POSITION PAPER: Race and the War on Drugs number blacks five to one and color have been a primary target WITH OUR HISTORY both groups use and sell drugs at of anti-drug policies and rhetoric. of racial injustice, the similar rates,2 African-Americans Beginning in the early 1900s, United States cannot comprise: drug warriors invoked the image and should not tolerate of black men high on drugs to laws that systematically • 35% of those arrested for pass the nation’s earliest drug target communities drug possession; laws.8 By 1930, 16 western states of color. Yet, this is • 55% of those convicted for prohibited marijuana as a way to precisely the outcome drug possession; and target the growing Mexican com- of the current War on • 74% of those imprisoned munity that had flooded the U.S. 3 9 Drugs. Even though for drug possession. job market. In 1951, the Boggs drugs remain as Act established stringent nar- This skewed enforcement cotics penalties in response to the available as ever, we of drug laws has a devastating threat of “communist opium” are continuing policies impact. One in three black men from Asia.10 In 1973, with a man- that have a devastating between the ages of 20 and 29 are date from the public to “get tough effect on African- currently either on probation, on crime,” New York enacted the American and Latino parole, or in prison. One in five Rockefeller drug laws, requiring communities. The time black men have been convicted severe prison terms for drug has come to reverse of a felony. In seven states, crimes regardless of circum- course in a disastrous, between 80% and 90% of prison- stance. A quarter century later, ineffective, and racist ers serving time for drug offenses 94% of all people in prison in WAR ON DRUGS. are black.4 New York state on drug charges The statistics for the Latino are black or Latino.11 population are equally disturb- By the 1980s, the link Who’s Who in the Criminal ing. Latinos comprise 12.5% of between minorities, drugs, and Justice System the population5 and use and sell crime was firmly cemented in Today, black males have a drugs less than whites,6 yet they American rhetoric and embodied 29% chance of serving time in accounted for 46% of those in President Reagan’s revamped prison at some point in their charged with a federal drug “War on Drugs.” Media hysteria lives, Latino males have a 16% offense in 1999.7 about an unsubstantiated crack chance, and white males have a epidemic amongst blacks 4% chance.1 How Did We Get Here? prompted Congress to pass dra- Even though whites out- Historically, people of conian mandatory minimum sen- DRUG POLICY LITIGATION PROJECT tencing laws against crack 1998, 51,000 people were select- cocaine. Penalties against pow- ed for body searches ranging U.S. DRUG der cocaine – the same drug but from hand frisks to strip-searches typically associated with white by immigration officials at cus- POLICIES users – remained relatively light. toms checkpoints. 96% of those THROUGHOUT Even though most crack users searches yielded nothing; two- and dealers are white, this “crack thirds of the people selected were THE YEARS equals black” formula distorted black or Latino.17 prosecutions. By 2001, over On the streets of our cities, 1870s – After building the 80% of federal crack defendants young minorities are routinely railroads, the Chinese were were black.12 stopped for Terry frisks, named viewed as a glut on the labor after a Supreme Court ruling stat- market. As anti-Chinese • Possession of 500 grams of ing that police do not need a war- sentiment grew, the San POWDER cocaine results rant or even probable cause to Francisco Opium Ordinance in a 5-year prison term. stop and search individuals as punished opium smokers, • Possession of 5 grams of long as there exists a reasonable the majority of whom were CRACK cocaine results in cause for suspicion. In New York Chinese. a 5-year prison term.13 City, between 1998 and 1999, the police recorded 45,000 such 1914 – The Harrison Narcotic Law enforcement practices stops, 35,000 of which yielded Act regulated the manufac- fuel racial inequalities in the nothing. Two-thirds of the people ture of narcotics. However, criminal justice system. Over the selected were black and Latino.18 law enforcement used the years, the Drug Enforcement A very clear incentive law to arrest physicians for Administration (DEA) has exists for police departments to prescribing narcotics. helped train police to profile engage in racial profiling. Civil 1930 – By 1915, over 500,000 highway travelers for potential asset forfeiture laws allow police Mexicans had flooded the drug couriers.14 This profile is to seize and sell property without U.S. border and job market, based on associating people of proving its