Drug War, USA: Peace Needed

Most anywhere one goes in modern America, drug advertisements, whether alcohol, tobacco, or perscription, are ever present. While being bombarded with advertisements, we hear a steady drumbeat of headlines about busts on inner-city crack houses and backwoods meth labs. Each election cycle and on the evening news, amidst coverage of the “war on terror,” we hear updates on the “war on drugs.” Politicians talk of getting “tough on crime” and “zero tolerance,” always promising to crack down harder than their opponent. Like much of anything discussed by our elected leaders or in the mainstream media, the “war on drugs” is done so in a manner devoid of context. Quite openly, it is discussed as a problem of epidemic proportions, but, from this point, a social explanation of drugs stops. While described as a social problem, only individualized solutions are offered. The questions of the role of race and class in the war are seemingly apparent, but never raised. Borrowing from the dissident academic Noam Chomsky, even the concept of a “war on drugs” could, in many ways, be more aptly described as a “war on certain drugs.” When examined closely, this war could also be deemed simply a war on certain people that has little to do with drugs.
In modern America, drugs, in their various forms, are almost everywhere. Of these drugs, alcohol and tobacco are, by far, the most prevalent and socially acceptable. While the deaths caused by alcohol are difficult to gauge, tobacco related deaths total close to 440,000 each year in the United States alone. This number, dwarfs any death rate caused by cocaine, heroin, marijuana, or any other socially unacceptable, illegal drug. Recent efforts to deal with this health problem have restricted the use of cigarattes through high taxes and indoor smoking bans. Despite all of this, tobacco remains a major US export. At the same time the US is putting pressure on countries like Columbia and Bolivia to crack down on drug production, US-based cigarette companies are reaping billions in profits from those same countries. The deaths caused by this lethal export far excedes that caused by illegal drugs. Tobacco is frowned upon, but accepted. Despite the fact that it is the drug leading the pack in the number it kills, it has not been criminalized. While I’m not advocating making smoking illegal, it’s certainly a double standard that is often taken for granted. It indicates that the war on drugs is not necessarily based on health concerns.
Selectivity in the enforcement further deconstructs the war. Poor people of color disproportionately suffer most of the casualties in this war. In its most recent report, the Office of National Drug Control Policy stated that of those put on trial for drug-related crimes, “more than a quarter (27.2%) [were]… white, 29.1% were black, and 40.5% were Hispanic.” Of those actually convicted and sentenced, black people out numbered white people 64,800 to 133,100; a factor of more than two to one. More than anything else, such numbers indicate institutional racism. While racism is an issue, the quesiton of class must also be factored into the equation. A key component of a “fair trial” is competent legal representation, and, by and large, financial concerns determine the ability of a good defense. In addition to this, the Reagan-era “hundred to one rule” madates that, as far as sentencing goes, one gram crack cociane is the same as a hundred grams of the same drug in its powdered form. Crack is typically a drug of the poor, while the more expensive powdered cocaine is typically for the rich. The class bias is obvious.
The basis of the drug war, with its selectivity in both targets and enforcement, is further undermined when one considers other ways in which it is being conducted. Criminalization and the increasingly stiff penalties for the violation of drug laws have lead to both an intensification of the criminal activities associated with the trade as well as a surge in the prison population. With criminalization of drugs comes the emergence of organized crime and gangsterism on both a domestic and international scale. This vast network leads to a proliferation of other types of crime and, at the same time, making the drugs themselves even less safe because of nonexistent regulations. LSD, for example, is commonly cut with floor stripper and cocaine with powdered glass. It has also brought the US into a situation in which it maintains six percent of the world’s population and more than 25 percent of its prison population. In a study conducted by the conservative think-tank RAND Corporation on the nature of the drug war, tactics such as education and rehabilitation were found to be, by far, the most cost-effective means of combating the problem.
Addressing these sorts of inconsistencies, Chomsky argues that the basis of the drug war is about social control. Crime rates are generally higher in the US than in most other industrialized countries, but the disparity between the instance of crime and prison population in the US as opposed to its peers is completely disporportinate. The social paranoia about drugs and crime are, he argues, “stimulated by state and business propaganda.” He further argues, “The Drug War is an effort to stimulate fear of dangerous people from who we have to protect ourselves. It is also, a direct form of control of what are called ‘dangerous classes,’ those superfluous people who don't really have a function contributing to profit-making and wealth… in the U.S. you don't kill them, you put them in jail…[With the economic polices of the past few decades] you're getting a large mass of people who are insecure, suffering from difficulty to misery, or something in between. A lot of them are basically going to be arrested, because you have to control them.”
With looking at the problem of drugs, one should not fail to pose the question as to why people feel compelled to do drugs in the first place. Chomsky’s argument about the drug war being a form of class war starts to address it, but falls short. While each case differs based on the individual in question, one can make the generalization that people tend to use drugs to escape from a reality that they find themselves unable to cope with. With declining or stagnating wages for the bulk of the population over the course of the past three decades, it is no wonder that many people are turning to drugs. In addition, with the costs of healthcare so high, it should be no surprise that people are self-medicating. Financial stress leads to problems in relationships and families that also create a fertile ground for escapism. In the case of men, the drug problem is likely made worse by a macho culture that views emotion as a sign of weakness. For women, an unreal sense of “beauty,” as defined by the fashion industry, has also further complicated the problem. Far from looking to address these social causes of America’s drug problem, current policy is more directed at punishing users and addicts. Furthermore, instead of looking at addiction as a disease and treating it as such, it is condemned as a crime. Instead of treatment, addicts get prison sentences and many emerge from prison only to commit the same crimes over again. With such policies, it makes perfect sense that two-thirds of the people that get out go right back for the same problem.
While billions are pumped each year into maintaining the world’s largest prison system, millions of people in this country suffer and thousands die from addiction each year. Though hundreds of thousands of people die each year from socially acceptable, legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco, drugs like marijuana and cocaine, killing far less people, are criminalized. This criminalization leads to violence, crime, and drugs more dangerous than before. The prosecution of the war is inefficient and racist. It attacks the victims of drugs. It puts people in cages with the money that could be used to deal with the social conditions that created the drug problem in the first place. All drugs should be decriminalized, taxed, and heavily regulated. The money previously used to wage the war, combined with the new tax revenue, could be used to build treatment centers, promote education, and work to address the social conditions that make people turn to drugs in the first place. Addiction is a disease and treating it like a crime only makes it worse. The “war on drugs” is a war on people, and a just peace is needed.
RP