People of color experience discrimination at every stage of the criminal justice system.
The drug war has produced profoundly unequal outcomes across racial groups, manifested through racial discrimination by law enforcement and disproportionate drug war misery suffered by communities of color.
Many different communities of color bear the impact of the discriminatory enforcement of drug laws. This impact may vary across cities and regions. Nationwide, some of the most egregious racial disparities can be seen in the case of African Americans and Latinos.
Higher arrest and incarceration rates for these communities are not reflective of increased prevalence of drug use, but rather of law enforcements focus on urban areas, lower income communities and communities of color.
Disparities in arrests and incarceration are seen for both drug possession law violations as well as low-level sales. Those selling small amounts of drugs to support their own drug use may go to jail for decades. This unequal enforcement ignores the universality of drug dependency, as well as the universal appeal of drugs themselves.
We believe that the mass criminalization of people of color, particularly young African Americans, is as profound a system of racial control as the Jim Crow laws were in this country until the mid-1960s.
This video from hip hop legend Shawn Jay Z Carter and acclaimed artist Molly Crabapple depicts the drug wars devastating impact on the Black community from decades of biased law enforcement.
The video traces the drug war from President Nixon to the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws to the emerging aboveground marijuana market that is poised to make legal millions for wealthy investors doing the same thing that generations of people of color have been arrested and locked up for.
Misguided drug laws and draconian sentencing have produced profoundly unequal outcomes for communities of color.
Other racial groups are also impacted by the drug war, but the disparities with these highlighted groups are particularly stark and well documented.
For noncitizens, including legal permanent residents, any drug law violation can trigger automatic detention and deportation often without the possibility of return.
People deported for drug law violations are sent back to their countries of origin, where they may no longer have any ties to family or community. They may lack basic survival needs like food, housing and health services, and may face serious threats to their security. They are usually barred from reentering the United States, often for life. The result is thousands of families broken and communities torn apart every year.
Punishment for a drug law violation is not only meted out by the criminal justice system, but is also perpetuated by policies denying child custody, voting rights, employment, business loans, licensing, student aid, public housing and other public assistance to people with criminal convictions.
These exclusions create a permanent second-class status for millions of Americans. Like drug war enforcement itself, they fall disproportionately on people of color.
The Drug Policy Alliance is committed to exposing discrimination and disproportionate drug law enforcement, as well as the systems that perpetuate them. We work to eliminate policies that result in the unfair criminalization of communities of color by rolling back harsh mandatory minimum sentences and by addressing on the rampant over-policing of these communities.
We advocate for:
Link:
Race and the Drug War | Drug Policy Alliance
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- DERMODY: War on Drugs requires more than 'quick-fix' - RU Daily Targum [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
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- War on drugs has left us with a latticework of crime - The Boston Globe [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
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- Unnecessary fighting south of the border: Mexico should ask Trump to pay for the drug war - Salon [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2017]
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- President Trump Just Renewed the War on Drugs - MERRY JANE - MERRY JANE [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2017]
- Duterte targets Philippine children in bid to widen drug war - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Is Ending The War On Drugs A Panacea? - Modern Times Magazine [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Scott Pendleton: Civil forfeiture is an important tool in fighting the war on drugs - Tulsa World [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Vows 'Ruthless' War on Drugs and Crime - The Daily Chronic [Last Updated On: February 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2017]
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- Trump goes full Nixon on law-and-order, vows ruthless war on drugs and crime - Salon [Last Updated On: February 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2017]
- Go whole hog in war on drug lords - The Standard (press release) [Last Updated On: February 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2017]
- Duterte's 'war on drugs' in the Philippines - Deutsche Welle [Last Updated On: February 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 17th, 2017]
- A man of God in the Philippines is helping document a bloody war on drugs - Columbia Journalism Review [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Reckoning with the Addict and the U.S. War on Drugs - OUPblog (blog) [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
- Duterte calls for stronger AFP support in war on drugs, terror - Inquirer.net [Last Updated On: February 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 18th, 2017]
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- Losing the war on drugs - The Review [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Why we can't seem to end the War on Drugs | TheHill - The Hill (blog) [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Philippine's Rodrigo Duterte urged to drop charges against leading war on drugs critic - Telegraph.co.uk [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- HRW on war on drugs: PH needs 'international intervention' - Rappler [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
- Napolcom: Police need to regroup, rethink role in war on drugs - Inquirer.net [Last Updated On: February 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 20th, 2017]
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- Thousands of Filipino Catholics march against death penalty, war on drugs - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2017]
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- War on drugs: a failing battle against suffering - The Suffolk Journal [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
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- Philippines to defend Duterte's drug war at UN rights body - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Hidden victims of war on drugs - The Phnom Penh Post [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
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- Trump administration signals new war on drugs, crackdown on marijuana use - ThinkProgress [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Opponent of Duterte's drugs war arrested in Philippines on drug charges - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2017]
- Philippine citizens protest Duterte's drug war on anniversary of dictatorship overthrow - Deutsche Welle [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- How Rodrigo Duterte's War On Drugs Looks In Colombia - Worldcrunch [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- Dela Rosa hopes PNP can focus on drug war anew - Banat [Last Updated On: February 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 27th, 2017]
- Philippine police say ready to return to war on drugs as dealers return - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 27th, 2017]
- Our View: White House plan reignites wasteful war on drugs - Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel [Last Updated On: February 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 27th, 2017]
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- No need to relaunch war on drugs: Duterte aide - ABS-CBN News [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- The Junkie and the Addict: The Moral War on Drugs - Harvard ... - Harvard Political Review [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Duterte orders return of police to war on drugs - ABS-CBN News [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Yasay: Flak on war on drugs, De Lima arrest just 'partisan politics' - ABS-CBN News [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Duterte brings back police into war on drugs - Banat [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Philippine president to bring police back into war on drugs - Reuters [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Bands I Pretended to Like for Boys. Part Ten: The War on Drugs ... - TheStranger.com [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Donald Trump Drug War Strategy | National Review - National Review [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]