The following excerpt is from the book, Massachusetts Jumping Jim Crow for Cannabis by Maur Stringer:
Thomas Dartmouth Rice, professionally known as Daddy Rice, was a white man who would dress up in black face and defend his fellow "nigg**s" to white audiences in a comedy parody entitled, “Jump Jim Crow”. Although a fictional character, Jim Crow became synonymous with the segregation laws that actually preceded Black Codes and the laws that would criminalize any and every move black people made and at the same time promote it as if it were a helpful thing to society and to the black Americans it demoralized.
INTRO: Traumatic Stress
I started smoking marijuana around 13 years old. I’ll be 40 years of age in a couple of months…
My experience with marijuana/Cannabis has definitely been to self medicate. I believe black people go through undiagnosed trauma in dealing with white supremacy 24 hours a day 7 days a week in America. For many, ignorance is definitely their sedative to dealing with racism and white supremacy. I believe ignorance is a real spiritual coping mechanism here on this Earth for many black people. When I was in my early twenties, I would read books, learn new ideas, then turn around, and attempt to teach them to others; and I would be upset with those who refused to even listen or keep an open mind. I felt confused and frustrated with those who seemed to possess this stone cold, superhuman power of ignorance. Ignorance means you are in a state of perpetual ignoring, so you make yourself unaware of things you could be aware of. Marijuana is also a coping mechanism for many of us who popped out of our mother's womb bearing black skin in the middle of white supremacy America. Without the superhuman ability to ignore, or simply as a part of ignorance and/or as a self medicating coping mechanism, Cannabis has been a part of our superhuman strength to ignore white supremacy in America. Whether you use marijuana or not to cope with your traumatic stress in this white supremacy America, I would suggest you read, study and workout as well as share with those around you what you have learned.
This is my story, my experience with the War on Drugs, which turned out to be just a war waged against black and brown peoples. Observe the journey from my first arrest for marijuana at 14 years old to presently attempting to gain legal access through social equity programs as an entrepreneur in Massachusetts into an industry black people invented, created, and cultivated, but went to jail for and are still going to jail for in decriminalized and legal states all across America while white Americans cash in. I was set up by an undercover drug task force in Boston, even though I paid to have my medical documentation and caregiver’s registration, just like white folks. There were no medical dispensaries open at the time so the entire state operated in an area of grey as it related to this medicinally recognized herb and plant.
I consume a little bit over an ounce a week of marijuana, that's a little bit over a QP a month. I experience high levels of stress and anxiety, so I also work out a lot. Paranoid every time I leave my home, I never know if the next pretentious stop could be my last. I always feel like undercover cars are following me. I’m always watching cars, reading license plates. In my trauma induced neuropsychosis, “everybody the feds”, undercover agents, and I ain’t even doing no crime other than being a black man living and breathing. Why should I or any other law abiding black man be made to feel this trauma and stress as if we are criminals? I don’t belong to any gangs except the nationality I was born into, which just happened to be Public Enemy Number One well before I was born.
Growing up in this predatory police culture in America where black children and black people are always being hunted. You either become weak or strong in the midst of this traumatic experience. I believe I've made myself strong in the face of immense indefinite unknown peril. I don't cower when police come around. I get ready for a confrontation. My trauma tells me run-ins with police and aggressive police encounters are inevitable. So, I don't waste my time fearing it, rather preparing for a beautiful death. If one of these race soldiers, posing as a public servant, displays a character in which I interpret as them abandoning their United States oath of office, it's either them or me.
This is the mind-state of those of us traumatically scarred by over aggressive policing for a War on Drugs that turned out to be a “War on Weed”, which in actuality was a war against black and brown people. The most pitiful thing of it all, is that the place where we pay taxes, the country in which we were born and love, refuses to step in and protect its black citizens. There are no harsh penalties, and often more times than not, there’s no penalty at all for these race killing. The Washington Post launched a platform in 2015 tracking the police killings. “[Blacks] account for just 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are more than a quarter of police shooting victims.”
This data only shows the killings recorded by the coroner’s office or self reported by the police as a police killing. The police citizen death toll is unreal. It’s unbelievable that this is acceptable. And when the American government does try to acknowledge the unfair, harsh, racist manner in which they treat their black American population, here come the black faces Jumping Jim Crows to take the real victims’ places. Black Americans have been nothing but loyal to country, I personally have ancestors in my direct lineage who have fought in every war, even receiving Presidential awards as high as the Purple Heart. Black Americans love this country and have defended it with our lives, every generation.
The gross treatment is even more apparent when the data around mariijuana arrests is analyzed.
Key notes from the ACLU Report:, “The War on Marijuana in Black and white”, from 2001 to 2010, there were over 8 million pot arrests in the U.S. That’s one bust every 37 seconds and hundreds of thousands ensnared in the criminal justice system.
