antiblackness:anfem-cripplepunk:sylveon:black-to-the-bones:The war on drugs is rooted in racist poli
antiblackness:anfem-cripplepunk:sylveon:black-to-the-bones:The war on drugs is rooted in racist policies . The failure of the war and drugs is obvious. We need to find a better solution, because people of color should never be the victims of racist policies. White Americans are more likely than black Americans to have used most kinds of illegal drugs, including cocaine and LSD. Yet blacks are far more likely to go to prison for marijuana, which is not a hard drug. Moreover , even when white people get caught , they get less time in prison. Plus you know Nixon’s aid admitted all this too: “You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”And that’s a real quote.The War on Drugs is a cruel, ongoing, profitable system that disrupts and destroys lives, families, communities, futures. It’s needed to end since before it began. But can we also talk about the justice system, prisoner treatment, prison labor, ex-prisoner rights (and prisoner rights!), and prisoner solidarity? We don’t have to talk about them all at once, but at the very least, this already brings up ex-convicts’ rights… jobs, housing, loans, financial aid, voting, many services and resources and important aspects of life, including socially. Our prisons are set up as punishment. Not justice. Not crime deterrent (or else we would have a lower recidivism rate). Not rehabilitation. The moment someone is convicted of a crime, they cease to be human in many ways in the eyes of the law and society. The way we look at and treat crime and criminals from the very beginning is more than flawed, it’s sick, cruel, dehumanizing, oppressive, violent, and dangerous. Just something to think about.sources to John Ehrlichman’s quote: x, x, xmore on the War on Drugs: x, x, x -- source link