Marijuana laws this year could help black and Latino drug dealers to go legal
America's war on drugs, paticularly marijuana, has disproportionately affected minority communities in the country for decades, leading to incarceration, limited employment and ultimately creating a cycle of poverty, according to legal and social justice experts.
Tucky Blunt, a fourth-generation Oakland native, grew up in an atmosphere where everyone around him used marijuana, from his grandmother to his parents. Blunt began selling it to his friends in the neighborhood at the age of 16. After nearly a decade of illegal sales, he was caught by authorities over $80 worth of cannabis, after someone he thought as a friend tipped off the authorities.
He was arrested in 2004.
"We were out there trying to make money to help support our families at a time when people didn't have a lot money. We didn't think we were hurting anyone," Blunt, now 30, told the USA Today. "I liked weed. I knew people who liked weed. Why not facilitate them getting good weed? That's how I looked at it."
