BuzzFeed investigative reporter Amanda Chicago Lewis has uncovered a strange and frustrating catch-22 in America’s changing drug policies. With public opinion shifting and prisons pushed beyond their maximum capacity to house offenders, more and more states are legalizing marijuana to one degree or another. Nearly half of them have approved medical marijuana, while 16 have said yes to non-psychoactive cannabis, and four particularly bold states (plus Washington, D.C.) have legalized the recreational use of the plant. This has created an enormous economic opportunity called the Green Boom. Just as The Onion predicted back in 1996, drugs have won the drug war. But there’s a catch, as detailed in Lewis’ article “How Black People Are Being Shut Out Of America’s Weed Boom.” While the war on marijuana may be ending, the remnants of that war are still in effect. Namely, though Americans of all races were equally likely to violate the country’s marijuana laws, African-Americans were much more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for those violations. And with those past convictions in their records, they are not being allowed to legally distribute marijuana.