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MarieC87
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Minorities: The Casualties of the War on Drugs -Imani Lowe
The war on drugs is destroying
minority communities. Even though the
mission is to end the illegal drug trade and
with intentions of ending drug abuse to help
our communities, it ruins them instead. The
war on drugs is an ineffective campaign that
needs to be declared a failure because it
disproportionately hurts minority
communities. In studies done by the Drug
Policy Alliance 57 percent of the people
incarcerated for a drug offenses are Black or
Latino, although these groups use and sell
drugs at similar rates as whites.
As a woman who is both Black and a
Latina I feel the impact of the war on drugs
on my community. The policies have
negative consequences to Black and Latino
youth with dreams and aspirations having
their whole life ruined over possession of
some form of narcotics. Studies show that
people of color will experience prejudice
and ultimately injustice throughout the
entire legal process starting from higher
rates of search and seizures all the way to
being convicted more severely at higher
rates . 1
For example a young black man
named Dontrell Stephens was arrested in
Palm Beach County, Florida on drug
charges on September 13th, 2013. Dontrell
1Henderson, Wade. Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System. DIANE Publishing Company, 2000. Print http://www.civilrights.org/publications/justice-on-tria l/race.html In Chapter 1: Race and the Police Henderson discusses how minorities are disproportionately targeted by the police.
is now paralyzed from the waist down after
being shot 4 times by a police officer during
his arrest. Dontrell was unarmed at the time
of the arrest. Dontrell got a win earlier this
year in February when he was awarded 22.4
million dollars for pain and suffering caused
by the officer who a grand jury found guilty
of violating his rights during his arrest . 2
Even with this win he is still at a loss
because his life will forever be changed. The
police brutality shown in his case is the
exact action being protested by the
organization ‘Black Lives Matter’. If we
refuse to acknowledge the negative impact
the war on drugs has particularly on Black
and Latino communities we will be doing a
great disservice to these communities.
2 Musgrave, Jane. Jury: PBSO, deputy at fault; should pay Dontrell Stephens $23 million. My Palm Beach Post. 03 Feb. 2016. http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime- law/jury-could-award-234m-to-dontrell-stephens-in-p bso/nqJMD/ This article provided information on Dontrell Stephens case.
In an examination of federal
immigration data it is recorded that
approximately 250,000 immigrants have 3
been deported from 2008 to 2014 for
nonviolent drug offenses. Raquel Garay is a 4
wife and mother of three children. Raquel
was arrested for possession of a controlled
substance and she was convicted of a felony
and then deported from America. You have
to wonder if the punishment truly fits the
crime while her family is in so much pain
over having their mother ripped away from
them. It is devastating to think her daughter
who is blind will have to live without her
3 "Secure Communities and ICE Deportation: A Failed Program?" Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) - Comprehensive, Independent, and Nonpartisan Information on Federal Enforcement, Staffing and Funding . TRAC Reports Inc, 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2016. This article is where the reports for the deportation of immigrants is being taken from. 4Lee, Brianna. "Immigration Reform: When Deporting Felons Breaks Families Apart." International Business Times . 08 Apr. 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2016. http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-reform-when-d eporting-felons-breaks-families-apart-1872214 This article is where I got the information from formation on Raquel Garay’s situation of immigration.
mother whom she referred to as “her eyes”
or her youngest son that is battling aplastic
anemia has lost the person that was at his
side through many long nights in the
hospital. “When I think of a felon, I think of
somebody who hurts other people, or steals,
she hasn’t done any of those things.” shared
her husband Mario. His sentiment clearly
shows how detrimental our drug control
policies are and how the people affected by
them are calling for a change.
There are positive programs
implemented by the war on drugs. For
example the government spent $9.2 billion
in Federal funds for treatment services for
those with drug problems and accumulated
$1.4 billion spent in outreach programs
aimed at preventing the initial drug use in
adolescence. Regardless of the admirable
action being taken in the war on drugs
campaign, the overall cost to our minority
communities is not worth the benefits. And
the programs the programs implemented by
the war on drugs also are overwhelmingly
unsuccessful in reducing the drug epidemic
in America. According to the Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report, opioid overdoses
have increased by a startling 14% in just one
year from 2014 to 2015 . 5
As professor and author Michelle
Alexander iterates in her book The New Jim
Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness, “The fate of millions of
people—indeed the future of the black
community itself—may depend on the
willingness of those who care about racial
justice to re-examine their basic assumptions
about the role of the criminal justice system
in our society.” Those of us with a voice and
the ability to say something need to take a
5"Increases in Drug and Opioid Overdose Deaths — United States, 2000–2014." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 01 Jan. 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6 450a3.htm This is where the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report data is taken from.
look at how our drug laws and policies are
damaging the Black and Latino
communities. We need to advocate for a
repeal of the War on Drugs.
