War on Drugs
In October of 1982, Ronald Reagan declared officially in front of the entire world that illegal drugs were a threat to national security. Since then, the idea of a “war on drugs” has taken root in America and is flourishing now more than ever. One part of the movement that is only just beginning to be discussed, however, is the wild racism found in its general approach and convictions. When the war on drugs was characterized by the poor urban and predominantly African American neighborhoods where drug use was supposedly ‘rampant,’ the governmental response was always centered around strict, no tolerance policies, hoping to discourage drug use by implementing severe repercussions for any. In the past ten to fifteen years, however, the U.S. has seen an incredible spike in heroin use, abuse and deaths due to overdose, with most of the problems, to the surprise of much of the general public, coming out of the white community. New York Times writer, Katharine Seelye, points out how this has changed the way officials are talking about drug use—white families are using their money, privilege and voice to speak out in favor of drug treatment rather than incrimination. Michael Botticelli, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control, has also spoken out about the phenomenon, saying that “because the demographic of people affected are more white, more middle class, these are parents who are empowered... They know how to call a legislator, they know how to get angry with their insurance company, they know how to advocate. They have been so instrumental in changing the conversation.”
Although it is nice to see the country taking strides to begin to treat drug addiction as a medical condition rather than a criminal offense, the fact that it took until the white community was affected to get this to happen is horrifying, and it just highlights one of the many racial disparities that exists, not only in the criminal justice system, but in that specifically dealing with drug charges.
The imprisonment of people for nonviolent drug charges, especially that of marijuana, is also incredibly racist. Marijuana use between whites and blacks is roughly equal; however, in every state but Hawaii, blacks are more likely to be put in prison than white Americans for marijuana charges, in some states more than eight times as likely. We see more and more young black teens who can barely be considered adults being charged and put behind bars for nonviolent marijuana charges. These sentences not only put them in prison for years to be mentally and physically violated, but also permanently ruin their chances of, once they’re released, getting a job, buying a house or securing loans—all for smoking the weed that your white friend probably sold.
About a year ago, one court ruling on marijuana possession came to the public eye because of the absurd sentence given to Bernard Noble, a Louisiana father of seven. Noble received a thirteen year sentence in prison without the option for parole for the possession of two marijuana cigarettes with intention for personal use. Many marijuana charges are focused around nonviolent drug dealers with intention to distribute, but in Noble’s case, he was charged with no intention to distribute, having little weed on him at the time. He had two previous nonviolent offenses for possession of marijuana eight and twenty years before the arrest that led to his imprisonment, which supposedly contributed to his lengthy sentence. It’s clear for anyone to see, as Daniel Abrahamson, director of the Office of Legal Affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance said, “The sentence inflicted by Louisiana in this case for simple, low-level marijuana possession, on a gainfully employed father with absolutely no history [of] any serious or violent crime, cannot be justified by any measure.”
In the midst of many unfair, extremely long and heavily discriminatory sentences, many are calling for the decriminalization of marijuana, a drug that is already legal for recreational use in four states and the District of Columbia, a drug that the majority of Americans believe should be legal. Recently the media has leaked supposed plans from the United Nations that framed the decriminalization of marijuana possession for personal consumption, the exact act that imprisoned Noble for thirteen years. The decriminalization of marijuana would allow adults and teenagers like Noble to live a normal life, unphased by a nonviolent insignificant possession charge, and it would remove the extreme deficit black Americans have in the system justice when facing drug charges; from a purely human rights standpoint, the decriminalization of marijuana seems like a great step in the right direction. ♥