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OP-ED: We must hold the Biden administration accountable to the Black community for marijuana reform

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WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 28: U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to meet with police chiefs from across the country and members of his administration in the State Dining Room at the White House on February 28, 2024 in Washington, DC. Biden touted achievements in reducing crime thanks to investments made possible by the bipartisan infrastructure bill. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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No one must be in jail or arrested for marijuana. However, despite evidence that white and black communities use marijuana at similar rates, Black persons are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. Even though dozens of states have passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use and adult use, each are still punishable under federal marijuana law. A federal marijuana conviction can severely impact an individual’s ability to feed or house their family, and consequently, many individuals have lost food advantages, housing, employment and education.

In 2020, President Biden ran a campaign promising to end the criminalization of marijuana. To keep this promise, marijuana must be delisted, meaning it must be completely faraway from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA regulates certain drugs under federal law, placing them on considered one of five schedules and criminalizing unauthorized activity. For far too long, Black communities have borne the brunt of CSA’s criminal penalties. It’s time to finally end federal criminalization of marijuana by rescheduling it.

Let’s be honest, the Biden administration has yet to deliver on its guarantees on federal marijuana reform for Black communities. And while each President Biden and Vice President Harris have called federal marijuana criminalization a difficulty of racial equity, the recent and anticipated actions of their Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) underscore the disconnect between the administration’s rhetoric and its willingness to actually address the issue in this fashion .

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While the remainder of us recognized the starting of Black History Month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as an alternative selected the first day of February to rejoice #DEAHHistory and President Nixonwho signed the CSA and the infamously weaponized federal marijuana policy that targeted and harmed Black communities.

For many, the Biden administration’s DEA news was a wake-up call. It’s no secret that racism has been at the center of the DEA’s history and the criminalization of marijuana. Harry Anslinger believed it “Reefer makes black people think they are as good as white people” and as director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (the predecessor of the DEA), Anslinger championed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which criminalized marijuana at the federal level. In line with the celebration of presidency leaders who used drug policy to criminalize the Black community, the DEA museum has an exhibition online exhibition on Anslinger’s “life of service.”

The same federal agency that today celebrates the racist history of President Nixon and Harry Anslinger is now tasked with: and he already has a final decision, official review of marijuana classification under the CSA. While this review doesn’t mention this history in any respect, it should likely have the effect of further perpetuating racial inequality.

“Committing to decriminalize marijuana and just floating it around CSAs is nothing greater than shifting peas in your plate to trick your mom into pondering you are eating vegetables. Your mother wasn’t fooled and neither were we.

Starting this review in 2022President Biden has called the criminalization of marijuana a failure, acknowledged that Black and Brown people have been disproportionately arrested, prosecuted and convicted, and suggested that his actions on marijuana reform will “end the country’s failed approach” and “right its wrongs.”

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Despite this rhetoricthe DEA is anticipated to propose that marijuana be placed on Schedule III, a classification that, while technically less restrictive in some respects, would proceed federal criminalization of marijuana and its harms. The marijuana industry will rejoice this as a victory because it should give them a tax break, but individuals will still be susceptible to federal penalties. An individual can still lose their job due to a marijuana conviction. An individual can still be deported for working at a licensed dispensary in a state where marijuana is legal.

The hard truth is that rescheduling won’t decriminalize marijuana use, expunge records, or decriminalize activities currently permitted under dozens of states’ medical and adult-use marijuana laws.

In 2020 Biden and Harris have pledged to decriminalize marijuana use and take away related provisionsmaking this commitment your individual The “Lift Every Voice” plan for black America. President Biden acknowledged his role in passing drug policies that ‘harmed Black communities’ calling it a “mistake”. Vice President Harris called for systemic change while discussing marijuana decriminalization in 2020, saying, “This will not be the time for half-dancing. This will not be the time for incrementalism

Now the administration is taking responsibility for reforms which are, at best, gradual, and haven’t even been fully implemented. Regardless of this reality, the Biden administration is already claiming in its promoting campaigns that it does “revised federal marijuana policy”and in campaign speeches, President Biden is already alluding to his actions of granting federal pardons for easy possession of yaks proof of “promises kept” on marijuana reform.

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In fact, pledging to decriminalize marijuana and easily moving it around on a CSA is nothing greater than shifting peas in your plate to trick your mom into pondering you are eating vegetables. Your mother wasn’t fooled and neither were we.

We know the difference between scattered guarantees and systemic change. We bear the brunt of disproportionate criminalization, and it’s up to us to hold the Biden administration accountable to its guarantees to our communities. If the Biden administration truly intends to keep its many guarantees and end the harm of marijuana criminalization, it will not be too late. However, President Biden guarantees that until marijuana is totally faraway from CSAs decriminalize marijuana will remain unfulfilled.

