HILLSIDE – The issue may be legalizing marijuana, but to state Sen. Ronald L. Rice, it’s a civil rights battle.

Making pot legal is simply a way for the establishment – or the money people – to rip off blacks, Hispanics and the poor in general.

“It’s a big money operation,” says Rice, a Democrat from Newark who has represented the 28th District in the state Senate for more than 30 years.

Rice, who is bucking many in his own party over this issue – something he has done before – hosted a public meeting Monday night in Hillside Town Hall to discuss the prospect of marijuana legalization.

Gov. Phil Murphy talked about making pot legal during last fall’s campaign, but Democrats in the Legislature have been wary. Still, there is talk of movement on the issue in September.

Rice spoke for about an hour before about 60 people explaining why he thinks legal pot is a bad idea.
First and perhaps foremost is his belief that marijuana is not a benign substance. He thinks it will lead to addiction and exacerbate an array of existing problems in the state’s urban areas.

Beyond that, Rice sees legal marijuana as primarily benefiting major corporations, some of which are already pushing the idea. He concedes that the state would get a tax boost, but not enough of one to sway him.

Rice ridiculed those who claim legal pot would help blacks, who are more likely to be busted for marijuana than suburban whites. Rice calls that view an insult, and says that if the idea is to help blacks who have been arrested. “Why don’t they turn (them) loose” from jail.

That kind of misses the point, no?

The problem is not so much that minority youths spend years in jail for smoking pot. The problem is that a pot arrest, which is a minor transgression to be sure, gives young people a criminal record.

One can debate the harm marijuana may do to your body, but it’s simplistic and wrong to speak of pot and opioids in the same breath as Rice is prone to do when he rails against the state wanting to “create more addicts.” Opioids and marijuana are very different things.

He also noted with alarm that “this stuff stays in your system for 30 days.”

This is hardly news to many people who need to take an employment drug test. But it’s greatly misleading. Traces of marijuana may stay in a person’s system for weeks, but that doesn’t mean they remain high for 30 days.

Rice is a sincere man and it is undeniable that poor people and minorities often end up getting the short end of the stick. The senator deserves credit for raising awareness of their interests, but he’d do well to rid his presentation of hyperbole.

For example, he suggested that  legal pot could lead to evictions and homelessness as poor people may opt to buy an ounce of grass instead of paying the rent. Really? He also said legal pot would increase usage by college students. It very well might, but let’s be real, it’s not as if college students are not smoking marijuana now.

Most in the crowd backed Rice’s position. Some people detailed their own family experiences with drug addiction. These are genuine concerns. However, as one of the few people in the crowd who disagreed with Rice, Ed Tobias, pointed out, you can very much say the same thing about alcohol.

Tobias, a lawyer from East Brunswick who specializes in cannabis laws, irritated some in the crowd by talking about those who now smoke marijuana illegally.

“I’ve seen so many people being happy (doing so),” he said.

Clearly, Rice and most of the crowd are not part of that group.