Drug Law Enforcement Among Minorities in US

8/10/2019 Drug Law Enforcement Among Minorities in US

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Christian Fabian Soc 220/302

First Draft Due April 9, 2012

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First Final Draft Due May April 109, 2012

Disparities in Drug Policy and Drug Law Enforcement Among Blacks and Whites inthe U.S.

Several tactics used to combatThe war on drugs in America, particularly those in

the drug law enforcement department, in America are controversial in that they have the

potential to target certain individualsis surrounded b y debate . This effort to reduce drug

availability and usage in the United States is known as the war on drugs , a term coined

by president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. On the one han d, While it may serves as a plan

to rid the streets of crime and other illegal activities, but on the other it is also said to

create s an obstacleobstacles that prevent s certain minorities, namely African Americans,

from progressing in this country. Disparities in drug policy and drug law enforcement

among several ethnicBlacks groups of the United States generate problems, which affect s

this group the minorities as much as itwell as affects the rest of the population. These

problems range from incarceration disproportions, un fair drug testing, and drug laws that

are seemingly directed at African Americans. In terms of the general population, average

costs to Americans for enforcing drug laws are on a rise, and their privacy rights at stake.

Existing drug policies are now well over 30 years old with very few marks to show

they ve changed. For many over thirty years calls for reform have been made, but the

contentious nature of the debate has continued to obstruct them.

Background: Beginnings of Modern Drug Policies

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Given that African American adults are four times as likely as whites and nearly

2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control one must wond er why

how such disproportions occur (citationWarren 2009:5 ). Of course, it s not easy to get a

clear answer, but a careful analysis of the origins of the war on drug lawss leadss us in

the right direction. Not surprisingly the eE arly drug laws policies contained explicit racial

bias, specifically against African Americans, Chinese, and Mexi cans (Grim 2011) . The

narcotic scare after the American Civil Wars, on top of racial motives to suppress the

opium-smoking Chinese railroad workers in California, resulted in a country with a need

to regulate those drugs. Feelings toward opiates quickly turned bitter in 1912, which led

the United States to join the Hague Opium Convention in an effort to control the

production and distribution of opium. Shortly after, in 191 4, the United States drafted its

own law, the Harrison Narcotic Act, in order to stop the sales of opium and cocaine, as

well as to block access to heroin and opium . The racially motivated fear this time was

that African Americans were believed to commit crimes while high on cocaine. Yet

another example of racial prejudice took place in 1937 when the Marijuana Tax Act was

passed marijuana use was common among Mexicans in the Southwest and banning it

clearly put a target on their backs (Cooper 2000:606) .

It s worth noting the biased early stages of th ise war on drugs because it set the

stage for what was to co me in later years. It s also equally important to examine the

changes in drug policy between the Nixon and Clinton administrations. First, there was a

clear shift from favoring rehabilitation to incarceration as sentences. By 1995 only a third

of the federal budget to combat drugs was going towards the trea tment of offenders and

prevention programs , compared to the Ford (1974-77) and Carter (1977-81)

Comment [PA2]: Im loving the historical background.


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administrations who dedicated nearly half of the federal drug budget to prevention and

treatment (Cooper 2000:608) . Second, an immense increase in federal budget had to be

made in order to accommodate all the people that were going to jail as a result of harsher

drug laws, like such as the 1973 Rockefeller mandatory-sentencing laws , which made

selling small amounts of heroin or cocaine a Class B felony and brought 15 year to life

with no possibility of parole. . Additionally, according to the National Institute on Drug

Abuse (1998), the average cost attributed to increased drug law enforcement, extra health

care, and lost wages to American society steadily climbed from $44.1 billion in 1985 to

$109.8 in 1995. Lastly, tight regulation of marijuana indirectly led to a fierce crack

cocaine market in the United States (Cooper 2000:609). The latter effect is especially

significant when discussing racial bias in drug law enforcement the next section will

come back to this idea..

