Woodbury church forum to call for end of war on drugs

WOODBURY - The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Woodbury will host a public forum on Thursday, March 8, to discuss state legislation proposals to legalize marijuana, and legalization's effects on minorities.

The 7 p.m. event is co-hosted by the Gloucester County NAACP and the Drug Policy Alliance, and will be held at the church on 32 Courtland Street, Woodbury.

The Rev. Charles Boyer, pastor of Bethel AME Church, said the prohibition on marijuana has "devastated our communities.

"Cannabis prohibition was devised to control communities of color and it has worked as intended," Boyer said, through a statement released by the Drug Policy Alliance. "We must end the drug war, which is a war on people.”

Loretta Winters, president of the Gloucester County NAACP, said marijuana laws have been used to "target and criminalize black and brown people and throw them in jail." She said her organization is asking for reparations.

Roseanne Scotti, the state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said her organization wants the legalization law to include "automatic and retroactive expungement and resentencing," access to the marijuana industry for people of color, including those with prior convictions, and investment of the tax revenue generated into communities "most harmed by marijuana prohibition."



Panelists will include Boyer; Scotti; N.J. Rep. Arthur Barclay (D-Audubon); Pastor Willie Dwayne Francois III, Mount Zion Baptist Church, Pleasantville; Richard T. Smith, NAACP New Jersey State Conference; and Gloucester County Prosecutor Charles A. Fiore.

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Kim Mulford: @CP_KimMulford; (856) 486-2448; kmulford@gannettnj.com



