Source: dailynews.com
City Councilman Paul Koretz is in favor of legalizing marijuana.
He called attention to the nation’s first marijuana raid, which took
place 100 years ago in Los Angeles, to illustrate his point.
One hundred years ago Thursday, agents from the California Pharmacy Board raided two houses in the barrio known as Sonoratown, arrested two people and confiscated what was then valued at $500 in marijuana. It was the first shot fired in the nation in the war against marijuana.
Today that area of New High Street is part of Chinatown and the raid, along with the arrest of Mexican immigrants, was made in what was described as the first barrio in Los Angeles. Sonoratown developed over the years since 1851 when 1,600 immigrants came from Sonora, Mexico, on their way to Sutter’s Mill to pan for gold, Councilman Paul Koretz said at a City Hall news conference Thursday morning.
“They lived there because they were barred from living in other parts of the city due to racial covenants,” said Koretz, who represents Westwood and parts of the San Fernando Valley.
“It is ironic the raid was conducted by pharmacy regulators, because the fundamental problem we have today is based squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. government and a Congress that refuses to even engage in a meaningful discussion of removing marijuana from the FDA list of controlled substances.”
Koretz was one of a number of speakers who joined California NORML (National Organization for the Reform Marijuana Laws) in calling for Congress to lift the regulations regarding marijuana and begin the campaign to support an effort to legalize marijuana in California.
A ballot measure to legalize marijuana for adults is scheduled to be on the 2016 ballot, said James Gray, a retired Superior Court judge who has long called for decriminalization of marijuana laws.
“We think we stand a better chance to get young people out to vote in 2016 because it will be a presidential election,” Gray said.
Gray said the emphasis on prosecuting people for marijuana violations has filled up the jails with thousands of prisoners, cost millions of dollars and taken up space that should be filled by violent offenders.
City Hall on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, as the legacy of the war on marijuana
was addressed at a press conference to mark the 100th anniversary of the
nation's first marijuana raid, which took place in a Los Angeles barrio.
(Photo by John McCoy/Los Angeles Daily News)
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