Global Ganja Report

Noting that prohibition takes a disproportionate toll on African American youth, leaders of the NAACP's California chapter announced June 28 that they are backing passage of the marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot. Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP's state conference, said the war on drugs is a failure.

The group cited statistics from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice showing that in 2009, 62% of California's marijuana arrests were of nonwhite suspects, and that 42% were under 20. The pattern was consistent in the state's 25 largest counties, with arrests of African Americans at double, triple and quadruple the rate of whites—even though studies show that blacks use marijuana at lower rates than whites, NAACP officials said.

"We are joining a growing number of medical professionals, labor organizations, law enforcement authorities, local municipalities and approximately 56% of the public in saying that it is time to decriminalize the use of marijuana," Huffman said in a prepared statement. (LAT's L.A. Now blog, June 28)