Drug Decriminalization in Maryland Through an African Centered Research Paradigm- Analysis and Recommendations

to arrest or citation in those beats.10 Proportion Hispanic is negatively related to the 2014
marijuana enforcement rate, indicating that beats with higher proportions of Hispanic
residents have lower rates of marijuana possession enforcement. Interestingly, there is
substantial overlap between the
few beats with high Hispanic populations and D.C. adjacent beats. The negative coefficient
for proportion Hispanic indicates that, despite their proximity to D.C. (positively
associated with enforcement rates), beats with higher concentrations of Hispanic residents
have a lower enforcement rate, all else being equal. (ibid).
The research indicates that, in predominantly Black Prince George’s county, the net widening
effects are concentrated in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods Near Washington D.C., but not
the Latinx neighborhoods. The researchers, however, do not state the logical conclusion of this
analysis, that the potential net widening effects are driven specifically by policing in poor, Black
communities. Kozlowski et al are doing research related to decriminalization in Maryland and
engage in deep, quantitative analysis around the implications of decriminalization, including its
potential to inadvertently increase some racial disparities. As such few articles are more potentially
useful for an analysis of decriminalization of drugs in Maryland. These criticisms are not to
diminish the reports findings, it is to attempt to outline how subsequent research efforts could
expand upon their work to incorporate an explicit analysis of anti-blackness and create even more
productive research findings via utilizing a African Centered Research Paradigm.
The research indicates that racial disparities existing post decriminalization can be found
beyond Prince George's county. Tran et al find similar levels of specifically Anti-Black policing
post decriminalization in Philadelphia, writing:
“Marijuana arrest rates were high among African Americans prior to decriminalization.
We found that African Americans experienced greater absolute reduction in arrest rates
once marijuana possession was reclassified as a civil offense compared to Whites;
however, arrest rate disparities, specifically for sales/manufacturing, increased
betweenAfrican Americans and Whites. For instance, relative reduction for
sales/manufacturing-based arrest rates was nearly 3 times lower for African Americans
than their White counterparts after decriminalization. This is similar to recent work
documenting increases in relative arrest rate disparities despite decreases in absolute
disparities followingmarijuana legalization between Whites and African Americans
(Firthet al., 2019).There are two possible rationales that may explain the differential
patterns in arrest rates by race. One rationale is that our data do not reflect actual law
enforcement behaviors, particularly biases in the criminal justice system, that would
contribute to the continual dis-parities in arrest rates (Gelman et al., 2007; Milner et al.,
2016; Mitchelland Caudy, 2015;Ulmer et al., 2016). This may explain, in part, how African
Americans continue to be unfairly targeted by law enforcement officers relative to White
individuals. However, recent work suggests that perceptions around policing of small drug
use and purchases are changing among law enforcement officers (Rouhani et al., 2019).
Theother rationale posits that arrest rates disparities may be partially explained by
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