, unfortunately, Baltimore has been, is woven within the fabric of the United States. And yet we're lead in per capita homicides. We lead in the number of opioid deaths. And we're one of the most impoverished cities in the entire country. And a lot of that has to do with this failed war on drugs. you all are somewhat responsible for these federal and financial incentives that you have provided to the states to enforce these laws in discriminatory ways. We know that nationally, that you as an African-American or black person, you are four times more likely to be arrested for the possession of marijuana than a white person. That's problematic because we know that the use and consumption of marijuana among black people and white people are the same. And yet and still, even after the decriminalization of marijuana in the city of Baltimore, 95 percent of the citations that they issue for marijuanawide is going to one out of nine police districts,

which represents nine percent of the population within the city and is 95 percent Black and disproportionately poor. So when you look at those stats, what that tells you is that there has been discriminatory enforcement that has had collateral consequences, not just on individuals, but on whole communities. And recognizing that, what I went to Congress to say was that you now have a responsibility, understanding that this was a failed war on drugs, to reinvest not only in individuals through reentry services and ensuring that we have mass expungement and vacature and consider the resentencing that we've treated this, what should be a public health crisis as it criminalized it.

But I also argue that we should also be reinvesting in our communities in ways in which we're the ones that have suffered the most at the hands of these failed policies. Well, you haven't you certainly haven't waited on Congress to act. Seems to me that you're following a long tradition of black state's attorneys in Baltimore. I remember when Kurt Schmoke, who was, I think, at that time the youngest state's attorney elected in Maryland, really began that conversation about legalizing some use of drugs. But you, in January, covered here on Rolling Show, you said, I'm going to stop prosecuting folks for this possession. And then you have even gone into court and asked that records be expunged, that the number of years between the time you've been convicted of something and the expungement be shrunk. I mean, so you're not waiting on Congress to act, are you?

No, I'm not going to wait on Congress and I'm not going to wait on the state to act either. And that's the point, right? Like in January, I came out, they haven't changed the possession laws and they have not ensured that they're making that investment in our communities. They're giving me issues about vacating the 5,000 convictions. But I came out in January and said, in considering this discriminatory enforcement, as a state's attorney, I can never be complicit in the discriminatory enforcement against poor black and brown people, of laws against poor black and brown people. And so I'm not going to prosecute the possession of marijuana. And I'm going to move to vacate the convictions of over 5,000 individuals. And I argue that it was violative of the 14th Amendment for this discriminatory

enforcement, the Equal Protection Clause. And the courts have come back and said, no, you don't have a legal mechanism to be able to vacate these convictions. So I'm still fighting, which is one of the reasons why I went to Congress to say, hey, we need federal incentives to make sure that the states put in their, you know, ensure that they are fighting for the individuals that have been most impacted. The fact that in the state of Maryland, there's an expectation that you have to wait four years before you can get your record expunged for the possession of marijuana when it's no longer even a crime for 10 grams or less is ridiculous. And so, you know, that's what Congress

has the power to be able to do, is to incentivize the state through their financial means. They incentivize the states through their financial means when They incentivize the states through their financial means. When they enforce these laws, you have, you know, grants and task forces that were implementing these laws against poor black and brown people. Now it's incumbent on them to also incentivize the states to right the wrongs of the past. You know, it's funny. I remember election night, 2012, we were covering the stuff at Howard and I was in an auditorium full of students and they saw the marijuana leaf come up on the screen and everybody started cheering, realizing that Colorado had become a state that had legalized marijuana for recreational use. And of course, we know that Washington state did that as well, as you said, but you made a 10th amendment argument

before Congress the other day for the viewers who might not be clear about the relationship between the states and federal government when it comes to these laws, here in D.C., for example, it's decriminalized, but don't be calling it a federal park like national parks because that's where federal law occurs. Why did you bring up the 10th Amendment for folks who might not understand the relationship between state law and federal law when it comes to this issue? Well, because this is the distinction, right? And this is why I'm saying that there should be legalization, not just decriminalization of marijuana. We have to legalize it because the federal government right now is saying that it's illegal. However, there are certain states, as you've mentioned, Colorado, Washington State, where they're saying it is legal, right? And that in and of itself is a conflict. And it becomes a conflict, an issue when it comes to banking issues for those that are in the industry, the marijuana industry.

And what we're saying is that we can't have technically the federal government can go into the state of Colorado and arrest people, even though people are complying with state law. And so that in and of itself is a conflict. And what we're saying and what I argued is that we need to eliminate that conflict and the federal government shouldn't have oversight. It should be up to the states. We should treat marijuana the same way that we treat alcohol, allow the states to regulate and to tax. It's better for the states to be able to control from a public safety and consumer safety perspective, to be able to make a determination as to, you know, what restrictions they're going to put on marijuana. What are the, you know, dispensaries and young people having to come in and to show IDs.

You have your quality control testing of the substance so that there's no, it diminishes the black market. Right now in the black market, marijuana is being laced with other sort of substances, right? We want to diminish that. And that's what we're saying. And that's what I was arguing to Congress is that, hey, we have to ensure that we don't have these conflicts that are violative of the 10th Amendment. Well, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, every time we see you, you know, always thank you for continuing

to fight on behalf of us. And as a proud graduate of Tuskegee University, well, you're a graduate of Tuskegee. My mama's born

about 30 minutes from here. Every time I think about it, you know, no question. It ain't just H-U, you know. It's T-U, you know.