The Issues: Impact on Black America

Critics of the drug law enforcement and the war on drugs often use the alcohol

prohibition example the a result of 1919 s 18 th Amendment to illustrate how futile

regulation efforts can be. Despite this obvious example of failure, the United States

government insisted in having regulation policiescontinuing to enforce it . The result then

and in the war on drugs is a hyperactive, meddling force, which currently operates

domestically as well as internationally. This force can be categorized into four sectors:

dDomestic law enforcement, international drug enforcement, interdiction efforts at U.S.

borders, and treatment, prevention, and research. Of the four sectors, domestic law

enforcement, which receives forty-nine percent of the $18.5 billion federal drug budget,




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is the one that causes the disproportionate numbers in drug-related arrests (Cooper

2000:608) .

Human rights organizations, such as the Human Rights Watch, and the minorities

affected, particularly the Black community , don t hesitate to protest against the injustices

that result from racial prejudice in enforcing drug laws. John McWhorter (2011), an

associate professor of linguistics at the University of California , Berkeley and a

contributing editor to the Manhattan Institutes City Journal , directly blames the war on

drugs for throwing a disproportionally large number of Black men in jail. According to

him, the war on drugs creates a vicious circle that tricks young Black men into seeking

illegal employment typically selling drugs because of their high prices and therefore

putting them oin a path that leads directly to jail. He goes on to argue that the impact on

poor and working-class African Americans is tremendous, stating that seeing a man and

a woman raising their children together is, of all things, an unusual sight . (p. 2).

McWhorter is not far from the truth considering that out of the 25.4 million adult drug-

related arrests between 1980 and 2007, a third of them were Black (Fellner 2009:4) . It s

an even more shocking statistic when you bear in mind that the Bblack population only

accounted for approximately thirteen percent of the total U.S. population during that

period.

It goes without sayingPeople from the Black community, such as McWhorter,

would argue that those disparities in drug law enforcement don t come about randomly

and that. aAt some point in the process of arresting a Black individual, there had to have

been a slight chance of discrimination. In fact, McWhorter does support this point by

saying that the only way to comprehend the incarceration disproportions is to believe in

Comment [PA3]: Nice interest groups

Comment [PA4]: Nice use of a source


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an America with a War on Drugs that forces cops to pay special attention to young black

men (p. 4). This clearly puts into question the fairness of strategies used in the war on

drugs. DDrug testing, the primary weapon used to combat drug abuse, is controversial in

that it has the potential to be racially biased, while at the same time putting the general

public s privacy at stake (Koch 1998:1009). Hair testing, for instance, is four times more

likely to find a drug user than urinalysis, but can be racially biased because people with

coarse black hair, such as African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics, tend to show higher

concentrations on the test than what a person with lighter hair would.

The judicial justice system is yet another potential spot for racial biasprejudice in

drug law enforcement. Kevin B. Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy, an

advocacy group in Washington, D.C., illustrates this argument by saying that, if you

look at the incarceration of drug offenders through a racial prism, you ll see that the Ku

Klux Klan couldn t come up with a policy more damaging to the black community than

the drug war (Cooper 2000:612). A report on racial disparities in the justice system is in

agreement with Zeese because as it point out, racial disparity in sentencing, mandatory

minimum sentencing laws are, in fact, engines of racial injustice (Weich et al.

2000:209).

As stated earlier, the crack cocaine market and racial bias in drug law

enforcement are closely related, reason being that African Americans primarily use this

smokable form of cocaine. Another important point to make here is that critics often

concur that the crack cocaine market and racial bias in drug laws are closely related.

Specifically, laws that demand mandatory sentences, such as tT he Omnibus Anti-Drug

Abuse Act of 1988 , which make s mandatory sentences for those who simply posses crack

Comment [PA5]: I like this relevant illustration of your central argument

Comment [PA6]: Great quotation

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cocaine, are seen by such critics as being aimed towards clearly giving African

American s and other minorities of color. An American Civil Rights Union report

discussing this issue arrives at a similar conclusion by observing that although there are

more white cocaine users, national drug enforcement and prosecutorial policies and

practices have resulted in inner city communities of color bein g targeted almost

exclusively (Vagins et al. 2006:7). a disadvantage (and a major one too considering that

possessing only 50 grams of crack cocaine can give you a mandatory-minimum sentence

of 10 years in prison).