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This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Politics and Current

What is happening in Gaza Strip and Sudan, which caused a protest at the show during the Super Bowl break?

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The contractor of the show during the Super Bowl break in Kendrick Lamar developed a flag decorated with the words Sudan and Gaza in protest over the two wars that arouse the Middle East.

Safety at the stadium stopped the contractor shortly after swinging the flag at the top of the used automotive as a prop in performance. The police in Nowy Orlean said that they were developing if any allegations were raised against the contractor.

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NFL said that this person can be banned for all times at the NFL stadiums and events, while the company standing behind the semi -final stated that this is not a part of the planned results.

So what was this protest, what is happening in the Gaza and Sudana zone – and how does it affect the wider world?

Here’s what is happening:

What is happening in the Gaza Strip?

Gaza zones are an enclave along the Mediterranean sea bordering each Egypt and Israel. It covers about 360 square kilometers (140 square miles) – about twice as large as Washington and 3½ times larger than Paris. But it is extremely densely populated and was home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the start of the war Israel-Hamas in 2023.

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The last war began when Hamas, a combat group that has been governing gauze since 2007, attacked the border to Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. According to local health bodies, Israel responded with a destructive ground and air campaign, killing over 47,000 Palestinians who don’t distinguish between fighters and individuals who are usually not entities. A major a part of the territory has been left in the ruins and it is not clear how it might be rebuilt.

AND The suspension of the weapon in the war began on January 19 And he still holds. Palestinian fighters released hostages, while Israel released Palestinians that took place in prisons. However, worries remain about whether the room will last. Comments of President Donald Trumpwho was at hand on Sunday evening at the Super Bowl, suggesting that the US was “involved in buying and having gauze”, also raised discussions about the way forward for Encla.

Palestinians want Gaza and West Bank for their very own state, and its Eastern capital of Jerusalem. This long -sought after, two -state solution for a ten -year conflict is supported by nations in the Middle East and a significant a part of the international community. Israel has expressed openness to the idea of ​​resettlement of the Gaza population, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls it “a revolutionary, creative vision.” Hamas, Palestinians and most of the world rejected it.

What is happening in Sudan?

Sudan, a nation in North-Eastern Africa, has been unstable since the popular rebellion forced to remove the long-term autocratic president Omar Al-Bashir in 2019. A brief transition to democracy was used when the head of the army of General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo from the paramilitary forces of quick support led the military attack in 2021.

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The RSF and Sudan army began to fight with one another in 2023. Their conflict killed over 28,000 people, forced hundreds of thousands to flee from their homes and made some families eat grass in a desperate try and survive when hunger converts a part of the country. Other estimates suggest a much higher variety of fatalities in the civil war.

In recent weeks, Burhan’s forces, including Sudan and Allied militia, have been promoted against RSF. They set a key refinery north of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. They also pushed RSF positions around Khartoum himself. The fights led to Increase in civil victims. From January 31 to February 5, UN “Office of Human Rights documented at least 275 civil deaths as a result of artillery, raids and drones.

Biden administration says that Sudan Rebel Force has committed genocide, imposes sanctions on the group leaders

“Uncritical attacks, as well as threats and attacks directed against civilians must immediately have a mouth,” said Seif Magango, spokesman for the Human Rights Office. “Sudan armed forces and rapid support forces – and their allied movements and militia – must respect their international duties and take specific steps to protect civilians from harm, including humanitarian workers and human rights defenders.”

Online activists tried to listen to each gauze and Sudan, although conflicts have different roots and participants. The idea of ​​two conflicts associated by their devastation was created by celebrities.

In August, the American rapper Macklemore said that he canceled the concert in Dubai in reference to the role of the United Arab Emirates “in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan through the reported support of Parmilitarian RSF. While ZAAs have repeatedly denied RSF armament, UN experts reported “reliable” evidence last 12 months, showed that the Emirates sent weapons to RSF several times a week from northern chad.

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Macklemore then said that he again thought that he again thought of his last support of Palestinians regarding the war of Israel-Hamas. He performed the song “Hind’s Hall” in honor of a young girl named Hind Rajab, who was killed in gas during the shooting, which Palestinians blamed the Israeli forces opening fire to a civilian automotive.

Presidential first: Trump in Super Bowl, the last chapter in a complicated heritage with football

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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The former Lady of Michelle Obama will not take part in the inauguration of Trump – essence

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The former Lady of Michelle Obama will not take part in the inauguration of Trump

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The former Lady of Michelle Obama will not take part in the inauguration of the president-Elek Donald Trump next week.