Police routinely arrest millions of people just for having marijuana every year. Billions of taxpayer dollars fund these arrests, which disproportionately target Black people.
According to the ACLU’s original analysis, marijuana arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana. Nationwide, the arrest data revealed one consistent trend: significant racial bias. Despite roughly equal usage rates, Blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana.
It's time to end the War on Marijuana.
The aggressive enforcement of marijuana possession laws needlessly ensnares hundreds of thousands of people into the criminal justice system and wastes billions of taxpayers’ dollars. What’s more, it is carried out with staggering racial bias. Despite being a priority for police departments nationwide, the War on Marijuana has failed to reduce marijuana use and availability and diverted resources that could be better invested in our communities.
Chapter 1
Sold a Schedule 1 Drug to a Black Cop
November, 2015. They infiltrated my online medical marijuana community where I had placed an ad for overages. I wasn't on the street at a children's park. The undercover officer called me pretending to be a medical marijuana patient in need of marijuana. I asked him if he had a medical card or certificate. He said, “No, [he] couldn't afford the $250”. He begged me to meet with him. He complained his wife took everything in a divorce, and he was sick without much money. I agreed to meet with him that evening at his designated location in an area that was not familiar. The location turned out to be conveniently next to a children's park. He purposely endangered children with an undercover drug sting, a decision that could possibly have resulted in a drug shootout, after all, we are talking about a schedule 1 drug. I sold him 4 grams worth of cannabis concentrates and gifted him 1 gram. Then all hell broke loose….
Acts 2012 Chapter 369 AN ACT FOR THE HUMANITARIAN MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA.
Be it enacted by the People, and by their authority, as follows:
Section 1. Purpose and Intent.
The citizens of Massachusetts intend that there should be no punishment under state law for qualifying patients, physicians and health care professionals, personal caregivers for patients, or medical marijuana treatment center agents for the medical use of marijuana, as defined herein.
“Medical use of marijuana” shall mean the acquisition, cultivation, possession, processing, (including development of related products such as food, tinctures, aerosols, oils, or ointments), transfer, transportation, sale, distribution, dispensing, or administration of marijuana, for the benefit of qualifying patients in the treatment of debilitating medical conditions, or the symptoms thereof.
Section 4. Protection From State Prosecution and Penalties for Qualifying Patients and Personal Caregivers.
Any person meeting the requirements under this law shall not be penalized under Massachusetts law in any manner, or denied any right or privilege, for such actions.
A qualifying patient or a personal caregiver shall not be subject to arrest or prosecution, or civil penalty, for the medical use of marijuana provided he or she:
(a) Possesses no more marijuana than is necessary for the patient's personal, medical use, not exceeding the amount necessary for a sixty-day supply; and
(b) Presents his or her registration card to any law enforcement official who questions the patient or caregiver regarding use of marijuana.
I have been a registered and active member of the Massachusetts (MA) Medical Marijuana Program (enacted in 2012) for the “medical use of marijuana” since 2013. As a medical marijuana patient, I’ve adhered to Massachusetts law, having applied for hardship and staying in compliance with the program whenever I had overages by sharing these overages with fellow medical marijuana patients in exchange for donations. Medical Marijuana Patients, at the time in MA, were allowed to accept donations from fellow medical marijuana patients for their overages- (an overage is any excess amount of marijuana above what a medical marijuana patient/caregiver is legally allowed to have). With donations, there are no profits made. All proceeds go to the patient’s continued use of medical marijuana and help the patient maintain compliance under MA Medical Marijuana Law which prohibits a patient or caregiver from having over a certain quantity at any given time.
Boston’s undercover drug task force, the E-13 Drug Control Unit, sought me out presenting an undercover Officer as a medical marijuana patient without the money to purchase a medical marijuana card. He made up an elaborate story, begged me to meet him at his designated location in order to criminalize my perfectly legal actions of exchanging my overages for donations as stated in the Medical Use of Marijuana Law.
The Officer found me through an online platform utilized by marijuana patients. In my online post, I identified myself as a medical marijuana patient with a small amount of overages to share with fellow medical marijuana patients. The E13 Drug Control Unit infiltrated this community where there are 100s of ads from MA medical marijuana patients and caregivers exchanging services and goods in compliance with the Medical Marijuana laws in MA. By law (see MA General Laws, Ch. 369: Sections 1 and 4) medical marijuana patients are supposed to be protected from this type of predatory persecution, harassment, and criminalization. How they singled me out and chose to pursue me, an African American medical marijuana patient, out of the multitude of ads posted amongst the medical marijuana community, I cannot speak intelligently on; but, statistics certainly do show the predatory behavior of marijuana arrests of blacks in Massachusetts, a medical marijuana state and now a marijuana legal state as well. Blacks are still being pursued and arrested for marijuana and they will continue to be as Governor Baker’s administration pushes for more marijuana laws, i.e. more Black Codes.
