America's drug laws have always exerted an unequal and unfair toll on Blacks and Latinos, who are arrested more often than Whites for the possession of illegal drugs and given harsher sentences. In this volume, contributors ask how would marijuana legalization affect communities of color? Is legalization of marijuana necessary to safeguard minority families from a lifetime of hardship and inequality? Who in minority communities favors legalization and why, and do these minority opinions differ from the opinions held by White Americans? This volume also includes analyses of the policy debate by a range of scholars addressing economic, health, and empowerment issues. Comparative lessons from other countries are also analyzed.

Religious Leaders and Faith-Based Politics: Ten Profiles offers a powerful and timely analysis of the dynamic relationship between religious leaders of all faiths and political activism in the United States. By examining the lives and works of such prominent leaders as Reverend Floyd Flake, Bishop T. D. Jakes, Reverend Al Sharpton, Elder Dallin H. Oakes, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Reverend Benjamin Chavis-Muhammed, and Sister Maureen Fiedler, this volume reveals an American tradition of religious influence on public policy that continues to be an important hallmark of our democracy. From the colonial era to the present, religious leaders have raised AmericansO moral and political awareness of countless issues, including revolution, slavery, temperance, civil rights, and, most recently, the culture wars. This book is the first to explore the renewed and intense commitment of evangelicals, Catholics, Muslims, and Jews to preach, teach, and participate in politics today. Among the questions answered in this book: are religious leaders today as active and vocal as the radicals of the turbulent 1960s? Are these activists still involved in civil rights or have other contentious topics such as abortion and traditional family values preempted such issues? In the wake of the 2000 election and at the start of a new administration committed to elevating the role of religion in politics, Jo Renee Formicola, Hubert Morken, and this prominent collection of contributors ask might we expect greater American religious involvement in the years ahead? This is essential reading for anyone interested in religious and political activism, or the evolving relationship between church and state in America.

America's drug laws have always exerted an unequal and unfair toll on Blacks and Latinos, who are arrested more often than Whites for the possession of illegal drugs and given harsher sentences. In this volume, contributors ask how would marijuana legalization affect communities of color? Is legalization of marijuana necessary to safeguard minority families from a lifetime of hardship and inequality? Who in minority communities favors legalization and why, and do these minority opinions differ from the opinions held by White Americans? This volume also includes analyses of the policy debate by a range of scholars addressing economic, health, and empowerment issues. Comparative lessons from other countries are also analyzed.