You Op To Know: Student Life columnist discusses marijuana legalization, racial justice
Welcome to You Op to Know, The Daily Orange Opinion section’s weekly podcast.
This week, Assistant Editorial Editor Michael Sessa and Student Life columnist Jennifer Bancamper discuss Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) proposed statewide program to address the effects of marijuana-related criminalization.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to submit a letter to the editor at opinion@dailyorange.com.
TRANSCRIPT
MICHAEL SESSA: Welcome to this week’s edition of You Op To Know, The Daily Orange’s Opinion section podcast. I’m Assistant Editorial Editor Michael Sessa and this week we’re joined by Student Life columnist Jennifer Bancamper.
JENNIFER BANCAMPER: Thanks for having me!
SESSA: Definitely. So tonight we’re going to talk about marijuana legalization and some of the racial justice issues that go along with those new laws. In his 2019 Justice Agenda, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) outlined some programs that he had in mind to deal with marijuana-related criminalization. So what do those programs look like, and why were you interested in them?
BANCAMPER: So basically the program kind of promises to do a few things. So it promises to create jobs to generate millions in tax revenue for New York state, to safeguard public health, and, as you mentioned, to reduce the impacts of criminalization in communities of color. And, it interested me because I think it’s, I think it’s a great example of how the conversation on marijuana has shifted, where before it was kind of this question of, you know, should we or shouldn’t we legalize it, and now it’s more, it’s progressed into an open discussion about what will happen when it eventually does become legal.
SESSA: In your column, you addressed some of the racial disparities in marijuana enforcement currently. So what do those disparities look like, and where do you think they come from?
BANCAMPER: Ok, so, as I mentioned in the article, black people are almost four times, almost four times more likely to get arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts, which is tragic because they basically use them the same amount. And, if we look at those statistics, we can kind of see one of the reasons why African Americans and Latinos are, they make up the majority of US prison population. And I think those disparities exist because of over policing, especially over policing in communities of color. So, like, one thing I think about often is the stop and frisk program and how it primarily harms people of color because of racial profiling. And I think that those racial implications shouldn’t solely be attributed to police officers as individuals, but also law enforcement as a whole. And I think it’s a national issue, and we need to recognize that there are racist ideologies that were ingrained in the police system hundreds of years ago, and I think they’re still being perpetuated in the training that officers get today.
SESSA: Reparations in general can be a pretty controversial subject. How do you think legislators who support a plan like Cuomo’s could convince their colleagues and constituents that these sorts of policies are worthwhile?
BANCAMPER: Well I think they can convince their colleagues just by telling them and showing them that, like, communities of color that are reaping the benefits of marijuana legalization, there will be so much more that comes out of that. So, you know, there will be decreased crimes rates in certain neighborhoods, yeah, there’ll just be, there will be more, like, economic, I don’t know what the word is, like economic —
SESSA: Development?
BANCAMPER: Yeah, of people in certain communities. And yeah.
SESSA: Cool. Thanks for joining us. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or you send a letter to the editor, you can email us at opinion@dailyorange.com. See you next week!