Kevin B. Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy, an advocacy group

in Washington, D.C. shows his disapproval by saying that, if you look at the

incarceration of drug offenders through a racial prism, you ll see that the Ku Klux Klan

couldn t come up with a policy more damaging to the black community than the drug

war. Additionally, several critics of the war on drugscurrent drug policy , including Peter

Kerr, a spokesman for Phoenix House , a leading nonprofit provider of substance abuse

services, , denounce the 1973 Rockefeller mandatory-sentencing laws which make

selling small amounts of heroin or cocaine a Class B felony and brings 15 year to life

with no possibility of parole as nonsensical. The reason for making this claim, he

argues, is because they don t give judges the power to, well, judge. He later adds, Aa

judge has to see whether this is a crim inal who s made a for tune out of dealing drugs or a

young person who s gotte n snared into an addiction and could use treatment . (Cooper

2000:612) .

Thankfully, the general public is not blind to these injustices. Even the

supporters of the war on drugs admit that there are many strategies that must be re-

Comment [PA7]: Great quotation


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evaluated or restructured they do not want to stop the war on drugs by any means, but

they do want to take a look at alternatives to combating drug abuse. Charles Murray,

author of In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Govern ment , is one such supporter, who

just wishes to take a less intrusive and much smarter appr oach to fighting the drug war.

He argues that the government is simply trying to meet quotas, but completely misses the

point of fighting the war on drugs in the first place. Through that argu ment, he

encourages the reader to redefine what he/she would consider a success, only to later

lay the responsibility on the individual s hands. According to Murray, letting individuals

choose how drug-free of an environment they want to live in will lead to a natural decline

in drug use within the communities that actually want to be drug free. He concludes his

article by saying that to win the war on drugs is not necessarily that the drug abusers

become criminals, only that they be made outcasts. In the natural course of eve nts,

school, employees, and communities will do this (1990:25). Alternatives like this one

take care of many of the flaws in current drug law enforcement; however, these types of

ideas have yet to be implemented.

A number of critics, including McWhorter and Zeese, see drug laws as being

outright racist. For instance, the way Zeese denounces drug policy (i.e. comparing these

laws to something the Ku Klux Klan could have come up with) proves this argument.

Furthermore, these critics are mostly interested in repealing mandatory-sentencing laws

because they deem them as the source of disparities in drug law enforcement. Lastly, it

should be noted that the Black community has a variety resources, like supporters form

human rights organizations, civil rights unions, Black leaders, and substance abuse

centers, most of whom fight for equality and justice.


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Opposition to Reform Drug Law Enforcement

On the other extreme, you have supporters of current drug laws that see no flaws

in the current system. Peter Bensinger (2011), administrator of the U.S. Drug

Enforcement Administration from 1976 to 1981 and director of the Illinois Department of

Corrections from 1970-1973, claims, Drugs are not as available as they were 40 years

ago, and [that] fewer people are dying of heroin overdose deaths. He also dismisses the

criticism about overpopulating prisons with individuals charged with simple drug

possession. It s important to note that he made no mention of racial disparities found in

drug law enforcement. Communications director of the White House's Office of National

Drug Control Policy, Rafael Lamaitre, also reports, "Drug use in America is half of what

it was 30 years ago, cocaine production in Colombia has dropped by almost two-thirds,

and we re successfully diverting thousands of nonviolent offenders into treatment instead

of jail by supporting alternatives to incarceration" (Malcolm 2011). Obviously this claim

is in disagreement with what the critics of current drug policies are saying, but when you

consider the international resources (i.e. other governments who are in accord with U.S.

drug policy, like Columbia) and the data compiled by various government departments it

becomes hard to disprove such statements. On top of that, Lamaitre criticizes alternatives

to the war on drugs, such as decriminalization, because he believes they will fail to

uphold the safety of our communities. Again he assimilates the values Americans want

see in any policy, and emphasizes what they can lose should they choose not support the

war on drugs.



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In terms of power and resources, the U.S. government is the obvious winner. In

fact, the war on drugs is a resource in itself according to Christina J. Johns, an associate

professor in the graduate program for Criminology at Alaba ma State University. Johns

(1992) says the drug policy is considered a success by the government because it s very

effective at creating a diversion to bigger social problems in the United States this

includes some of the racial prejudice haunting the social structure of the country.

