General policies of cannabis have been advancing since the last five decades, but the general scientific proof of the effect is accepted to be uncertain for these policies. In this survey we sum up some important limitations of the investigations related to medical cannabis laws, featuring their irregularities regarding diversification and the planning of these policies. In this article we will focus on the laws related to cannabis and the impacts of cannabis legitimization. 

Despite the fact that the laws have restricted the circulation and use of cannabis in the U.S from 1937, for the last five decades U.S is assessing different cannabis policies. Decriminalization laws in the U.S were first passed during the 1970s, after that medical access policies for patients started to get embraced during the 1990s, and lately the U.S have been experimenting with authorization of recreational markets. 

This has created many Cannabis policies in the U.S. When we go through some studies related to this topic, we come to know that 21 states had decriminalized some offenses related to cannabis in January 1, 2016, 26 states had legitimized the use of medical cannabis, and 16 other states had embraced cannabidiol. Cannabidiol laws allowed just some types of cannabis to be utilized for medical reasons. But certain states have also created mixes of every one of these policies.

Various elements have made some changes in policies observed in recent decades, which includes increasing state budgetary expenses linked to drug sinners, developing logical proof of the health advantages of cannabinoids present in Cannabis, and stressed financial plans of state have made governing bodies to search for new sources of tax gains. 

The colossal policy variety after some time would give analysts sufficient chances to closely survey the impact of cannabis policies on the basis of health results. But the logical department has been very slow till now, and what exists in the writing offers commonly blended and many negligible discoveries. Due to this many people think that the past cannabis policies were safe and that current cannabis policies are comparatively creating almost no harm to the society. But in reality, according to the latest studies of individual’s outlook about cannabis shows that people are in favor of legalization of cannabis. 

Impotent Facts About Cannabis laws

• We should keep in mind that the state policies which are legitimizing cannabis are helping in advancement of state policies that have happened since the 1970s. The surveys assessing the effects of earlier state experimentation have created uncertain discoveries, and have recently tried to recognize the cause behind these mixed outcomes. 

• Moreover, we should be very careful while explaining the proof from all studies mixed together, as these researches are not identical in their consideration regarding policy and populace heterogeneity. But the written work has generally treated both medical and decriminalization cannabis policies as though they were different decisions. However, there can be major differences in the usage of these strategies and this affects how grown-ups or youth of the country react. 

• Generally, some research assessing the effect of MMLs give sufficient thought to the way that a few features of government policies are acknowledged quickly, while other features may take some efforts to progress or there can be a change in reply to the future state and government policies. 

• Many researches that concentrate on how cannabis advancement policies affect previous year’s predominance combined changes in utilization among easygoing clients with changes in utilization among ordinary and substantial clients. Moreover, researches that stress on unreliable clients will in general discover increasingly steady proof that the medical cannabis policies grow use, recommending that this section of the populace is especially delicate to changes in policies. 

Future of Cannabis

As the legal sources of cannabis evolve, there is a critical requirement to evaluate the results of liberalization on different measures of utilization that are important for understanding potential damages. This requires establishing greater measures of normalized portion, overwhelming use and continuous use. Studies have to give more consideration to the effects of these policies on the kinds of items which are consumed due to them, the number of THC which are consumed in various items, and item improvement. 

Future work additionally requires to provide more grounded thought of the baseline which the latest state policies are being assessed. For instance, authorization is probably going to produce littler populace changes in medical cannabis states that by the time have dynamic dispensaries than in states with no earlier medical cannabis stores. 

CONCLUSION

Different cannabis progression policies over the states of the US is frequently overlooked or inadequately thought about while evaluating the effects of additional changes in policy. In spite of the broad state evaluation with different cannabis policies from the 1970s, our awareness towards the effect of these advancement policies on the utilization of cannabis, and its advantages and disadvantages, is less evolved than one would hope for. There are various explanations behind this, involving especially absence of consideration regarding the heterogeneity of current policies, the specific need of the populaces analyzed, and methods of utilization.

In May 2020, the black unemployment rate stood at 16.8% compared to 12.4% among white Americans. While the economic recovery brought down the all-American average from Aprils’ record 14.7% to 13.3%, it ticked 0.1% for African Americans. The ongoing protests over George Floyd’s death due to police brutality, and high rate of joblessness for blacks highlights the glaring social and economic disparity in a country viewed as the torchbearer of the world’s democratic values. 

Many blame the coronavirus pandemic for unemployment among blacks, who predominantly work in state and local sectors that have witnessed major layoffs. However, it is the disparate racial mindset that makes black Americans subject to economic and social injustice. While white Americans are mostly businessmen and white-collar workers, blacks struggle to get jobs. 

The data on black unemployment rate understates the bigger problem of disfavoring in the United States. African Americans face inequalities in access to healthcare, education, housing and means of prosperity. Their wages, income, health status and economic condition continue to suffer due to persistent racial discrimination visible socially, economically and physically.

The Deep-Rooted Economic Disparity

Historically African Americans are at the receiving end of economic development in the United States. In August 2019, when joblessness was its lowest in the country in decades, the black unemployment rate was still 2% above the 3.4% whites without a job. Whenever a recession hits the US market, African Americans are more vulnerable due to the fragile economic safety net they rely on. As the economy rebounds, their recovery is again slower compared to the white population. 

Much blame for the high black unemployment rate and their economic backwardness goes to racial discrimination that continues since the US came into existence. African Americans were enslaved, and brought to the country to work for the prosperity of white farmers. Despite their support in the War of Independence, their enslavement continues, and they were denied economic advancement. Black people were excluded from the political process, and forced to serve the white men. 

