Injustice Swept Under the Rug?
I have been researching this issue for some time now. I did a small study on gang warfare in the US and its relationship to the African American population and marijuana (the statistics were alarming and are well and truthfully summarized by the article linked below). I also recently read an extremely well-written and informative book (in fact, one of the best examples of good journalism and research that I have read...possibly ever) called Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. Apart from its shock value and some truthful - if rather lurid - details about the use of LSD, marijuana, 'magic' mushrooms, alternative philosophies, and some of the colorful characters that populated the sixties and seventies, it also presented one of the most thorough and well-researched social critiques I have ever seen - on how the 'War on Drugs' began. Nixon -- backed by the CIA -- sought to malign and declaw a burgeoning civil rights movement, which had originated in protests against the war in Vietnam and had recently begun to draw energy and popular fascination from the hippie movement - gaining alarming popularity. He staged an elaborate PR campaign against these loosely collaborating movements (the more politicized civil rights movements -- largely students -- & the more cultural 'hippie' movement -- also largely students and dropouts). Instead of calling it what it was (an attempt to shut down mass protests against US foreign -- and by that time, domestic [lets not forget Watergate] -- policy), he renamed it the War on Drugs in 1971. Drugs were out to get the youth; they were evil; they had no medical benefit; and they should be universally condemned.
Although the CIA had been using LSD, marijuana, and other substances (both as weapons and recreationally) since the 1950's, and there had been many successful medical studies done using these substances, misunderstanding, contempt, and fear of this new, alternative, 'hippie' lifestyle resulted in the classification of LSD as a Type A illegal narcotic substance (which inherently qualifies it has having no medicinal properties) and marijuana as a Type B illegal narcotic substance. The War on Drugs was helped along tremendously by huge media furors over events such as the Charles Manson murders and the overdose of Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and other celebrities. Before long, the public misunderstanding of drugs was well-established, and discussion over their use or usefulness deteriorated.
So how does this all relate to the article I am sending you? Well, the problem when you summarily judge an issue (particularly in such an ideological way), especially when it is closely related to other important issues (such as race rights/black culture/jazz culture/criminality) is that ceasing discussion promotes misunderstanding and INJUSTICE. The War on Drugs has veered off to such an extent that it has become a tool to incriminate colored minorities, primarily blacks and Latinos. The statistics given in this article are true. I have read them before in articles from foreign countries (including France) and from independent journals, and I've heard them from professors at the University of Chicago who specialize in the study of drug policy. If I (as a white woman) am arrested with a gram of marijuana, I would likely pay a fine or in some other way be slapped on the wrist. I might be given minimal jail time. If a black man is found with the same amount, he might be incarcerated for life. I personally know of an instance very similar to this exact one.
The vast majority of incarcerations are of colored minorities, particularly African Americans. This is filling our prisons with lots of people, behind bars for life, who have been convicted of no other crime than smoking pot and selling it to their friends (which, in the 70's would only warrant getting grounded by your parents; such a case is spoofed in the popular television show That 70's Show). Not only is this an injustice perpetrated upon those being incarcerated, but it is also an injustice perpetrated against the taxpayer...and don't even get me started on the prison industry [which is usually privatized and making a profit (if you're interested, I read a very interesting interview about some cross-investment between prisons and the music industry promoting gangster rap music)].
The War on Drugs is a folly of the highest order. Not only because many types of naturally-originated drugs are actually medically beneficial in some capacity, and may indeed be the ancient foundation of many tribal religions -- including the Native Americans with peyote -- and are therefore of high cultural significance, but also because the policies which the War on Drugs has promoted are WRONG, support racism and the deterioration of black communities, and are also NOT WORKING.
Of course, there are lots of more recent things to say about this. The Mexican drug enforcement official who testified that the US was merely 'controlling the drug trade' from Mexico instead of actually stopping it. Obama reducing the mandatory sentence for possessing under an 1/8 of an oz of marijuana (or something like that) to a fee instead of jail time. The trillions of dollars spent on law enforcement for the War on Drugs. Of course, the whole CA and CO medical marijuana legalization. The popular new marijuana substitute K2 (3, 4, 5, 6 -- they ban each new strain as it comes out, but the lag allows for the creation of a slightly different variety), which has been linked to many more health problems than marijuana, but is often smoked by teenagers as a legal substitute. Most recently, there is 2012 documentary by famed Eugene Jarecki (of Bowling for Columbine fame) called The House I Live In, showing the history of drug persecution and its links to racial prejudice.
