Diversity Week 7-1 Assignment

6

The war on Illicit Drugs and Among the Black Communities

Critical Analysis Portfolio and Presentation Proposal

IDS-400 Diversity

SNHU

Terrell McGhee

9/10/2021

The war on Illicit Drugs and Among the Black Communities

The fight against drug abuse has resulted in discrimination across racial groups because law enforcement is done in such a way that the war disproportionally bring misery to the black communities. However, the effects of discriminatory law enforcement affect other people of color, even though the impacts might be variable across regions. In a way, law enforcement on drug use has concentrated on low-income communities and the black communities by issuing arrests without warrants rather than evaluating the prevalence of drug abuse.

Arrest and incarceration have witnessed rampant arrest resulting in people of color who sell drugs in the small amount being jailed for decades, leaving behind cartels who deserve such punishment free to smuggle drugs in the country. This discussion will consider the issue of discriminatory war on the four educational lenses: history, humanities, natural and applied science, and social science.

How the war on drugs has affected the modern community

Nearly 60 % of all people in state prisons attributed with illicit drugs are Latino or blacks. Research indicates that public prosecutors potentially pursue minimum sentences twice on black people as compared to the whites who are found guilty of drug offenses. In almost every stage of the criminal legal system, blacks and Latino are likely to be convicted, searched, arrested, sentenced for decades, and vindicated with other criminal records. Rather than focusing on how to end illegal drug supply, the war has been directed to victimize people of color. The draconian sentences and misguided law on drug abuse have thus created an unequal ground for people of color (Garriott, 2013). Mostly likely, Native Americans and blacks are stereotyped as being drug addicts, violent and the police use racial bias to even applying excess force on the people of color.

History lenses on the discriminatory war on drugs

People of color begin to be considered great suspects in the fight against the illicit drugs since the times of Jim Crow laws in the 1960s. President Richard Nixon initiated the fight against illicit drugs from the US in the 1970s. Over the decades, what followed was police efforts and military operations to curb the escalation of illicit drugs. However, the war has resulted in proliferated violence against people of color, among other unintended effects. During the 1960s, drug abuse had turned out as prevalent, and Americans felt that is was a threat to the stability of the country. Ever since then the US government has committedly funded the war on drugs only to fail to achieve the anticipated results (Stone, 2017). Even though some advances have been made such as making illicit drugs less accessible, the proliferation of drug-related miseries has stained the American justice system. The early 20th century laws in the US attempted to curb illicit sales and production. However, disparities in the history reveal minorities as the hardly hit by the racially tinged war.

Natural and applied science connection with the war on drugs

Medical value is evaluated from scientific and natural research, where clinical trials are used to indicate potential drugs for authorization by the FDA. Potentially abuse drugs are restricted for sale over the counter and require a prescription. Thus drugs can potentially be classified as schedule 1 – 5. Schedule 1 represents drugs that is not meant for medical purposes yet is potentially abused. Schedule 2 drugs may be highly abused through they have medicinal value. In general drugs with medicinal value are ranked from schedule 2 downwards. For instance, the federal government considers marijuana and heroin as schedule 1 drugs (Stone, 2017). Opioids and cocaine on the other hand are considered as schedule 2 drugs. However alcohol is not included in the schedules.

Humanities lenses and the relation to war on drugs

The war on drugs has resulted to crimes against humanity on people of color with thousand od people undergoing killings, tortures disappearances and deportations. However there exist limited records on the exact number of people who have faced brutal killings as a result of being charged with illicit drugs (Stone, 2017). Crimes against humanity can be perpetrated by organs of the state, drug cartels and corrupted government officials (Robinson, 2015). It is remarkably rare for criminal investigations to be launched against victims of inhumanity in the war against drugs. Rather instead, they may be considered as worth the inhumanity done on them by the violence perpetrators.

Social sciences lenses on the war on drugs

Social sciences address the psychological impacts of the war on drug on the affected populations such as the minorities and people of color. Discriminatory and misguided laws on the fight against drugs subject the black and Latina communities to feelings of disguise, stress and social discomfort from which definitely diminishes self-esteem. As minorities in the US, people of color fear about how life can be if they are mistakenly are linked to drug abuse (Stone, 2017). Psychologists among other social science individuals have raised concern over claim of increased mental disorders from discriminatory war against illicit drugs.

Conclusion

The war on illicit drug was initiated but it is not yet over. There needs to be a consideration on the discriminatory laws to ensure they target the key suspects based on prevalence of abuse rather than racial disparities. The four lenses of education can shed light on some aspect that needs change to effectively combat drug abuse.

References:

Garriott, W. (2013). Policing Methamphetamine: Police power and the war on drugs in a Rural US Community. Policing and Contemporary Governance, 53–76. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137309679_3

Google. (n.d.). The war on drugs, clarified. Google. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2016/5/8/18089368/war-on-drugs-marijuana-cocaine-heroin-meth.

History, humanities, and ADDICTION Crises: The Us opioid epidemic. Humanities Collaborative. (2021, May 1). https://humanitiescollaborative.utep.edu/project-blog/history-humanities-and-addiction-crises-the-us-opioid-epidemic.

Race and the drug war. Drug Policy Alliance. (n.d.). https://drugpolicy.org/issues/race-and-drug-war.

Robinson, D. (2015, May 26). Mexico: The war on drugs and the boundaries of crimes against humanity. EJIL Talk. https://www.ejiltalk.org/mexico-the-war-on-drugs-and-the-boundaries-of-crimes-against-humanity/.

Stone, E. (2017, December 25). Is there "hope for Every Addicted AMERICAN"? The New U.S. war on drugs. MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/1/3/htm.