The abolition of slavery in 1863 failed to restore their property rights completely and White Americans continued to enjoy privileges in job and commerce. The sustained racial segregation and discrimination of black people by whites led to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Though it resulted in social, economic, and political reforms in favor of African Americans contributing to Barack Obama’s elevation as the first black US President, blacks continue to face systemic injustices. The absence of equal opportunities, wages, and education keeps them disadvantaged and the black unemployment rate remains higher than that of white Americans.

Why the Black Unemployment Rate Stays Higher

The foremost reason for the high black employment rate in the United States is “historical and systemic educational and economic disadvantages” meted out to them. For centuries, white Americans are “patronized” to maintain a “disproportionate economic edge” at the workplace. African Americans struggle to get better and quality jobs as they have too many hurdles, including lower pay, higher job insecurity, reduced benefits and fewer opportunities, compared to white people. 

Systemic barriers also put obstacles for black Americans. They are victims of occupational segregation making them vulnerable to wage discrimination at the workplace. Blacks are viewed as fit for lower-paid jobs, and employers prefer whites over them for stable, well-paying offers. Whether it is a slowdown or economic recovery, they are “last hired, first fired.” About 55% of them have private health insurance compared to 75% among white workers.

The lack of entrepreneurship and fewer African American-owned businesses also contribute to the higher black unemployment rate. They lack the wealth to support their education, start a business, or move to a particular place and access better jobs. They face monetary barriers preventing their education, and end up with higher debt than white Americans. However, this has more to do with racial profiling in jobs than the absence of qualification among black people. Their systemic economic exclusion is as old as the US history.

Even after slavery was abolished, the offices created to resettle formerly enslaved people encouraged them to enter into a contract with their former masters, and continue to do the same occupation. States, such as Carolina, made laws barring African Americans from doing any job other than farming or domestic servitude. White-dominated legislatures approved acts that prevented the relocation of blacks, or their hiring for distant job openings. 

Unfavorable agriculture policies and Ku Klux Klan terror in the South drove African Americans to the North during the 20th century. However, the lack of good education and employment discrimination forced them to accept lower-wage domestic and service vocations. The trend continues despite technological advancements leading to high-paying jobs in the country.

Intentional government inactions are also to blame for the higher black unemployment rate. Federal and state statutes enforcing non-discrimination at the workplace are never strictly implemented. Many of the agencies, including the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, remain only largely symbolic, while social discrimination perpetuates economic inequality. This, in turn, has forced African American workers to endure lower-income, fewer jobs and exclusion from better opportunities.

The prison system in the United States has now become a system that oppresses a particular race: black Americans.

It all started with the Attica Prison rebellion in 1971, when prisoners took over the facility for four days, giving the media footage of how life was like and how a majority of those incarcerated were black. 

On live TV, police took back control, killing 43 inmates, according to Prison Policy. 

Dartmouth University put it best: “the mass incarceration of black men is the result of a historically embedded racial caste system in America’s political, cultural, and social institutions that can be traced back to slavery”.

Whites in society relied on the free labor of blacks in order to have their own economic opportunity and prosperity, and although laws have put an end to de jure slavery, the incarceration system has institutionalized racism, which gives whites the chance to continue profiting from this advantage.

In other words, not only did imprisoning blacks became a way for society to enforce labor, but it also took out the chance for black Americans to rise up in society, stay employed, and have access to the same resources as white people.

But how did imprisoning more blacks became a reality?

Dartmouth outlines how it started with the “War on Drugs” under Nixon, where he “increased the power of federal drug control agencies, approved no-knock warrants, and magnified punishments for marijuana possession”.

Inner-city communities were policed much more heavily — the very communities where more blacks resided than whites.

It might have appeared like a war against drugs on paper, but the fighting was all happening where black Americans lived — just take a look at imprisonments for crack cocaine.

Dartmouth shares, “the penalties for crack cocaine were 100 times more severe than powder cocaine — more commonly associated with whites — even though their chemical effects are the same. This difference put disproportionate numbers of black men in prison”. 

When Reagan took office, the measures became stricter and the number of black Americans behind bars rose and rose.

America began to fear that the country was full of communities with gangs, violence, and drugs, further allowing police to throw blacks behind bars without so much a thought as to the stems behind, not only why those communities were susceptible to certain drugs, but also why whites, who were using drugs, were left alone. 

Then came President Clinton’s 1994 Violent Crime Control Act, a legislation that “increased federal spending on policemen and investigative lawyers, imposed tougher prison sentences, and opened new prisons”.

This directly lead to the reality of today, where “around half of all federal inmates are in prison for drug convictions, attributed to the anti-drug policies of the 70s, 80s, and 90s”, according to The Sentencing Project.  

To this day, mass incarceration continues, due to the foundation set by government policies of the past. 

Today, the US has the highest rate of incarcerations in the entire world, with scary statistics that prove there is prominent systemic racism influencing who is being thrown behind bars.

American Progress reports that black Americans are “five times more likely to be imprisoned than white Americans”, and “twice as likely as their white counterparts to have a family member imprisoned at some point during their childhood”.

The normalized culture of incarceration is arguably what makes it so scary, as generation after generation sits with lingering racism in the fabric of society — racism that gets people shoved behind bars and is not talked about.

A new CAP analysis found that “1 in 4 black Millennials had an incarcerated loved one before they even turned 18, and for “those born in the early 1990s, the rate is almost 1 in 3”.

And it gets scarier. 

The NAACP reports, “a criminal record can reduce the likelihood of a callback or job offer by nearly 50%” and the “negative impact of a criminal record is twice as large for African American applicants” — ultimately showing that mass incarceration contributes to the further cycle of economic oppression of black Americans.

The statistics are right here — perhaps it is time we read them, understand them, empathize with them and take action.