From "Understanding The Cannabis Divide is Critical to the Process of Legalizing the Cannabis Economy in Ohio"

The most disturbing Jim Crow costs of the Cannabis Divide for Clevelanders are demonstrated in Selective Enforcement of Drug Laws in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: A Report on the Racial Effects of Geographic Disparities in Arrest Patterns, by Professor Mona Lynch, Department of Justice Studies, San Jose State University (Download .PDF - 66KB):

Within the city of Cleveland, there continues to be significant segregation, with African-American residents concentrated on the Eastside and White and Latino residents on the Westside. When one looks at a breakdown of where police make a significant portion of their drug arrests within the city, it is predominantly within neighborhoods on the Eastside. In the case of drug enforcement, due to the highly discretionary nature of identifying and arresting drug offenders, this indicates, at least in some part, a policy decision on the part of the Cleveland Police Department to concentrate a significant share of its law enforcement resources within certain sections of the city. So not only are city residents as a whole more likely to be subject to felony charges on low level drug instrument cases than their suburban counterparts, but within the city, those areas that have the highest percentages of African-Americans are especially likely to be subject to police surveillance and arrests.

...the majority of drug arrestees (both drug possession and drug trafficking) from 1990 through 2001 have been young, African-American males. In 2001, 85% of the drug offense arrestees were Black, which was close to the average over the prior decade. Approximately 10-12% of the arrestees over the period were suburban residents, but even among that population, Blacks were the majority of the arrestees. See Chart 1 below for specific breakdowns over the entire period.

Disrupt IT

Pres. Obama: "research is proving that cannabinoids, as part of this bodily system, play a mitigating role in breast cancer"

What begs discussion on the occasion of California’s historic vote, which the whole world is watching, is that cannabis has been shown in hundreds of laboratory studies over the past ten years not only to be physiologically harmless, but also to be the most potent anti-cancer agent found in nature. No other natural substance holds the cancer-stopping power of cannabis and that's a proven fact.

In addition, cannabinoids, the active ingredients in marijuana, shrink and prevent the spread of tumors far more effectively than synthetic chemotherapy agents, for the simple reason that they destroy cancer cells without damaging healthy cells, a feat that widely prescribed chemotherapy cocktails can't duplicate.

This is something for politicians to think about as they wrap-up their campaigning for the November 2nd election, and position themselves for 2012 (President Obama) - it is time to cancel your Flat Earth Society memberships and join the modern world supporting developing a cannabis economy in Ohio - it is worth developing a medical marijuana cluster here that may lead to our healthcare providers development new methods for preventing cancer for 1,000,000s of people - it is worth creating 10,000s of jobs - there is hope - yes we can - bring Ohio change we may believe in!

Disrupt IT