Almost two months ago, hundreds of students gathered in
Meyerhoff Park to celebrate “4/20″ by smoking a bowl.
Clouds of smoke rose above the crowded space with an abundance of
pipes, bongs and joints. Across a narrow stretch of Bruin Walk,
officers from the university police department watched, supposedly
powerless because of some vague stipulation about the laws
affecting the area.
I sat on Bruin Walk for hours that day and saw countless
students “blazing the weed up.” To be honest, I am
still amazed that the only student I saw harassed was a young male
student of color, who was singled out to be fingerprinted and cited
for a misdemeanor.
For me, this instance embodies all that is illogical,
hypocritical and downright racist about America’s so-called
“War on Drugs.” Despite media propaganda and constant
government anxiety over America’s “drug problem,”
it seems all too apparent that this battle is really “a war
of cultural prejudice waged primarily against the young, the poor
(and) the non-white to the advantage of the elected, the corporate,
the privileged and the few,” according to the Lycaeum
(www.lycaeum.org).
Over the past 20 years, America’s drug
“policies” have strengthened the prison-industrial
complex, disproportionately incarcerated youth of color and wasted
money on increased law enforcement rather than improved treatment
and prevention programs. Essentially, these policies have failed in
every respect.
Over the course of the past two decades, both state and federal
legislators have enacted laws which prescribe mandatory minimum
sentences for certain felonies, including petty drug transactions.
Under these mandatory minimum laws, judges cannot impose sentences
lower than those specified by the statutes, regardless of the
defendant’s role in the offense, prior history, character,
individual circumstances or actual threat posed to society.
Mandatory minimum laws and drug felonies have been identified as
the major causes of the explosion in America’s prison
population, which now surpasses two million inmates. Even more
disturbing, the ethnic makeup of prisoners incarcerated for
nonviolent drug violations indicates the inherent racism and
classism of America’s growing prison-industrial complex.
According to the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums
(www.famm.org), drug defendants
made up 60 percent of the federal prison population in 1998. Of
those incarcerated, 41 percent were African American, 28 percent
were Latina/o and 27 percent were non-citizens.
In 1995, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that although
whites accounted for 52 percent of all crack cocaine use, only 4.1
percent of the white population was incarcerated for crack
offenses. African Americans, however, made up 88 percent of those
sentenced for such offenses. These statistics indicate that people
of color and poor people living in America’s urban jungles
have been unfairly targeted as the major causes of this
nation’s drug problem. By irrationally placing the blame on
these groups, the War on Drugs has exacerbated misconceptions and
prejudice as well as criminalized large segments of the
population.
Through such policies, politicians wishing to appear
“tough on crime” and intolerant of drugs have also
diverted funds to America’s prison-industrial complex and
away from treatment and prevention programs like rehabilitation
clinics and recreation centers. According to policy analysts Eva
Bertram and Kenneth Sharpe, 70 percent of federal drug war funds
were invested in enforcement while only 30 percent went to
treatment or prevention programs in 1997 (“War Ends, Drugs
Win,” The Nation).
This trend continues, despite the fact that a recent RAND
Corporation study found treatment to be seven times more
cost-effective than law enforcement, 10 times more effective than
stopping drugs at borders and 23 times more effective than
attacking the drug trade abroad (“Beyond Legalization:
It’s Time for Realism,” The Nation). As noted by Human
Rights Watch, mandatory minimum sentencing also limits a
judge’s ability to send nonviolent offenders to substance
abuse treatment programs or other effective alternatives to prison
(www.hrw.org).
These spending priorities indicate that the government and its
policy makers have failed to realize or target the root causes of
drug addiction and abuse. The images invoked by government
propaganda fail to take into account the legacies of
institutionalized structural violence bred by unemployment,
depression, poverty and lack of education.
In this way, the War on Drugs has diverted America’s
attention away from the fundamental issues of poverty and
inequality perpetuated by resegregated school systems and
inaccessible social services, job opportunities and health care.
Meanwhile, the media have demonized residents of low-income
communities of color as “lazy drug addicts,” ignoring
the fact that drug use is often more widespread in wealthy white
suburbia than it is in the inner cities.
America’s drug policies are designed to specifically
target the working class, poor whites and communities of color. For
example, a measure was recently passed that punishes low-income
students who are convicted of drug distribution or possession by
suspending or terminating their eligibility for Title IV student
financial aid (www.fafsa.ed.gov). Now, one must
consider that students of color and students from poorer
neighborhoods are targeted by law enforcement much more
aggressively than their wealthy suburban counterparts. It is both
ironic and tragic that this punishment seeks to eliminate an
individual’s human right of access to education. For many
communities, education serves as the key to a more empowered future
and just social order, and could potentially provide a true escape
from a cycle of drugs and poverty.
Finally, the racist notion that these statistics
“prove” that communities of color are degenerate
law-breakers must be challenged. Wealthy or white Americans are no
less likely to abuse drugs than anyone else, and, given their
incomes, they may be more to blame for the “drug
epidemic” than other segments of society. The scapegoating of
poor and minority communities in the name of ending drug abuse is
counterproductive and inherently responsible for America’s
social ills.
In March, California voters passed Proposition 21, the juvenile
(in)justice initiative. Besides specifically targeting youth in
poor communities of color, the proposition earmarks still more
money for prisons while continuing to allocate funds away from
treatment, gang intervention programs and education. Proposition
21, the “Three Strikes” law and mandatory minimums all
serve as loaded guns in the government’s real war ““ a
war waged against youth, the working class and communities of
color.
Until we are honest about the true goals and targets of the War
on Drugs, America’s streets will continue to serve as a
battlefield where youth are trained as soldiers instead of
students. Let the counteroffensive begin.