guilt and keep a por- bringing marijuana with color with crime, creating a phe- tion of the assets for themselves. them. In response to growing nomenon known as “driving In fact, police departments are anti-Mexican sentiment, by while black or brown.” In now dependent on forfeiture rev- 1930, 16 western states Maryland, for instance, although enues in order to match funds for had prohibited the sale or only 21% of drivers along a federal grants and for regular possession of marijuana. stretch of Interstate 95 are operational costs, including the minorities including blacks, salaries of the very police offi- 1951 – America was warned Latinos, Asians, and others, 80% cers that are responsible for the that the real menace was not of those who are pulled over and seizures.19 By targeting minority communist troops, but rather searched are people of color.15 In communities whose voices and communist opium. In California, between 80% and political power are marginalized, response, the U.S. quickly 90% of all motorists arrested by law enforcement agencies can passed the Boggs Act, law enforcement officials since exploit the power of forfeiture establishing the most 1991 have been members of without many Americans ever stringent narcotics penalties minority groups.16 These statis- learning of the practice. in U.S. history. tics are not the product of chance, In addition to these prac- 1970 – Civil asset forfeiture but of purpose and can be found tices, overzealous local prosecu- laws allow police to seize throughout the country. tors and judges with minimal “guilty” property from ➤ But racial profiling is not discretion in the sentencing just limited to our highways. In process exacerbate the situation. RACE AND THE WAR ON DRUGS Texas, for instance, has seen likely to be drug tested or many racial exploits related to reported to child welfare agen- ➤ citizens who have not been the War on Drugs. In the rural cies than white women. Before convicted of, or even charged town of Tulia in 1999, 12% of this practice was struck down by with, a crime. the adult male African-American the Supreme Court, one public population was arrested on drug hospital in South Carolina selec- 1973 – New York passed the charges based solely on the word tively drug tested pregnant black Rockefeller Drug Laws, of an undercover officer who women and reported positive some of the harshest drug offered no hard evidence. In tests to police who then arrested penalties in the U.S. As a 2000, 15% of young black males them, forcing many to give birth result, blacks and Latinos in the town of Hearne were in shackles before taking them currently comprise about arrested in a drug sweep based to jail.23 94% of the drug offenders in solely on the word of an inform- The effects drug war poli- New York state prisons. ant who had agreed to implicate cies have on children are devas- 1982 – President Ronald targeted individuals. All of these tating. Today, 1.6 million chil- Reagan launched the “War on men were innocent. Just one year dren have a father in prison and Drugs,” a political campaign later, dozens of Mexicans and 200,000 children have a mother to gain voter support by Mexican-Americans were arrest- in prison. Black children are “getting tough on drugs.” ed in what has been dubbed as nearly 9 times more likely, and the “Dallas Sheetrock Scandal.” Latino children 3 times more 1984 – The Sentencing Tests later showed that some of likely to have a parent in prison Reform Act removes judges’ drugs in question were really than white children.24 Children, discretion in the sentencing ground-up sheet-rock, planted by too, are trapped within the crimi- process. informants.20 nal justice system. Though youth of all races use and sell drugs at 1986-1988 – The Anti-Drug Women and Children similar rates, minority youth rep- Abuse Act imposes harsh Women as mothers, girl- resent 60% to 75% of drug sentences for crack cocaine friends, wives, and individuals arrests today. In fact, black youth possession, while powder are especially vulnerable to drug are incarcerated 25 times the rate cocaine remains a lower war injustices. Many women are of white youth; Latino youth, 13 offense. Additionally, a “one- coerced into the drug trade by a times the rate of their white strike” law allows public boyfriend or husband, often play counterparts.25 housing officials to evict only a small role, but then residents if drugs are found receive the same harsh prison Collateral Consequences anywhere on the premise, terms. Between 1986 and 1996, The War on Drugs does even if the residents are the number of women incarcer- more than fill our prisons. Drug unaware of the drug use or ated for drug offenses increased war policies permeate every facet try to stop it.