cannabisnews.com: War on Drugs a Crime





War on Drugs a Crime
Posted by FoM on August 25, 2001 at 07:59:52 PT
Editorial
Source: Denver Post
Urban legends spawned by the War on Drugs persist, contributing to racial disparities in arrests and sentencing - disparities that in Colorado often exceed national averages. One hardy perennial holds that crack cocaine is worse than powder, and only blacks smoke crack.Truth is, powder or crack are the same drug containing the same active ingredient, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reports. Anyone can convert powder into crack. 
Crack is as popular with whites as blacks. Whites make up 72 percent of monthly drug users, blacks just 13 percent and Hispanics only 10.5 percent, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported last year. Yet far more blacks are arrested for drug offenses, and their sentences are disproportionately high.These truths hit home hard in Colorado, where one in 19 adult black men is in prison, compared with one in 23 across America. Blacks make up 3.8 percent of the state population but nearly a quarter of its prisoners. Hispanics constitute 17 percent of Coloradans yet 28.5 percent of its inmates.Such statistics have spurred state Rep. Peter Groff, D-Denver, to push for a study on why such disparities exist. A legislative committee will hear his findings Sept. 18 and vote in October on whether to pursue the study. If that fails, Groff will draft legislation.Nationally, the average federal drug sentence for blacks in 1986 was 11 percent higher than for whites.Then the government enacted mandatory sentences for crack - the only drug for which the first offense of possession triggers a mandatory sentence. A person with 5 grams of crack gets five years. Yet first-time possession of any other substance, including powder cocaine, is a misdemeanor netting no more than a year in prison. Thus did the prison population explode, increasing more than 60 percent among blacks, 46 percent among whites and 32 percent among Hispanics between 1990 and 1997, the U.S. Department of Justice reports. By 1990, the average federal drug sentence was 49 percent higher for blacks. For police, arresting poor blacks on a ghetto street corner is far easier than wresting white druggies out of suburban homes. And arresting users anywhere is easier than busting dealers. Only 5.5 percent of all federal crack defendants are high-level dealers. Some police and prosecutors contend that drugs are more rampant among minorities, but the SAMHSA study contradicts that misconception. "The best way for a kid who is caught using or selling drugs to get off is to select a congressman, senator or high-ranking official as one's parent," says U.S. District Judge John L. Kane Jr., a leading opponent of the War on Drugs. Indeed, after the son of U.S. Rep. "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., was found flying an airplane loaded with 400 pounds of marijuana, he was freed on bail but then tested positive for cocaine three times. He wound up getting a mere 21/2 years in prison. Former Education Secretary Richard Riley's son got just six months' house arrest for conspiring to sell cocaine and marijuana, though he had been indicted earlier on charges that can lead to life in prison. Groff's study is desperately needed if Colorado citizens are to be treated fairly and equally. Clearly, while drug abuse is bad, the War on Drugs is worse.Source: Denver Post (CO)Published: Saturday, August 25, 2001 Copyright: 2001 The Denver PostContact: letters denverpost.com Website: http://www.denverpost.com/Related Articles & Web Site:SAMHSAhttp://www.samhsa.gov/US Drug Laws Are 'Racist' http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10700.shtmlAmerica's 'War on Drugs' Looks Unfairly Warped http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10685.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by dddd on August 25, 2001 at 19:04:42 PT
If I got busted bigtime
..I think I would use the insanity defense....It would be insaneto have anything to do with drugs without having a close relativewho is a powerful government official....My uncle Vic was anelected official in Washington State,,,he was also a Grand PotentateMason...I doubt he'd help me though,even if he were still alive.dddd
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Comment #1 posted by Robbie on August 25, 2001 at 09:37:25 PT
It sure is
For police, arresting poor blacks on a ghetto street corner is far easier than wresting white druggies out of suburban homes.I definitely agree with that! You start arresting all the whites who are doing drugs, the drug war would be over lickety split.And, IIRC, the nephew(s) of our current glorious commander-in-lawyer, Mr. Asacroft, got no jail time for a cannabis grow-op that would normally have sent them to the federal pen for 2 years!If the antis realized that half of their families would be arrested if the policing were done equally..."Oh! He doesn't neeeeeed to go to prison...he just needs some treatment. Now get back to that ghetto and arrest some more blacks. They don't deserve the treatment my (son/daughter/brother) gets. And I certainly won't sponsor any kind of legislation that gives money to treatment! It's simply that your tax dollars will pay for my (sister/father/neice) to get the top-level treatment, while I deny it to the less well-off on grounds of my own moral turpitude."
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