“Marijuana,” perhaps the most common word used to describe the plant in the United States, is of Latin American origin. The term was quickly weaponized against Spanish-speaking communities and cannabis users in the early 1900s, however, with law enforcement and the feds attaching a racist connotation to it. Decades later, the country’s first federal cannabis arrest involved a Mexican-American man: Moses Baca was arrested (in Denver, no less) in 1937 for buying and possessing a quarter-ounce of pot, for which he served over a year in prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Hispanics have often been on the painful side of America’s cannabis story, and the community is still waiting for its much-deserved rewards from legalization, according to Jerrico Perez. An attorney at law office Vicente Sederberg and a boardmember of the National Hispanic Cannabis Council, Perez transitioned from criminal defense to cannabis law in 2014, and has since helped business owners attain cannabis licenses across the country.
As Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 through October 15, we caught up with Perez to learn more about the community’s relationship with legal cannabis, and the steps needed to repair so many years of pain.
Westword: How do you think Hispanics are represented in legal cannabis? Do you feel like there’s a fair amount of opportunity?
Jerrico Perez:…