Elliot Millner, J.D.
In a recently released report, the Global Council on Drug Policy (which includes former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, as well as former presidents of Mexico, Brazil, and Columbia) state that the decades long so-called “War on Drugs” has been a complete failure, resulting in almost no progress in decreasing the global demand for illegal drugs, while at the same time helping to destroy entire communities, in the United States and around the globe.
In addition the Council concluded that “arresting and incarcerating tens of millions of these people in recent decades has filled prisons and destroyed lives and families without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organizations.” The report also references how drug cartels around the globe are thriving off of the profits made supplying illegal drugs to the world’s number one consumer..the United States.
Although the idea may be controversial to some, legalizing various drugs in some fashion should at least be given consideration. Continuing the failed drug policy of the past several decades is not an option. The devastation inflicted on poor Black communities by drugs is unspeakable, and the damage done in the supposed effort to remove the drugs from those communities has been worse. It would be naive to think that simply legalizing drugs will solve all of the problems of impoverished communities; however, alternatives to repressive policing and excessive sentencing must be enacted. The years of blatantly racially and socioeconomically biased drug policy must end. If a white person in the suburbs receives treatment and support for their drug problem, then so should a Black person from a poor inner-city neighborhood.
Although changes in U.S. drug policy are desperately needed, we must remember this is only one part of a larger picture. The “War on Drugs” was just the most recent excuse used to target communities of color and people of color for excessive arrest and imprisonment (because we definitely aren’t the main drug users, or the main suppliers). Injustice in the criminal justice system as a whole has existed long before the drug war, and won’t simply disappear, even if every drug is legalized.
Your Black Bloggers 
Global Council on Drug Policy Says What Black People Have Known For Years: “War on Drugs” Is a Failure
In a recently released report, the Global Council on Drug Policy (which includes former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, as well as former presidents of Mexico, Brazil, and Columbia) state that the decades long so-called “War on Drugs” has been a complete failure, resulting in almost no progress in decreasing the global demand for illegal drugs, while at the same time helping to destroy entire communities, in the United States and around the globe.
In addition the Council concluded that “arresting and incarcerating tens of millions of these people in recent decades has filled prisons and destroyed lives and families without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organizations.” The report also references how drug cartels around the globe are thriving off of the profits made supplying illegal drugs to the world’s number one consumer..the United States.
Although the idea may be controversial to some, legalizing various drugs in some fashion should at least be given consideration. Continuing the failed drug policy of the past several decades is not an option. The devastation inflicted on poor Black communities by drugs is unspeakable, and the damage done in the supposed effort to remove the drugs from those communities has been worse. It would be naive to think that simply legalizing drugs will solve all of the problems of impoverished communities; however, alternatives to repressive policing and excessive sentencing must be enacted. The years of blatantly racially and socioeconomically biased drug policy must end. If a white person in the suburbs receives treatment and support for their drug problem, then so should a Black person from a poor inner-city neighborhood.
Although changes in U.S. drug policy are desperately needed, we must remember this is only one part of a larger picture. The “War on Drugs” was just the most recent excuse used to target communities of color and people of color for excessive arrest and imprisonment (because we definitely aren’t the main drug users, or the main suppliers). Injustice in the criminal justice system as a whole has existed long before the drug war, and won’t simply disappear, even if every drug is legalized.
Share this:
Related