Vox’s Andrew Prokop sees some electoral significance in where Paul gave this talk — at a Republican convention in Iowa. Prokop is right — it’s an indication that Paul won’t be playing down his libertarian leanings in the primaries. Or at least these libertarian leanings.

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But there’s another reason this speech was particularly relevant in Iowa: The state has a larger racial disparity for marijuana arrests than any other state in the country. According to an American Civil Liberties Union report released last year, while blacks nationally are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for pot possession than whites in America, in Iowa the figure is an astonishing 8.34. Next is Minnesota at 8.05, followed by Illinois (7.81), Wisconsin (7.56) and Kentucky (5.95).

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It will be intriguing to see how Paul’s message resonates in Iowa. To his credit, he certainly isn’t pandering: A poll taken in March found that nearly 70 percent are in opposition to legalization for recreational use. A similar Quinnipiac poll a couple of weeks later found opposition among Republicans at 76 percent. It seems reasonable to assume that among the older, more conservative subset of caucus-goers, the figure is even higher.

Paul’s outreach to minority voters has sometimes been criticized for being opportunistic and awkward. It has also been derided as an attempt to cover up his prior association with some political operatives who had expressed some pretty repugnant views. There’s certainly some truth to those criticisms. But this is different, and Paul deserves a lot of credit for it. (Much as it pains me to credit a politician.)

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It’s a rare thing for a politician positioning himself for a presidential run to go to an early primary state and say things about the criminal justice system that the people he’s courting may not want to hear. There’s nothing politically opportunistic about telling a bunch of white Iowa GOP caucusers that we need to stop locking up black teenagers for drugs — or that those who have been locked up should get back the right to vote.