Recreational marijuana has been legal in Michigan for nearly six years, and cannabis culture is thriving. Dozens of dispensaries have opened up across the city and metro Detroit more broadly. 

But even as states like Michigan bring in millions of dollars in tax revenue from legalized cannabis, thousands of people are still sitting in state and federal prisons for marijuana offenses. And, as with many issues in the American criminal justice system, racism is central to this issue.

A 2020 report by the ACLU found that more than six million marijuana arrests occurred between 2010 and 2018. And in every state — including those that have legalized marijuana — Black people are still more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people.

The nonprofit Last Prisoner Project is on Capitol Hill this week as part of a larger effort to lobby for justice reform. Founded in 2019, the organization works within the criminal justice system to help individuals who are still incarcerated for cannabis.

Adrian Rocha, director of policy for the project, joined The Metro on Wednesday to discuss the group’s efforts and the stark racial contrast in incarceration rates.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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DETROIT (AP) — The odor of marijuana alone isn’t a sufficient reason for police to search a car without a warrant, the Michigan Supreme Court said Wednesday.

In a 5-1 opinion, the court threw out gun charges against a man whose car was searched in Detroit in 2020.

Michigan voters in 2018 legalized the possession and use of small amounts of marijuana by people who are at least 21 years old, though it cannot be used inside a vehicle.

“The smell of marijuana might just as likely indicate that the person is in possession of a legal amount of marijuana, recently used marijuana legally, or was simply in the presence of someone else who used marijuana,” said Justice Megan Cavanagh, writing for the majority.

The smell “no longer constitutes probable cause sufficient to support a search for contraband,” Cavanagh wrote.

Two lower courts had reached the same conclusion.

Elsewhere, the Illinois Supreme Court made a similar ruling last September. That state legalized the possession of marijuana in 2019.

“There are now a myriad of situations where cannabis can be used and possessed, and the smell resulting from that legal use and possession is not indicative of the commission of a criminal offense,” Justice P. Scott Neville Jr. said.

In the Michigan case, the lone dissenter, Justice Brian Zahra, said he favored returning it to a Detroit-area court to determine whether any other evidence supported a search of the car by police.