Something's in the Air
Race, Crime, and the Legalization of Marijuana

America?s drug laws have always exerted an unequal and unfair toll on Blacks and Latinos, who are arrested more often than Whites for the possession of illegal drugs and given harsher sentences. In this volume, contributors ask how would marijuana legalization affect communities of color? Is legalization of marijuana necessary to safeguard minority families from a lifetime of hardship and inequality? Who in minority communities favors legalization and why, and do these minority opinions differ from the opinions held by White Americans? This volume also includes analyses of the policy debate by a range of scholars addressing economic, health, and empowerment issues. Comparative lessons from other countries are also analyzed.

Introduction: Ending a War or Just California Dreamin’?; Katherine Tate, James Lance Taylor, and Mark Q. Sawyer 1. Criminal Justice Costs of Prohibiting Marijuana in California; Jonathan P. Caulkins and Beau Kilmer 2. Public Health Considerations in the Legalization Debate; Chyvette T. Williams and Thomas Lyons 3. The Paths Not (Yet) Taken: Lower Risk Alternatives to Full Market Legalization of Cannabis; Robert J. MacCoun 4. Why Did Proposition 19 Fail?; J. Andrew Sinclair, Jaclyn R. Kimble and R. Michael Alvarez 5. Winds of Change: Black Opinion on Legalizing Marijuana; Katherine Tate 6. The Highs and Lows of Support for Marijuana Legalization among White Americans; Paul Musgrave and Clyde Wilcox 7. Building Minority Community Power through Legalization; James Lance Taylor 8. The Latino Politics of Proposition 19: Criminal Justice and Immigration; Melissa R. Michelson and Joe Tafoya 9. No Half-Measures: Mexico’s Quixotic Policy on California’s Proposition 19; NathanJones 10. The "Chronic" and Coercion: Exploring how Legalizing Marijuana Might Get the U.S. Government off the Backs and Throats of Americans (or, not); Christian Davenport

Katherine Tate is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author and coauthor of several books, including most recently, What’s Going On? Political Incorporation and the Transformation of Black Public Opinion.

James Lance Taylor is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco. Taylor is the author of Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama.

Mark Q. Sawyer is Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at UCLA. He is the author of the award winning book, Racial Politics in Post Revolutionary Cuba, and co-editor of Just Neighbors?: Research on African Americans and Latino Relations in the United States.