Mother Tuskegee, as we say. So thanks again, State's Attorney Mosby, and please keep us informed as the fight moves on and keep the fight on. Absolutely, and I anticipate and I hope they will have bipartisan support and we get the kind of, you know, federal incentives and resources that are needed for the states to comply and to rectify what has been wrong against poor black and brown people. So thank you for you, your support, and I appreciate you. We're here always. Thank you again. All right.

All right. Yeah, so we've heard from State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, and we're going to turn now to our panel, our regular panel, including Quadricus Driscoll, who is a adjunct professor at the George Washington University, and Erica Savage-Wilson, host of Savage Politics. Well, not only decriminalizing, but legalizing marijuana. Anybody have any thoughts on that? Yeah, absolutely. And one

thing I'm very curious about is because this has not been really parceled out for states to settle, what is the communication between different states' attorneys about how to handle those individuals that are being incarcerated, being arrested, because I'm still believing that black and brown folks are still paying the penalty for being users or sellers of a drug that has definitely enriched our non-people of color community. And also, there are degrees that people can now begin to pursue in the study of marijuana. So as these, you know, different wealth opportunities come available, I'm just wondering the conversation between states attorneys about how we can kind of like right the wrongs that still are felt among black and brown communities. Very interesting. That's it. That's going to inject itself properly into this presidential election cycle. Rodriguez, I'm thinking, Prof, about some of the things that happened in California.

I know after it was legalized, for example, or decriminalized in the Bay Area, for example, these very people who have been arrested for drug sales now don't have the capital to rent a storefront, to get a loan, to get into the now legitimate business of selling marijuana. And we heard Attorney Mosby talk about this. Where do you see the future of this going? Or is there a future even for our people who used to be hand-to-hand herb hustlers and now they can't get out here and get a license to do it legitimately? I mean, it's, dare I say, it's the same shit done over again, right?

It always starts where we are poor black and brown people are always behind the eight ball. Because now what we do know is that we have our white brothers and sisters who are making bank off of this. The former speaker of the house, John Boehner, is a senior policy advisor for one of the largest cannabis companies in the country. I would have suspected that alcohol was his drug of choice, but I guess that's for consumption, not profit. Anyway, I'm not going to buy a thing.

We're talking about morals and society, right? Price drank wine, I'm sure they'll tell you that. The reality is our people have, unfortunately, for various reasons, have had to use marijuana to survive and to sell, including members of my own family, dare I say, right? No question. And so here we are now talking about decriminalizing marijuana. There have been a large number of black and brown people who have been jailed in prison for this. And now it's a huge moneymaker. I wouldn't be surprised if it's going

to be on the stock exchange soon, right? Well, let me ask you, do you have any thoughts about the fact that our brother Sean Carter seems to have jumped into this pool? Jay-Z is now in this. I mean, where should we come down on this? I think it is most incumbent that black and brown folks, as you just mentioned, brother, are afforded the opportunities to make the money that really has been paid with time and being. Absolutely. And so I so I think like for folks that have attained a certain wealth status to go in and kind of clear the field the same way we've seen them, and I'm saying them, meaning like folks like, you know, you mentioned Sean Carter, to go in and kind of clear the field the same way they have done with when they've seen injustices done with other families, to also clear the field in that way, because he himself, you know, he's talked and rapped about, you know, I'm a loyal family of his about, you know, selling drugs and using that money in order to bring his career to fruition.

So I think that clearing the field in that way so that black and brown folks who have paid the penalty, what time away from their family, harsh prison sentences, are able to benefit legally by way of having dispensaries, have those storefronts that are set up like, you know, was demonstrated in Oakland, to be able to go out and pioneer those spaces. And just to add to that, furthermore, I mean, I teach part-time at George Washington, but I'm a healthcare lobbyist by day. Yes, sir. And so we also need to talk about the opioid crisis. The opioid crisis and the medical benefits that are associated with moderate amount of

cannabis or marijuana use, right? When you look at chronic conditions like psoriasis which is a not a skin disorder it's an autoimmune right when you look at certain psychological disorders mental illness it is there are studies that have done and show that marijuana is a soothing calming effect when done of course in moderation and with the proper dosage right so there's there are multiple reasons to decriminalize. So it sounds like maybe, you know, our colleagues and friends at Meharry Medical College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Howard University Medical School, we're going to need some research studies to get behind it.

Black institutions need to be thinking a little bit more strategically. Absolutely. Particularly as they're, you know, and they're not gaining the numbers that they need to in terms of funding i totally agree with you dr carr that these are different avenues that they could look to really expand and really gain let's get after it and like you said we make some money i know one of the supporters of roland martin unfiltered you know he's some sisters in getting us to invest in some hemp farming so uh pay attention to these ads as we see on world of martin unfiltered so all right folks unfiltered video in just one moment marijuana stock.org is another great investment opportunity if you were lucky

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our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops.

They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.