Ministers urging a Question 2 defeat
Say marijuana plagues community
A group of Boston's most prominent black ministers plan to send a letter to clergy statewide this week, urging them to preach from the pulpit this Sunday against a ballot proposal to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
They are calling on the state's religious leaders to support their effort to vote down Question 2 on Tuesday's ballot, which would make getting caught with less than an ounce of marijuana punishable by a civil fine of $100, an infraction that would no longer be reported to the state's criminal history board.
The ministers compare their effort with ministering to the poor and feeding the hungry and said they are reaching out to clergy in every part of the state, including more affluent areas, for help.
"We need people to understand that there is no good reason to decriminalize marijuana and every reason not to," wrote the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, executive director of the Boston TenPoint Coalition and author of the letter. "As ministers whose congregations are predominantly people who are poor and of color, we look at this threat with the greatest alarm, because it is one with which we are already all too familiar.
"The history of drug and alcohol abuse in society in general, and among the poor and communities of color especially, is well known," Brown wrote. "It is a history whose pages are filled with individual and collective stories of pain, violence, loss, and wasted potential."
The letter, which will be posted on the coalition's website and distributed via e-mail, is also signed by the Rev. Ray Hammond of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain; Minister Don Muhammad of Muhammad's Mosque of Islam No. 11 in Dorchester; the Rev. Gregory Groover of Charles Street AME Church in Roxbury, the Rev. William Dickerson of Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester; and the Rev. Bruce Wall of Global Ministries Christian Church in Dorchester.
The ministers and other opponents of the initiative - including the governor, attorney general, and district attorneys statewide - argue that decriminalizing marijuana possession would promote drug use and benefit drug dealers at a time when authorities say marijuana has become more potent than ever. They warn it would increase violence and workplace safety hazards and cause the number of car crashes to rise as more youths drive under the influence.
"My overwhelming concern is that I live in a community where if people felt they had a license to smoke marijuana, I think we would have more people utilizing marijuana," Wall said. "Marijuana has in every instance become a gateway for people to try cocaine."
But Wall and others said they sympathize with advocates of the initiative who have argued that their congregants should not have careers potentially ruined as the result of being arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana.
Proponents of the initiative, who have spent about $1 million to promote it, say the proposed change in the law would maintain the state's existing penalties for growing, trafficking, or driving under the influence of marijuana, while ensuring that those caught with less than an ounce would avoid the taint of a criminal record.
They also say that marijuana possession arrests and convictions are records that remain visible to many employers, even when the charges are dismissed.
The Rev. Eugene Rivers, senior pastor of the Azusa Christian Community and cofounder of the TenPoint Coalition, said he supports the initiative because he thinks it is unfair that someone can legally smoke a cigarette but can be arrested for smoking marijuana. He also said that black youths are arrested disproportionately for possessing small amounts of marijuana.
"Someone's entire career should not be destroyed or undermined as a result of a conviction or an arrest of marijuana - that's ridiculous, unjust, and irrational," he said. "There's no justification for such a punitive law, especially when there's a racial disparity in terms of arrests for drug possession.
In the letter, Brown argues that decriminalizing marijuana would only "bring more crime and destabilization" to urban neighborhoods.
"For some who do not live in inner-city neighborhoods, marijuana use might be regarded as a victimless crime or even a rite of passage," Brown wrote. "For those of us in the cities, however, the reality is very different. Marijuana is a common denominator substance used in connection with many other crimes. Marijuana is big business where dealers do not hesitate to use violence to protect sales and turf. And marijuana dealers look at our children as their growth market and care not a whit about their health or well-being." 