Race and the Drug War

Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Chair

March, 2003

“Virtually every drug war policy, from racial profiling to prosecutions to length of sentencing, are disproportionately carried out against people of color.” Deborah Small, Drug Policy Alliance.

Young people of color learn the harsh realities of the drug war early. Statistics show that young whites sell and use drugs at the same rate as young blacks and Latinos, but the outcomes are vastly different. African Americans make up 12.2% of the population, Latinos, 13%, yet over 60% of young people arrested for drug offenses and 75% of those charged are black or Latino. White kids are much more likely to be referred to treatment or simply released to their parents.

One conviction can destroy a life. The Higher Education Act of 1998 denies federal aid to any student convicted of a drug offense, even a misdemeanor. Every year the United States sends more young African Americans and Latinos to prison than to college.

The United States has the largest prison system in the history of the world, over 2 million people are imprisoned. We have 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prisoners. About 500,000 of our prisoners are non-violent drug offenders. Mandatory minimum sentencing insures that these offenders are held for as long as rapists and murderers. The racial bias of the law is glaringly evident in the mandatory minimum sentences for cocaine. A first time offender dealing 5,000 grams of powder cocaine, which is likely to be used by whites, gets a 10 year sentence. If the drug is crack cocaine, which is likely to be used by blacks, the offender gets a 10 year sentence for only 50 grams. Not surprisingly, 74% of those imprisoned for non-violent drug offenses are black.

Nearly 2 million American children have a parent in prison. A black child is nine times more likely to have a parent in prison than a white child, a Latino child is three times more likely. The parent was often the primary monetary provider for the family. These children become the most likely people in our society to eventually be imprisoned themselves.

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 allows officials to evict everyone in the household from public housing if one member is convicted of a felony. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act denies food stamps and Temporary Aid to Needy Families to parents convicted of a drug felony. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 severs a parent’s right to a child after the child has been in foster care for 15 months.

Punitive drug laws and policies have brought about a national tragedy in minority communities characterized by disrupted families, poverty, joblessness and crime.

Source: Race and the Drug War by Desiree Evans, AlterNet

Drug War Facts, www.drugwarfacts.org