IMPACT OF THE WAR ON DRUGS AND ITS POLICIES ON

Impact of the war on drugs and its policies on minority communities

Impact of the war on drugs and its policies on minority communities

Introduction

Politics is the art of the possible. Given the circumstances we are damned lucky with Obama. At least the smart guys run the shop for once in a generation. Like sausage crafting legislation is best not directly observed. Yet this bill is the ONLY thing to come out in fifty years so it is still a hell of an accomplishment given the opposition from assorted teabaggers, birthers, and other assorted wingnuts. Like social security and medicare the point is to get the bill, in the following years we can start to take some of the bad stuff out and try to get better stuff in. In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. (Harry H. L., James E. Lubben 2009)

Background

The U.S. Sentencing Commission and legislatures in almost all fifty states have adopted a variety of increasingly harsh sentencing laws in the past decade. In addition, parole release policies have become more restrictive in many states. The combined impact of these policies is that our prison and jail populations have doubled in the past decade, to the point where there are now more than one million Americans behind bars. Many young and minor offenders are only stigmatized by their contact with the criminal justice system, without necessarily receiving either appropriate supervision or support. Opportunities exist to divert many of these offenders to organizations and individuals who can better focus on the problems of Black, Hispanic, and poor youth.

As a result of our report, for example, Black community leaders in Memphis have formed a chapter of the 100 Black Men Incorporated. The group's goal is to reduce the number of Black men going into the criminal justice system. Its activities will include establishing mentor programs, developing mechanisms for keeping Black youth in school, and working with young offenders in the juvenile justice system.

The intent of this essay is to demonstrate that the War on Drugs [under the Reagan/Bush administrations] was America's first great psy-war campaign perpetrated against its own people and that such abuse of power is likely to happen again. To demonstrate that psychological warfare techniques were employed requires understanding subtle sequences of disparate, but related, events. It involves asking questions as to the motivations, skill, expertise and knowledge of those involved.

At face value, indeed the war on drugs seemed to be stemming the flow of cocaine into the United States. However, as a matter of fact, for the whole decade of the 1980's, casual and popular use of cocaine fell out of favor, and overall use steadily ...