Cannthropology | Cannabis Prohibition’s Racist Roots

In this extended episode, we tackle an important topic: racism and its relationship to cannabis prohibition. Host Bobby Black welcomes on the founder and executive director of The Equity Organization Natalie Papillion to talk about the history of racism and cannabis. From the fear of black jazz musicians and Mexican immigrants in the 1920s and 30s, to Nixon’s targeting of black and Jewish activists in the early 1970s; from the mandatory minimum sentences of the 1980s to stop and frisk in the 1990s; from mass incarceration and asset forfeiture to voter disenfranchisement and the inequities of the burgeoning cannabis industry—we lay out all of the racist rhetoric and sobering statistics, and discuss what might be done to remedy the systemic issues we face.