IN statement It was confirmed from the Barack’s office and Michelle Obama that while former President Barack Obama would take part in the 60s inaugural ceremonies, Michelle Obama will not join him. No specific reason for her absence was given.

The message appears only just a few days after she did not participate in the state funeral service of former President Jimmy Carter.

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Mrs. Oobama was a loud critic of Trump during the presidential elections in 2016, 2020 and 2024. In her memory in 2018, Mrs. Obama shared a shock when she learned that Trump would replace her husband. She also did not stop Trump, who undermined Barack Obama’s citizenship, condemned the campaign.

Last fall, she hit the campaign trail for the presidential candidate for democratic Kamala Harris, giving a moving speech in Michigan. There, she performed a direct call to act, calling for men to vote for Harris and emphasizing the stake of the potential return of Trump to the White House: “Women’s life would be threatened,” she said, referring to influence on women’s rights based on the second Trump administration.

Her office shared that her last public performance had on October 26, 2023, when she conducted a campaign alongside the vice chairman of Kamali Harris in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She also sat all the way down to an interview with Jennifer Hudson on December 17, According to NBC News.

Mrs. Obama took part in the inauguration of Trump in 2017, even though it was not a pleasant memory for her. In 2023, on her podcast, Light Podcast, she considered at the present time: “[T]There was no variety here, there was no color at this stage. There was no reflection of the wider sense of America. Many people took pictures for me and they are such that you were not in a good mood. No, I wasn’t. “

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Letitia James wins about blocking Muska’s dogs

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New York AG Letitia James , Musk, DOGE


On February 8, the US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary order after 19 democratic lawyers of the overall allowed Donald Trump to stop the federal government department Elon Musk (dog) from access to the registers of the treasury department, which have sensitive tax information, corresponding to social security, corresponding to security social and variety of bank accounts of tens of millions of Americans.

According to the case that was submitted in New York, He claimed that the choice of the Trump administration Providing Musk and his Doge team access to the central payment system of the Treasury Department was a violation of federal law.

In his ruling, Englemayer, the denominator of President Barack Obama, stated that everybody who prohibits access to confidential data with retrospective power by January 20 must immediately destroy all copies of all materials taken from the treasury department systems.

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The Prosecutor General of New York Letitia James, whose office filed a lawsuit against Trump, said that musk and dog access to confidential information raises security issues and the opportunity of illegal freezing of federal funds.

“This needed group, led by the richest man on the earth, just isn’t authorized to have this information and clearly sought this unauthorized access to illegal blocking of payments, which depend on tens of millions of Americans, payments for health care, childcare and other basic programs, – – James said via a video published by her office on February 7.

In a press release sent to Black company Through the office of James on February 8, she also drew attention to the effect of taking confidential data by Musk to Americans throughout the country.

“From the moment that Elon Musk and his employees of Doge obtained unprecedented access to our personal private data, details of the bank account and other confidential information, Americans were terrified throughout the country. Over the past week, my office has heard from over a thousand New Yorkers who were afraid that they would lose their privacy and critical financing of their community due to musk and dog interference. “

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James continued: “We knew that the choice of Trump’s administration to provide this access to unauthorized persons was illegal, and this morning the federal court agreed. I said it earlier and I will say it again: nobody is above the law. Now Americans can trust this musk – the richest man in the world – and his friends will not have free indicators of their personal data during our lawsuit. “

In accordance with the lawsuit, the Doge access to taxpayers’ personal data is each a violation of federal law and the doctrine of the United States Constitution on the separation of rights.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent can be accused of adjusting the long -term department’s policy regarding the protection of confidential data to enable musk and his buddies.

“This decision did not take into account legal obligations regarding the protection of such data and ignored expectations regarding the privacy of the recipients of federal funds,” including countries, veterans, pensioners, and lawsuits.

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According to the statement of Prosecutor General William Tong: “This is the biggest violation of data in America’s history. Doge is an unlawful renegade team of technology, which combes confidential entries, confidential data and critical payment systems. What could go wrong? “

ACLU also has He approached the challenge Musk’s access to sensitive information, as Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the speech, privacy and technology project indicated within the press release.

The organization summoned the Congress to perform its work and check the excessive order of power by executive via Letter sent to varied members of the Committee related to the funds of the Senate and residential.

“The American nation deserves to know if their private financial, medical and private documentation is illegally available, analyzed or armed by the unforgettable team of individuals of non -observed Trump. There is every tip that Doge has forced essentially the most strictly protected databases and government systems, without considering long -term privacy security ordered by Congress. We need a solution now – said Wessler.

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This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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