Trump’s ruthless war on drugs – Cal Coast News

April 18, 2017

Allan Cooper

OPINION by ALLAN COOPER

Drug use, particularly opioid use, has gone on unabated (in fact increased) in this country in spite of draconian laws criminalizing its possession or use. More than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States and half are there for so-called drug crimes.

Particularly deplorable is the fact that enforcement of these laws is far from color blind. Whites are the nations biggest drug users yet African Americans are the largest group being targeted.

Now Trump has declared a new, more ruthless war on drugs and his sidekick Jeff Sessions (who reputedly has racist tendencies) will be the new enforcer. So, in addition to current pressures to crack down on undocumented workers, systemic racism is being resuscitated through the reinstitution of ineffective and costly drug laws targeting minorities.

Drug use must be treated as a health problem. It should not be treated as a problem for the police and the courts to handle because, as we all know, our justice system has been shown to administer laws unfairly when people of color are involved.

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Trump's ruthless war on drugs - Cal Coast News