Communities of color are portrayed as drug handlers when in actuality there is an estimate of about 80 million Caucasian drug users compared to 10 million African American lifetime drug users according to the Substance of Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Fellner 267). Although one would argue that “the white population is six times greater than the black population, the absolute number of white drug offenders is far greater than that of black drug offenders” (Fellner 266). With this, Jamie Fellner, Senior Counsel for the United States Program of Human Rights Watch, argues that the black population are more accused than the white population even though there are far more white drug offenders (Fellner 266). But, with racial dynamics and social media’s part in shaping of what a drug offender would appear like, most would not picture a white middle-class man snorting cocaine. More black drug offenders are being prosecuted than white drug offenders because of the color of their skin. Because of this, “race has been and remains inextricably involved in drug law enforcement, shaping the public perception of and response to the drug problem” (Fellner 261). Law enforcement should deter racial injustice in their communities by making it aware that racial discrimination is existent and reevaluate their own views when approached with the situation because the drug war has fabricated overwhelmingly unequal outcomes across racial groups.
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared a war on drugs. Ronald Reagan promised a well-organized and thought out campaign and targeted the issue directly. Appealing to pathos, Reagan treated the drug problem in the United States like a war. What President Reagan amplified on was anti-drug spending by limiting easy access to drug trading and he also increased law enforcement punishments when caught with illegal substances. Reagan also implemented increasing drug testing at contracts. Kenneth Nunn explains in his article, Race, Crime, and the Pool of Surplus Criminality: or Why the ‘War on Drugs’ was a ‘War on Blacks’, that there is an assumption among people who directly categorize African Americans as the problem for the Drug War. There was a “launched public relations campaign designed to change the public perception of drug use and the threat posed by illegal drugs. The focus of this public relations campaign was a new rhetorical approach that was required to demonize drugs and ostracize drug users” by the Reagan Administration (Nunn 387). President Reagan desired to make illegal drug use aware to the United States. Nunn clarifies that the War on Drugs needs to be understood and taken initiative of.
When Reagan declared war on drugs, there was an alteration in drug culture in the United States. Kenneth Nunn explains that “the country was moving from a period of relative liberalism that included skepticism toward government and authority and an emphasis on personal freedoms, to a period of relative conservatism that included respect for government and authority and an emphasis on personal responsibility” (388). What Nunn emphasizes is that the country was slowly transitioning to obeying and caring for the country, rather than doubting what the government can do. Relating the United States appearance back to Fellners’ view, one of the largest problems to this day is racial discrimination among illegal drug users. In Figure 1, data collected by the Human Rights Watch by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, this shows the arrest rates between the black population and white population (Fellner 272). In this
Figure 1: Rates of Adult Drug Arrest by Race, 1980-2007
(arrests per 100,000 adult residents of each race)
(Figure 1), the black arrest rates are significantly higher than white arrest rates from 1980 to 2007. The importance of this graph (Figure 1) represents racial discrimination because although there are knowingly more white drug users than black drug users, the numbers of black offenders’ arrests are disproportionately greater. This has led to the perception of the appearance of a drug offender yet the racial lines discrete if sought out.
In Katherine Beckett’s article, Race, Drugs, and Law Enforcement, she discusses the racial discernment in drug arrests in Seattle, Washington. With the primary focus on cocaine, also known as crack, Beckett claims that “drug law enforcement involves institutional practices over which police officials have much discretion; alternatives to aggressive enforcement exist” (651). In this, Beckett explains “racial disparity” which is the inequality between white drug offenders and black drug offenders’ arrests. In the War on Marijuana in Black and White
published by the American Civil Liberties Union, this report found that “a Black person is 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates” (4). This racial discrepancy possessed a huge threat to communities of color because the war on drugs was targeted towards a specific race. This led to the view of a Black person as the face of drugs when the possession from whites were ignored. From this, “the criminal justice system [casted] a wide net over marijuana use and possession by Blacks, it [had] turned a comparatively blind eye to the same conduct occurring at the same rates in many white communities” (“The War on Marijuana in Black and White” 10). The black community served as the surface of the drug war while white communities were excluded and this was a huge discrepancy.
In order to draw racial lines across illegal drug users, one must know the rough proportionate as to who is using. Pradip Muhuri, a statistician at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and part of the administration in the ADS Center program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, assesses the relationship of “lifetime use of illegal from five classes (marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, and inhalants” among adults in the United States (US) household population” (155). Muhuri illustrates the effects of using the five classes of drugs does to the body “from injecting drugs; cardiovascular disease due to cocaine use, mental and behavioral disorders due to use of psychoactive substances; pregnancy complications, low birth weight, and short gestation due to maternal use of drugs” (155). Overall, the results from long-term illegal drug use among adults continued into their senior years was of major concern (Muhuri 163). The Mortality Associated with Illegal Drug use among Adults in the United States justifies that the study is slightly flawed
because some drug users, who were participants, may have died before the survey was conducted and that there was further analysis that needed to be done (Muhuri 160). In this study, Muhuri found that in total between black and nonblack mortality rates, there were 2,999 and 17,984 respectively dead due to the lifetime illegal drug use (158). These five classes of drugs are highly addictive which is the reason as to why the mortality rate was high.
