OPINION: Ending Racial Disparities for Cannabis Charges in Charleston, WV

By Joe Solomon

In 2023, Charleston, WV saw a 4:1 ratio for its Black neighbors when it came to cannabis possession charges. 

On July 10th 2024, the Gazette reported that there were 153 citywide personal possession charges for cannabis in 2023, with 85 Black neighbors, 62 white, and 6 folks of an unknown race. That’s 55% of charges going to Black neighbors. According to the latest US census data, Black residents make up 12.9% of the population. 55% divided by 12.9% = 4.3 — so it’s more than four times higher than what you’d expect by population alone. 

Further city data shows 47% of charges occurred in Charleston’s West District — Charleston’s West Side is home to the highest proportion of our Black community (If you lived in Charleston’s South District, your chances of a charge in 2023 were a measly 15%.). The most popular street to be charged? West Washington Street. 

A July 2024 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows yet again that Black and white populations use cannabis at about the same rate. So, what do we do to address this disparity? 

Well, for starters, we can join half the country in either decriminalizing or legalizing cannabis. 

As a city, we can only work towards decriminalization. And that’s what Charleston’s Council is expected to consider on its Aug 19th docket. 

The conversation was spurred by a petition project led by Charleston Can’t Wait volunteers – generating 4,309 signatures over two years that showed city residents and visitors were done with charges, time and fines for personal possession. (An earlier petition from 2019 coordinated by Takeiya Smith with 790 signatures asked Charleston City Hall to release monthly data on arrest demographics. If that had happened: we may have seen this schism sooner.)

Charleston, WV is no exception to the country’s racial bias trends. A 2020 national ACLU report showed Black people are 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white people (rounded up, this is about the same as Charleston’s 4:1 ratio).

This is because our city’s arrest bias is an extension of the national roots of the war on cannabis, which has been shot through with scare-tactics and racism since its inception. In the 1930s, the first chief of the newly minted Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger, knew that in order to pass federal legislation criminalizing cannabis–he needed to maximize fear, and fear of your neighbors. 

According to Anslinger, cannabis could turn “man into a wild beast” or send you “fly[ing] into a delirious rage”. Anslinger’s notes also included: “Colored students at the Univ. of Minn, partying with female students (white) smoking and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result pregnancy.” Anslinger further noted this story supposedly from West Virginia: “Two Negros took a girl 14 years old and kept her for two days in a hut under influence of marihuana. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis.”

Anslinger was asked to resign by a US Senator for using the N word. He didn’t. In fact: Anslinger kept pushing. His often sexualized, racially charged fear campaign was critical to passing the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, which in practice criminalized cannabis nationwide. 

We still live under Anslinger’s racist shadow today. But we certainly don’t have to. 

Just the other month, to celebrate Juneteenth, Charleston City Council stood for a proclamation “promoting a society free from racial inequality.” 

We may get a good shot at promoting that free society at Monday night’s Council meeting. 

Joe Solomon is an at-large member of the Charleston City Council.