California NAACP President Alice Huffman Says Legalizing Marijuana is a Civil Rights Issue

California NAACP president Alice Huffman says legalizing marijuana is a civil rights issue and gives "unconditional endorsement" for Proposition 19.

Once again, a local chapter of the NAACP has proven that the organization is losing its relevance in many areas. The California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led by President Alice Huffman, has said that legalizing marijuana is a civil rights issue, according to CNN. She recently announced the organization's "unconditional endorsement" for Proposition 19, which is a legislative initiative that will be on the November ballot. It would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California.

Huffman said African-Americans are disproportionately affected by the criminalization of marijuana which makes passing the law a civil rights issue. "We have empirical proof that the application of the marijuana laws has been unfairly applied to our young people of color," Huffman said in an official statement. "Justice is the quality of being just and fair and these laws have been neither just nor fair." Source

Wow. I could think of several other key issues that the NAACP could focus on to help the black community -- reducing the high unemployment and foreclosure rates in the black community. Sorry, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Johnnie Carr, Rosa Parks and all the people who fought tirelessly for civil rights for blacks would be embarrassed at the position of Alice Huffman and the California NAACP. There is no way that the legalization of marijuana is a civil rights issues. It is a sad commentary that people throw around the words civil rights in such a cavalier manner, considering people lost their lives and were discriminated against because of the color of their skin.

Read more: Legalizing marijuana is civil rights issue, California NAACP says | CNN