The E13 Drug Control Unit detective presented himself as a person with a medical need for marijuana who didn’t have the money, $250, to pay for a license. He lied about having financial hardship, being recently divorced, and being emotionally distressed. He lied about not having transportation, begging me to meet him, and claiming he was in dire emotional and mental distress due to his recent divorce. He lied about his wife taking everything from him, playing on my emotional sensitivity, making me feel sorry for him.
He sounded frantic, skittish, and in deep emotional distress, and eventually coerced me through master manipulation tactics to meet him at a train station location that he stated was safe, but later, in his police report, he deemed it to be an unsafe location because he claims it was within 100 feet of a park.
All the actions of the E13 Drug Control Unit went against the very laws written to protect medical marijuana patients in Massachusetts. Their intentions were to criminalize me, a known African American medical marijuana patient and to attack our community’s means of staying in compliance under the law. At no point was I attempting to violate the law or the protections granted Medical Marijuana Patients. The detectives falsely presented themselves to infiltrate our medical marijuana community and create a crime where there otherwise would have not been one had they not entered the situation. They further violated my rights by taking away my medical marijuana card and medical supply. The lead arresting officer was antagonistic, attempting to escalate the situation, threatening violence, demeaning, and hurling derogatorisms, stating I had poison, not medical marijuana. Having done no toxicology tests, he assumed the substance I had was poisonous, which further speaks to his ignorance on the subject of medical marijuana concentrates. They, a group of black and brown men, charged me with possession and distribution of a Class C substance, which has no medical use and is poison. His conclusions were incredible because there are chemists who have gone to school for several years who could not draw the conclusions that the officer drew based on simple observation of the substance; and he was confident enough to charge me as such when I told him it was medical marijuana concentrates. I even showed him my medical marijuana card which he kept and never gave back yelling to the other officers, “It don’t matter. It don’t matter. It don’t matter if he’s a medical marijuana patient.”
Black faces don’t just come in white faces painting their faces black. Black faces also come in black faces painting their face black. It sounds like a drastic contrast if your face is black, what does it mean to paint your face black? In the minstrel shows of the past, black individuals would entertain white folks in black face exacerbating the same idiosyncrasies of white actors in black face, embellishing upon the same characteristics, and taking on the same mind state as racist white actors. What self respecting black person would do such a thing, one might ask. Surely, these individuals had to be the worst of the worst to betray their own race and culture; but no, often times these individuals were the best and brightest among their culture. They would take these black children as children and teach them, indoctrinate them, brainwash them, feed them lies, misnomers, and untruths about who they are, about who they were, so they could become exactly what those white individuals intended them to be, a black face with a white outlook on themselves and on the world.
One of the most amazing things about America is everyone’s right to due process. Everyone deserves their day in court. Everyone is entitled to be heard by a judge in America. Now, I must admit that I don’t know very much about this lady, but my interaction with Judge Casper, a black US District judge, a female black judge, was extremely disheartening. I watched her deny another black woman whom I know personally fits the category of black excellence in her field of policy work in the American education system as an educator for over a decade, teaching in disproportionately impacted areas, and then going on to implement policy in Massachusetts under the Obama Administration, creating programs for our children that would directly impact their educational experience in a more fruitful way. I watched the judge deny this black professional who has always demonstrated exemplary black excellence. Denied her due process in America. To me, this is an example of a black face wearing black face. To the audience, her face is black, but the systemic actions perpetuated are the mind-state of the ones who raised her, racist white America. All black people are suffering from some sort of traumatic stress, many of us deal with this traumatic stress by ignoring the prevalent, systemic, white supremacy that is so intrinsically interwoven in our American society. This is how we cope, this is how we survive, putting on our black face and appealing to an audience that sees things predominantly through one lens, one scope.
At its core, this is what supremacy is, ignoring all other viewpoints, sacrificing all other spectrums, considering all other races and cultures of people secondary and inconsequential. These viewpoints can exist and do exist completely absent of hate and racism.
White supremacy is the last frontier in American freedom. The right to be heard in a civil case before the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, a case on discrimination and disparity of treatment that dozens of her fellow coworkers were experiencing, qualified black applicants being denied positions over unqualified white applicants and the list goes on.
To really understand black excellence is to know that every black person you see had to work considerably harder than any white person you see in that exact same position. This is true. Black excellence is a real thing. I believe it was Chris Rock who made a reference to black excellence in one of his comedy shows. He explained how arguably he is one of the best comedians in his profession; yet, his next door neighbor was just a regular white dentist. He made comparisons of disparities in which black individuals had to be ten times better in their professions just to live next to someone who is white and is “regular” in their profession.
We strive hard and work hard to supersede racial stigmas, so we are used to over performing, over exceeding, being overqualified just to be next to white individuals who barely qualified if qualified at all.