Mike Simpson

The very first cannabis arrests in RI were of three Black men in 1934. Two weeks after these arrests, the State Narcotic Board began its nearly two-year crusade against the outdoor growth of the plant, eventually resulting in the prohibition of outdoor cannabis throughout RI.  In the weeks immediately following this incident, the Providence Journal […]

On Friday, November 9, 1934, the Providence Police Department made what may have been their first arrests for illegal possession of cannabis. Unsurprisingly, for a state that currently arrests Black people at three times the rate of white people, the first three people arrested for cannabis possession in Rhode Island were three Black men; Charles […]