Additionally, she argues that the United States is using the war on drugs as a way to

legitimize its expansion of power over everyone s civil liberties.

It s the opposite for Black America, who in fact lack s resources and power.

McWhorter, believing African Americans have insufficient representation on the subject

stated that there are no national black leaders today who have this kind of influence over

a significant portion of black people, and there is simply no chance that the NAACP

would preach in a constructive fashion any time soon, if ever (2011:2). By analyzing

McWhorter s statement it s clear that Black America feels like its only support is coming

from outside organization, such as human rights organizations and other opponents of

current drug policies, like activists seeking to restructure incarceration policies, or those

who simply feel like drug policies are a violation of their civil liberties.

Outlook

The general public is not blind to these issues. Even some supporters of the war

on drugs admit that there are many strategies that must be re-evaluated or restructured

they do not want to stop the war on drugs by any means, but they do want to take a look

at alternatives for combating drug abuse. Charles Murray, author of In Pursuit: Of


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Happiness and Good Government , is one such supporter, who just wishes to take a less

intrusive and smarter approach to fighting the drug war. He argues that the government is

simply trying to meet quotas and completely misses the point of fighting the war on drugs

in the first place. Through that argument, he encourages the reader to redefine what

he/she would consider a success, only to later lay the responsibility on the individual s

hands. According to Murray (1990), letting individuals choose how drug-free of an

environment they want to live in will lead to a natural decline in drug use within the

communities that actually want to be drug-free. He concludes his article by saying that

to win the war on drugs is no t necessarily that the drug abusers become criminals, only

that they be made outcasts. In the natural course of events, school, employees, and

communities will do this (p. 25). Alternatives like this one take care of many of the

flaws in current drug law enforcement; however, these types of ideas have yet to be

implemented.

Conclusions

UndoubtedlyCurrent, current drug lapolicies w enforcement haves many some

flaws, one of thema major one being the potential to be racially biased against African

Americans. If the war on drugs keeps operating with the same set of rules, this ethnic

group stands to lose a lot, including the 50 years of progress towards equalitylife, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness . What Black America needs are more resources, like leaders

who are likely to have a mass effect on the population or simply more supporters.

Unfortunately, the outloo k on the issues isn t very promising for the Black community

seeing as there is limited campaign support for drug law enforcement reforms in fact, it

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seems like most candidates consistently avoid this topic as a political hot potato.

Furthermore, changes in policy need to have a significant effect on the issues not just

minor drops in incarceration numbers for African Americans. Perhaps emphasizing that

helping Black America is means helping all of America would encourage policy makers

to finally reform drug laws. One should cherish what Franklin D. Roosevelt once said:

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it and try another. But above all, try

something.

Annotated BibliographyPro:Bensinger, Peter. 2011. "War on Drugs a Success." Chicago Sun-Times, June 10.

Johns, C. J. 1992. "Power, Ideology, and the War on Drugs: Nothing Succeeds LikeFailure." Abstract. NCJRS Abstracts :218.

Annotation: Success and failures of drug policies are used to justify the war ondrugs. Success and failure, both lead to better strategies, more resources, andimproved coordination. Media portrayal of the issue is often misleading; the resultsof drug policy might not be directly evident or directly related to actual drug use.The author believes it masks other social problems in the U.S. (i.e. it serves adiversion for bigger problems). Also, it s for everyone s benefit if the war on drugscontinues, as opposed to legalizing drugs. This reference is helpful in that it has a

positive outlook in most aspects of drug policy something not easily found inother sources I researched. This type of opinion is unique, and should helpcharacterize the debate. Value claims are important here.

Malcolm, Andrew. 2011. "White House says the War is Working - War on Drugs." LosAngeles Times. Los Angeles Times - Top of the Ticket . Retrieved March 17, 2012(http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/06/white-house-urged-by-world-leaders-to-end-the-war-on-drugs.html ).

Annotation: The White House claims that the war on drugs is successful, citing

statistics which promise reduction in drug consumption, reduction in illegal dug

imports, and use of alternative sentencing, namely treatment over prison. The

article also presents data on government funding for the war on drugs (e.g. 7.9%

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increase in budget for drug prevention programs in 2010). This resource will be

helpful because it provides a factual claim made by the government, which is a big

deal since it carries a lot of credibility and power. Overall, the article provides the

politics involved in this debate, which my other sources are lacking .

