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As a black man in America, I live in constant fear, and as a leader of an organization that aims to end the war on drugs in Pennsylvania, I also have tremendous fear for people who use drugs especially those of us who are black and brown. What we all want is liberation.

Liberation is an ideal this nations founders valued so much that it was enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Yet it took longer for some of us to get to it than others, and some of us today are still not free.

Today, June 19, we celebrate Juneteenth, the day the last slaves in America were freed. The reality is, however, none of us are free while racist drug policies commonly known as the War on Drugs continues to enslave and oppress our communities.

The past few weeks have been filled with protests, unrest and pain. Police violence, the very issue we are protesting, has been on full display; the countys longstanding war against black and brown people is finally in plain sight, and hopefully now more than ever, racial injustice is something none of us can ignore. I dare to hope that things will change. My real hope is that black people may finally find the freedom that was promised in the Emancipation Proclamation.

Racist drug policies date back to the early 1900s, and the War on Drugs was formalized in 1971 by President Nixon. The policies that followed represented a new and disguised evolution of one of Americas greatest sins slavery.

And it worked. Slowly and methodically, while using the War on Drugs as a tool for racist oppression, people were criminalized for their existence, brought into a cyclical system of control and excluded from actively participating in society.

Black Americans are incarcerated at 5.1 times the rate of white Americans, not due to differences in rates of drug use, drug sales or crimes committed but rather due to racist stereotypes, prejudices, policies and practices that reach all parts of both the criminal injustice system and our entire society.

Our land is governed by laws, so now lets dismantle the bad ones. We hear politicians recognize the devastating failures of the War on Drugs and methodically repeat we cant arrest our way out of the overdose epidemic. These words mean little when our current laws are designed to do exactly that: arrest, incarcerate and oppress.

There are thousands of laws today that codify and perpetuate a system that inflicts violence against black people. These laws are oppression by design. They started during slavery and continued through the Jim Crow era until today, where they continue to oppress and harm black folks. White America was blind to these laws until the misnamed opioid epidemic landed on their doorstep. Only then did we hear louder cries for more compassionate responses to drug use and addiction. Truth be told, the only reason we are taking a more compassionate response to drug use today is that suburban white kids are dying of overdose.

This more recent phenomenon of white overdose deaths is only new because of the racist design and enforcement of War on Drugs policies which were historically directed at black and brown people. The War on Drugs has fueled mass incarceration, and destroyed black and brown communities across our state and our nation. These policies have also destroyed American life on both sides of the color line.

Tearing down statues, painting over murals, posting on social media, making statements of solidarity and acknowledging the voices of us black people means little. The days of platitudes, half measures and talk without change are over. Only direct action including speaking with legislators and decision-makers in your community and supporting black-led organizations that are working to change policy and deconstruct the War on Drugs will liberate the black community and start the healing process.

I call on all people, especially white people who stand with us in the Keystone State to educate themselves, to use their privilege to think about the intersectionality of the issues at hand and declare through action that now is the time for change. We as black people need to hold the power that has never been held by us. We need to live in a society that sees our humanity, honors us, respects us and treats us with equality that belongs to every being who walks this earth. It is time for black liberation.

Devin Reaves is co-founder and executive director of PA Harm Reduction Coalition.

Categories:Featured Commentary | Opinion

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Devin Reaves: We can't have black liberation without ending War on Drugs - TribLIVE