The War on Drugs Has Failed -- the World Agrees on It

 Last week, the Global Commission on Drug Policy issued a report stating publicly what many people privately believe: THE WAR ON DRUGS HAS FAILED.

The high-level commission which includes three former heads of state – from Mexico, Colombia and Brazil,  former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, former Reagan cabinet official George P. Schultz, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker and Virgin mogul Richard Branson calls on governments to end the criminalization of cannabis and other currently illicit substances. In a clear and forthright statement the report says:

Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won.

An earlier post on Jack & Jill Politics by Keith Owens did a great job of laying out the reasons why the “war on drugs” is in his words “a joke”. I agree it is a joke in that after more than 40 years of relentless law enforcement and more than $4.5 trillion in expenditures (just in the U.S. alone) illicit drugs are as available as ever, substance abuse continues unabated and drug-related crime and violence has increased. However, if the “war on drugs” is a joke, it’s a joke on black people since we’re the ones who’ve been the principal focus of drug law enforcement resulting in devastating impact to our most vulnerable individuals, families and communities. Black people don’t use or sell drugs at higher rates than whites or any other racial or ethnic group but we are grossly over-represented among the population of people arrested, convicted and incarcerated for drug offenses.

More than 40 years of punitive drug policies directed at poor black and brown communities has resulted in the alarming fact that in many of our cities more than a third of all black men are under some form of criminal justice supervision. Over the past few decades there has been an 800% increase in incarceration of women (especially black women) – driven by the “war on drugs” and mandatory minimum sentencing which impose long prison terms for relatively minor offenses regardless of individual culpability or personal circumstances.  In addition to mandatory sentencing we’ve enacted a slew of punitive post-conviction sanctions that deny those convicted of drug offenses of their right to public housing; financial aid for education; public assistance; and in many states – the right to vote. A drug conviction is a substantial barrier to employment for a population that far too often suffers from inadequate education and job training. In the words of Michelle Alexander, “the war on drugs functions like the new Jim Crow trapping an increasing population of black people in a permanent under caste.” The so-called “war on drugs” is in fact a misnomer – it’s really a war on people, people involved with the drugs we’ve deemed ‘illicit’, though as was true with alcohol prohibition, drug prohibition is not directed at all those involved with such substances – no – drug prohibition is almost solely enforced against the poor, the marginalized and the powerless. Those with money, status and power are able to buy and use illicit drugs without fear, secure in the knowledge the police are too busy chasing poor black and brown addicts on street corners and in housing projects to go after the rich addicts in fancy offices and country clubs.

The public policy response to crack cocaine is just one salient example of racialization of the “war on drugs” here in the U.S.  Though the use of crack cocaine at its height never exceeded the use of powder cocaine in the U.S., it was hyped as an epidemic by the media and became the focus of a host of new punitive laws, the most notorious of which imposed a 100:1 federal sentencing disparity for crack cocaine vs powder cocaine offenses. The law required a mandatory five-year federal prison sentence for anyone convicted of possessing 5 grams of crack cocaine – possession of more than 500 grams of powder cocaine was needed to receive the same sentence. Because of the harsh mandatory sentences for crack cocaine offenses – law enforcement and prosecution was so racially skewed that for more than a decade blacks accounted for more than 80% of federal crack cocaine convictions! In 1995 the Commission concluded that the violence associated with crack cocaine is primarily related to the drug trade and not to the effects of the drug itself. The racial disparity in prosecutions for crack cocaine offenses was so bad for so long the U.S. Sentencing Commission practically begged Congress to change it, warning in one of its many reports recommending reform: