Pubdate: Tue, 04 Dec 2012
Source: Edmond Sun, The (OK)
Copyright: 2012 The Edmond Sun
Contact:  http://edmondsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1591
Author: William F. O'brien
Note: WILLIAM F. O'BRIEN is an Oklahoma City attorney.
Page: A4

AUTHOR OUTLINES FAILURE OF WAR ON DRUGS IN UNITED STATES

Michelle Alexander is a law professor at Ohio State University who 
has recently written a book titled "The New Jim Crow: Mass 
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." In that work she argues 
that the national "War on Drugs" has resulted in many African 
American and Latino men being subject to discrimination of the type 
that is similar to the unequal treatment African Americans received 
when legal segregation was the law of the land in most of the states 
in the South.

While the war on drugs was first announced by President Richard Nixon 
in 1970, the author documents how in the 1980s the Reagan 
Administration began to supply local and state law enforcement 
agencies with funding and equipment to target those who used illegal 
drugs. Laws were enacted at both the federal and state level that 
allowed law enforcement agencies to seize monies and property that 
were in the hands of drug dealers, and such seizures have become an 
important revenue stream for those agencies. And while the drug 
kingpins were the supposed targets of the war, it has been those 
charged with possession of small amounts of drugs, many of them 
people of color, who have ended up serving long sentences for their 
violation of drug laws.

Alexander cites studies that show that Americans of all races use 
illegal drugs in roughly equal measure but points out that blacks are 
charged with drug possession at a much greater rate than their white 
counterparts are. The author details that the U.S. now imprisons more 
people than any other nation, and that the majority of those 
incarcerated are blacks and Latinos who are serving sentences for 
drug possession.

Alexander sets forth how the U.S. Congress and many states passed 
laws as part of the War on Drugs that mandate lengthy prison 
sentences for those who plead guilty or are convicted of drug 
possession who have a previous conviction on their record. Even after 
their release those who have served time do not have their full legal 
rights restored to them, and many of them are denied their right to 
vote in many states. Those convicted of drug possession are denied 
access to food stamps and also to public housing as a result of bills 
signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Many employers refuse to 
hire those who have a felony record, which makes it difficult for 
those who have been released from prison to obtain employment.

The issues raised by Alexander have been a matter of concern to 
commentators and leaders throughout the nation. Voters in both 
Colorado and Washington recently have legalized the use of marijuana, 
and those who led the efforts for those measures argued that 
marijuana possession convictions had unfairly stigmatized young black 
and Latino men in those states.

The Oklahoma state Legislature has enacted a law that provides for 
assistance for those who are released from prison that includes job 
training, and employers in the state are being urged to hire former 
inmates by several civic groups in the state.

It may be time to call for a truce in the War on Drugs to allow 
treatment for those who were its casualties.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom