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THE GOVERNMENT AND THE 'WAR ON DRUGS'

By Manuel Davidson

In the current struggle against drugs, the U.S. government claims it's
conducting a war on drugs. But a recent USA Today series called "Is The Drug
War Racist?" (July 23-27) exposed the federal government's so-called "war" as
a racist assault on people of color.

In other words, the government is carrying out a drug war against the
oppressed community.

USA Today pointed out that African Americans are four times more likely to be
arrested on drug charges than whites. In at least 30 major cities--from Little
Rock, Ark., to Yonkers, N.Y., Peoria, Ill., and Lubbock, Texas--African
Americans are 10 times more likely to be arrested on drug charges than whites,
despite the fact that drug use is the same for both groups.

"It just shows how deep racism is institutionalized in American criminal
justice," said Sen. Jesse Jackson of Washington. Rep. Charles Rangel, who
heads the House Narcotic Abuse Caucus, said, "It's racist, that's the bottom
line."

Drug use is a serious problem crossing socio-economic lines. But the federal
government's "policy" for the past decade has been based on a lock-em-up
mentality with little emphasis on treatment or prevention.

Federal "anti-drug" spending soared from $1.2 billion in 1981 to $12 billion
by 1992. However, only one-third was used for treatment and prevention.

Most funding was used for elite paramilitary operations such as Operation
Pressure Point in New York City, Operation Thunderbolt in Memphis, Tenn.,
Operation Hammer in Los Angeles, and Operation Caribbean Cruise in Washington.

Police brass contend it's much cheaper to target people in poor communities
than in the suburbs. They claim drug use is much "easier" to spot there.

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese, a leading architect of the "war on drugs"
program under Ronald Reagan, cynically denied racism is a factor in most drug
arrests. But he admitted, "The disparity is something nobody likes to see."

"It's just astonishing," says Allen Webster, president of the National Bar
Association, an African American legal group. "Basically it's a war against
minorities."

"I guarantee you I can get arrested for driving in certain neighborhoods in
this city at certain times of the day," says civil rights lawyer Steven Belton
of Minneapolis. "They're not stopping expensive luxury cars with white male
drivers over 40."

In Seattle three African American youths were harassed by the city's
"anti-drug jump-out squad" after being involved in a minor traffic accident. A
Latino construction worker in Utah was repeatedly pulled over in the past
three years just for driving a Cadillac.

What's really needed to fight drug abuse and crime is a program for creating
good-paying jobs with decent benefits for the millions who are unemployed,
especially oppressed youths.

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(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is
cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 West 17 St., New York,
NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@blythe.org.)
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