From: [REDACTED] at [blythe.org] (Workers World Service)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: The Govt & the "War on Drugs"
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 15:39:09 EDT


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


THE GOVERNMENT AND THE 'WAR ON DRUGS'

By Manuel Davidson

In the current struggle against drugs, the U.S. government claims
it's conducting a war on drugs. But a recent USA Today series
called "Is The Drug War Racist?" (July 23-27) exposed the federal
government's so-called "war" as a racist assault on people of
color.

In other words, the government is carrying out a drug war against
the oppressed community.

USA Today pointed out that African Americans are four times more
likely to be arrested on drug charges than whites. In at least 30
major cities--from Little Rock, Ark., to Yonkers, N.Y., Peoria,
Ill., and Lubbock, Texas--African Americans are 10 times more
likely to be arrested on drug charges than whites, despite the fact
that drug use is the same for both groups.

"It just shows how deep racism is institutionalized in American
criminal justice," said Sen. Jesse Jackson of Washington. Rep.
Charles Rangel, who heads the House Narcotic Abuse Caucus, said,
"It's racist, that's the bottom line."

Drug use is a serious problem crossing socio-economic lines. But
the federal government's "policy" for the past decade has been
based on a lock-em-up mentality with little emphasis on treatment
or prevention.

Federal "anti-drug" spending soared from $1.2 billion in 1981 to
$12 billion by 1992. However, only one-third was used for treatment
and prevention.

Most funding was used for elite paramilitary operations such as
Operation Pressure Point in New York City, Operation Thunderbolt in
Memphis, Tenn., Operation Hammer in Los Angeles, and Operation
Caribbean Cruise in Washington.

Police brass contend it's much cheaper to target people in poor
communities than in the suburbs. They claim drug use is much
"easier" to spot there.

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese, a leading architect of the
"war on drugs" program under Ronald Reagan, cynically denied racism
is a factor in most drug arrests. But he admitted, "The disparity
is something nobody likes to see."

"It's just astonishing," says Allen Webster, president of the
National Bar Association, an African American legal group.
"Basically it's a war against minorities."

"I guarantee you I can get arrested for driving in certain
neighborhoods in this city at certain times of the day," says civil
rights lawyer Steven Belton of Minneapolis. "They're not stopping
expensive luxury cars with white male drivers over 40."

In Seattle three African American youths were harassed by the
city's "anti-drug jump-out squad" after being involved in a minor
traffic accident. A Latino construction worker in Utah was
repeatedly pulled over in the past three years just for driving a
Cadillac.

What's really needed to fight drug abuse and crime is a program for
creating good-paying jobs with decent benefits for the millions who
are unemployed, especially oppressed youths.

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World,
55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011; via e-mail: [REDACTED] at [blythe.org.])


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