Pot
Y-wE Speak
continued from page 1
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
J ERRY F OSTER
Advertising Manager
L ISA L OVING
News Editor
P ATRICIA I RVIN
Graphic Designer
A RASHI Y OUNG
D ONOVAN M. S MITH
Reporters
M ONICA J. F OSTER
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ULIE K EEFE
S USAN F RIED
Photographers
ease somewhat for marijuana distribution
charges. Black people accounted for about 22
percent of Colorado distribution arrests in
2010 and about 18 percent of such arrests in
2014.
The arrest data got a mixed response from
the regional head of the NAACP.
“The overall decrease in arrests, charges and
cases is enormously beneficial to communities
of color who bore the brunt of marijuana pro-
hibition prior to (legalization),” Rosemary
Harris Lytle said in a statement.
“However, we are concerned with the rise in
disparity for the charge of public consumption
and challenge law enforcement to ensure this
reality is not discriminatory in any manner.”
In 2014, the year Colorado’s recreational
marijuana stores opened, black people
accounted for 3.9 percent of the population,
but they made up 9.2 percent of marijuana pos-
session arrests.
For illegal marijuana cultivation, the dispar-
ities didn’t just persist. They got much worse.
In 2010, whites in Colorado were slightly
more likely than blacks to be arrested for mar-
ijuana cultivation. After legalization, the arrest
rate for whites dropped dramatically but ticked
up for blacks. In 2014, the arrest rate for blacks
was roughly 2.5 times higher.
The Drug Policy Alliance did not conduct a
similar arrest analysis in Washington state,
which also legalized pot in 2012. Last Septem-
ber, Seattle’s elected prosecutor dropped all
Majuma Abdikadir, 14, and
a dozen other young
women perform an original
theatre piece entitled ‘Y-wE
Speak: Our Legacy, Our
Leadership,’ March 14 at
the Seattle Repertory’s Leo
k. Theatre. They created
the piece about “honoring
your past in order to shape
your future,” during an
eight-month residency at
the Seattle Rep where they
worked with mentors from
Young women Empowered
(Y-wE) and teaching
artists.
tickets issued for the public use of marijuana
through the first seven months of 2014 because
most of them were issued by a single police
officer who disagreed with the legal pot law.
About one-third of those tickets were issued
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
to blacks, who make up about 8 percent of
Seattle’s population.
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
Cannabis
continued from page 1
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(It should be noted that the new
laws do not affect the 16-year-old
Oregon Medical Marijuana Plan.)
Disappointing public
participation
Part of the OLCC’s process of
figuring out the rules has involved
a series of public listening ses-
sions they held across the state;
the public hearings concluded in
Portland this month.
Commissioner Harper, who is
African American, says the Black
community’s lack of turnout was
disheartening.
Tom Towslee, spokesperson for
Those with a ‘green thumb’ and an
entrepreneurial spirit will have to wait
until Jan. 4, 2016, to apply to get their
hand in the industry
the OLCC, says that assuring
minorities and women get a fair
shake in obtaining licenses is
something they will “definitely be
looking at.”
“That will be part of the com-
mission’s
authority
and
responsibility when it gets around
to adopting the rules to implement
the law,” Towslee says.
Oregon is largely using Col-
orado as a model for formulating
the new rules because the Boulder
State also had a medical marijua-
tion. Large sign-up sheets were
distributed to each table asking
people to contribute their expert-
ise to the plan. The social media
hashtag and twitter handle pdx-
peoplesplan was announced.
“We will not allow our communi-
ty to be betrayed again.”
Despite these reservations, there
was hope that this effort would
bring meaningful change.
Hill told The Skanner News the
na program, he said, and the diver-
sity of licenses awarded will
depend on how diverse the appli-
cant pool is.
Towslee says he’s seen an array
of projections on how much sales
will generate for the state, ranging
from $5 million to $44 million.
But he cautions the numbers are
only speculation and hard facts on
how Oregon’s faring won’t be
available probably until sometime
in 2017.
Read the rest of this story
online at www.theskanner.com
PAALF
continued from page 1
equity is inadequate.
“Mainstream urban policy asks
for equity, but that equity isn’t
centered around a vision for Black
community,”Bates said, adding
that the plan would “assert the
right of black people to not only
be in place, but to shape place.”
The plan outlined a set of objec-
tives
including
economic
development, culture and arts
development, personal safety
development and urban planning.
It proposes the question “what
does Portland’s Black community
want?” and asks to visualize a
Portland that would reflect these
values.
Among the leaders present at
the reception were former State
Senator Avel Gordly; Rev. T.
Allen Bethel of the Albina Minis-
terial Alliance; and Midge Purcell
of the Urban League of Portland.
The small ballroom was nearly
full with late-comers standing in
hallway by the door.
Hill gave a call to action to the
crowd, asking for their participa-
Page 2 The Portland and Seattle Skanner March 25, 2015
[The plan] proposes the question
‘what does Portland’s Black
community want?’
Some in the crowd expressed
hesitance toward the new plan.
There were concerns on how to
maintain a Black-centered policy
without being excluded from
mainstream discussion.
Purcell briefly spoke on past
failures where plans like these
were co-opted by white city plan-
ners. She mentioned the failed
Albina Plan, which had heavy
involvement from the Black com-
munity but never translated into
actual policy.
Purcell passionately declared,
time is now for a significant grass-
roots push. He cited a growing
body of scholarly analysis on the
failure of urban planning, the dis-
placement of earlier generations,
and the heightened awareness of
violence against Black people
today.
Bates told The Skanner News
that Portland is more receptive to
conversations about racial equity
than ever before.
“The city and region are recog-
nizing that the path we are on —
in terms of racial disparity and
class disparity and income
inequality — is not a good one for
the health of the region,” Bates
said. She said government
bureaus are asking for solutions to
equity issues and it is time to give
answers from the Black communi-
ty.
The plan also represents the
evolution of PAALF from a grass-
roots leadership program to an
influential but controversial flash-
point. The organization made
waves last year in protesting the
urban planning policy surround-
ing the Trader Joe’s development
deal on Martin Luther King Jr.
Boulevard. Since then, PAALF
has been rethinking their role
within the community.
PAALF Executive Director
Cory Murphy said they learned
from the encounter and have
restructured as a stronger organi-
zation.
Read the rest of this story
online at www.theskanner.com