Murray, Charles. 1990. "How to Win the War on Drugs." The New Republic 202(21):19.

Con: Drug Courts Are Not the Answer: Toward a Health-Cen tered Approach to Drug

Use. 2011. New York, NY: Drug Policy Alliance.

Bobo, Lawrence D. and Devon Johnson. 2004. "A TASTE FOR PUNISHMENT: Blackand White Americans' Views on the Death Penalty and the War on Drugs." DuBois Review 1(1):pp 151-180.

Cooper, Mary H. 2000. "Drug-Policy Debate, Is There Too Much Emphasis on LawEnforcement?" The CQ Researcher 10(26):593-624.

Annotation: This journal article covers all aspects of the war on drugs. It begins by describing the history of drug policy, then it goes o n to present statistics fordrug abuse. A major issue discussed at length in this article is that of prison vs.treatment in other words, should drug policy punish drug abusers by sendingthem to prison or helping them become sober? The article also presents statistics infunding and where all that money goes. In page 612-613 the article focuses on thedisparities found when analyzing prison and arrest data. This journal article isuseful because it fulfills the first part of my strategy read a neutral article ,which

presents the debate without having much bias. Additionall y, this article provides avast amount of statistical data, which can be used to make argument in my paper.

Moreover, the article provides other sources for further reading. Fellner, Jamie. 2009. Decades of Disparity Drug Arrests and Race in the United States.

New York, NY: Human Rights Watch.

Grim, Ryan. 2011. "Ron Paul: Drug War in U.S. Has Racist Origins ."The Huffington Post . Retrieved March 11, 2012 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ron- paul-drugs-drug-war_n_1170878.html ).

Guerino, Paul, Paige M. Harrison and William J. Sabol. 2011. Prisoners in 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

Koch, Kathy. 1998. "Drug Testing, Does it deter drug abuse?" The CQ Researcher

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ron-paul-drugs-drug-war_n_1170878.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ron-paul-drugs-drug-war_n_1170878.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ron-paul-drugs-drug-war_n_1170878.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ron-paul-drugs-drug-war_n_1170878.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ron-paul-drugs-drug-war_n_1170878.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ron-paul-drugs-drug-war_n_1170878.html


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8(43):1001-1024.

Males, Mike. 2011. Misdemeanor marijuana arrests are skyrocketing a nd otherCalifornia marijuana enforcement disparities. San Francisco, CA: Center onJuvenile and Criminal Justice.

McWhorter, John. 2011. "How the War on Drugs Is Destroying Black America." Cato's Letter 9(1):1-7.

Schuessler, Jennifer. 2012. "Drug Policy as Race Policy: Best Seller Galvanizes theDebate." New York Times, March 7, The Arts/Cultural Desk.

Annotation: Schuessler talks about Michelle Alexander s book, The New JimCrow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness . In Alexander s book,there is evidence complied to make the argument that the war on drugs hasdevastated Black America. She also makes the argument that the criminal justicesystem is being used to counter the gains of the civil rights movement. Otherdetails discussed are the effects of the war on drugs on Black individuals, such as

job discrimination, elimination from juries, and res triction on public housing andstudent loans. This is a review and response to Alexander s book, which is veryhelpful because it s contents reflect what other people think of the debate in otherwords, it gives me an idea of how others, particularly white readers, react to theissue. This source will allow me to make factual claims, while also providing mewith point of views representative of the interest groups.

Smith, Phillip. 2009. "Race: Black Arrested on Drug Charges in Wildly Disproportionate Numbers, Rights Group Charges." Drug War Chronicle, March 0 65,, 2009 .

Vagins, Deborah and Jesselyn McCurdy. 2006. Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of theUnjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law . American Civil Liberties Union.

Warren, Jenifer. 2009. One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections .Washington, DC: Pew Center on the States.

Weich, Ronald and Carlos Angulo. 2000. Justice On Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System .Warren, Jenifer. 2009. One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections. Washington, DC: Pew Center on the States.





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Drug Law Enforcement Among Minorities in US