Get smart about the war on drugs

Worley, Willie, Jr. (Intelligence Journalist)

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Get Smart About the War on Drugs Politicians and law enforcement officials today rarely endorse racially biased practices, and most of them fiercly condemn racial discrimination of any kind. Although that sounds politically correct, in all actuality it's political fiction. President Ronald Reagan officially announced the "war on drugs" in 1982. The majority of illegal drug users and dealers nationwide are white, three-fourths of all people imprisoned for drug offenses have been black or latino. African Americans are incarcerated at grossly disproportionate rates throughout the United States. A study in 2000 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that white students use cocaine at seven times the rate of black students, use crack cocaine at eight times the rate of black students, and use heroin at seven times the rate of black students. The National Household Survey on drug abuse reported in 2000 that white youth age 12-17 are more than a third more likely to have sold illegal drugs than African American youth. Human Rights Watch 2000 report says that African Americans were being arrested and imprisoned at unprecedented rates, government data revealed that blacks were no more likely to be guilty of drug crimes than whites and that white youth were actually the most likely of any racial or ethnic group to be guilty of illegal drug possession and sales. Also white youth have about three times the number of drug-related emergency room visits as their African American counterparts. The War on Drugs is really the War on Blacks in this nation. The main weapon is Jim Crow laws as you see. The mission is mass-incarceration and the continuity of legalized slavery. Willie Worley Jr. National Intelligence for African American Communities Reproduction of this flier is granted.

Author: Worley, Willie, Jr. (Intelligence Journalist)

Author Location: North Carolina

Date: 2016

Genre: Essay

Extent: 2 pages

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