The solitary reason behind the drug war is because cocaine and heroin are extremely addictive drugs. Drugs are chemicals that affect the brain by interfering with the way the neurons normally send, receive, and process information. Neurons are cell transmitting nerve pulses that talks to neurotransmitters in order for the body to respond. Heroin activates these neurons because their chemical structure mimics a neurotransmitter. A neurotransmitter is a chemical constituent that is unconfined when activated by a nerve impulse from the neuron. This chemical message tells the body how to respond and releases a variety of pleasure signals. Dopamine is the core pleasure signal that is released when a drug stimulus is introduced and once it is released, cocaine or heroin begin blocking receptors in the brain. The phrase, “not even once,” is imperative because when one uses drugs, the receptors of the chemical signals commence blocking. So one will not feel the sense of pleasure the very first time they used drugs which causes the continual use and leads to addiction.
Illegal drug use was popular and easy to reproduce but what are the societal forces that influence a drug dealer? Randol Contreras obtained a PhD in Sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He studied the drug market in the neighborhood he was born in which was South Bronx. Contreras’s purpose was to reveal and explain the suffering in urban areas. It was of the age during the Crack Era that he found his call to action which was in the field work. The “Stickup Kids” were Dominican drug robbers and these men raided and brutally tortured drug dealers in order to store large amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and cash. In Contreras’ book, he once lived the life of poverty and worked in the drug industry. Based on Contreras’s true experience as an insider and participant observer, he used his Sociology major to focus as to why these gangs were doing this. In the beginning, Contreras explains that he “was going to strike it rich in the crack market” but in the end, did not make it in the drug market (13). After graduating, Contreras decided to tell the story of “how despair can drive the marginal into greed, betrayal, cruelty, and self-destruction” (15). By doing so, Contreras returned to his hometown to discover the relationship between Dominican race and distribution of illegal drugs. Through this, he finds that “the crack era’s impact was more than drug use, or personal losses, or prison experiences, or criminal stigmas. It was about accepting their status as fallen stars” (209). The drug race was about reputation. The social status of a high-end drug dealer was part the influence behind the risk of distributing drugs other than the desire from the drug itself.
In a study done by Sean McCabe about college drug users, he found the average spectrum of what rates different races use illegal drugs. McCabe is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and works at the Substance Abuse Research Center. In McCabe’s article, Race/ Ethnicity and Gender Differences in Drug Use and Abuse Among College Students, he “examines race/ethnicity and gender differences in drug use and abuse for substances other than alcohol among undergraduate students” (United par. 1). In this article, McCabe received approval from the Institutional Review Board and conducted a two-month study that consisted of 20, 138 students at a university (United par. 8). McCabe’s purpose was to determine the role of race among illegal drug use and why Caucasian students were more likely to report drug use than African American students and Asian students (United par. 1). Overall, McCabe concluded that there were higher rates of drug use among Hispanic and Caucasian students than African American and Asian students (United par. 35). This is significant because there is a generalization that only African American students use drugs and Caucasian students do not but McCabe has eliminated this assumption. The question now is, how does one handle drug users and what are the punishments?
The United States have spent over a billion dollars in enforcing illegal drug laws and punishments yet the use of drugs is still high (“The War on Marijuana in Black and White” 10). In Belltown, Washington, law enforcement has implemented a program called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, also known as LEAD (Beckett 651). This program allows arrested drug offenders not to spend time in jail but to be actively involved in the community. These activities involve community service such as voluntarily cleaning up the streets and participants are held responsible for their actions (Beckett 651). This program helps low-problem drug offenders get back onto their feet because they are constantly supervised and are working towards sobriety (Beckett 651). Drug offenders are more likely to choose this treatment over jail because it is more of an enhanced option. Programs, such as LEAD, should be implemented across the United States because of the constructive victories that have overcome addiction.
There is a fall worryingly on communities of color because racial discrimination is a prominent issue in the United States in relation to illegal drug use. Law enforcement should implement programs, such as LEAD, into their cities because of the positive real-world outcomes that prevail through them. Today, racial disparity is present in political debates and enforced, meaning that the postulation of racial discrimination is existent. Although law enforcement cannot completely eliminate racism and change the entire worlds thoughts on illegal drug use compared to the assumption of a specific race, one should know that these assumptions lead to power of a race over another.