Dear Supporter,
In the last decade, there have been nearly a half million marijuana arrests in California. These arrests have disproportionately targeted people of color, particularly Black Californians, who are nearly five times more likely than white Californians to be arrested for a marijuana felony.
With Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, we have a chance to drastically curtail the War on Drugs and protect our communities from the violence of criminalization and imprisonment. Tomorrow, vote YES on Prop 64 and together we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from the racist and predatory War on Drugs.
Under Prop 64:
- Adults 21 years and older will be able to legally possess, transport, purchase, consume, and share marijuana.
- Marijuana-related offenses will be eliminated or substantially reduced.
- Thousands of Californians will be able to petition to have their sentences reduced, and over a million will be eligible for criminal record clearing and expungement.
- Fewer immigrants will be subject to detention and deportation, while immigrants with previous marijuana offenses may become eligible for permanent residency and/or citizenship.
We are also tremendously excited about Prop. 64’s reparative justice components. First, Prop 64 ensures that people who were harmed by the War on Drugs will be able to participate in the legal marijuana market. And second, the proposition invests revenue from marijuana taxation into low-income communities harmed by high rates of arrest and incarceration, explicitly addressing the social and financial devastation wreaked by marijuana convictions. Prop. 64 establishes a $50 million Community Reinvestment fund that will empower these communities by funding job placement, mental health treatment, legal services that address barriers to reentry, and more.
Let’s radically reduce the number of people in our prisons and jails, let’s take a tool of deportation away from ICE, and let’s invest much-needed resources into communities damaged by decades of harmful policy.
Vote yes on Proposition 64.
In Solidarity,
Eunisses Hernandez
