I've written about the War on Drugs before, and while I don't (yet?) buy into the idea that all drugs should be legalized, I do think that the status quo is incredibly damaging to American society. Consider this Justice Department study that reports on differences in incarceration rates for blacks and whites.
(CNSNews.com) - One in every three black American men faces the possibility of imprisonment during his lifetime - a disproportionately high figure when compared to white males, according to a new Justice Department study. ...If laws exist, they should be enforced geographically proportionally to where they are violated. Experience shows that urban neighborhoods tend to have more crimes of all sorts than suburbs do; even if blacks and whites use drugs at the same rate (perfectly reasonable), I suspect that there is more drug-related gang activity in urban areas, and more drug sales.But the Bureau of Justice Statistics report reveals that a black child born today faces a strong likelihood of spending at least some time in prison. Black men had a 32.2 percent chance of going to prison in 2001, while white males had a 5.9 percent chance and Hispanic men had a 17.2 percent chance. ...
"The police tactics tend to be more focused on neighborhoods where you are more likely to arrest an African American man for a low-level drug offense than if we were to concentrate those resources in a suburb," Ziedenberg said.
"Whites and African Americans use drugs at pretty much the same rate," Ziedenberg added. "We enforce the drug laws more in urban communities, and then we arrest people, and then we convict people, and then they end up in prison."
Either way, the gangs and the illicit drug sales are intimately related to the War on Drugs. As the Marriage Movement notes, there is a correlation between unwed childbearing and the number of black men in prison, and the breakdown of the family is one of the greatest social issues facing America today. (Black families are particularly disrupted by the War on Drugs, but families of all races are in trouble.)
Of course, one simple solution is for people to start obeying the law. Whether or not "over enforcement" exists in black communities will be irrelevent if blacks stop breaking the law.
Mychal S. Massie, a member of the conservative black leadership network Project 21, said many blacks must change their outlook if they're going to reverse the high rates of incarceration. He remains skeptical of substance abuse programs and emphasizes personal responsibility instead.Good advice for everyone, of every race. Nevertheless, our nation needs to revisit our drug laws, and consider some drastic reformation. That may mean wholesale legalization, or something entirely different, but the current system is contributing a great deal to one of the most pressing social crises of our day."It does not have to do with being poor, being black or it being a residual effect of slavery," Massie said. "It has everything to do with not being responsible in one's behavior and our being a country and a system of laws, and we must abide by those."
Update:
Or maybe incarceration is linked to the weather? Of course, the closer you get to Canada, the fewer blacks there are, so I don't know if any of these statistics actually mean anything.
It's pride, among other things I'm sure. I expect that people mean well, but examining the policies shows that they simply don't work.
I'm not sure I agree that the executive branch agencies shouldn't have any opinion on what the law should be. I think it's ok for the president to push for certain laws and policies, and as long as his executives are pushing his agenda, it's ok... I think. Obviously, they should enforce the laws that exist, even if they don't agree with them (as should the president himself). Hm.
Marijuana should almost certainly be legal. PCP and crack, on the other hand, seem like entirely different issues. I'm not sold on the idea of legalizing everything, because I don't think it's possible to use heroine, crack, or other highly addictive drugs safely or "moderately".
I've seen studies that show that MJ isn't possible to use "moderately" either. I know people who smoke, and for every single one of them it drastically affects their lives, for the worse. And that imposes a cost on society. Alcohol, on the other hand, can be used moderately. Eh.
Anyway, the current policies suck and are quite destructive. I'm not sure what should replace them.
Even if you accept the argument that the "hard" drugs like PCP, crack, or heroin (heroine is a female hero :) ) aren't usable safely, criminalizing them isn't going to make things better.
People will still do the drugs even if they aren't legal. Criminalization probably won't have much of an effect on it. (I would wager that the number of people who are more inclined to do them *because* they're illegal is larger than the number of people who are inclined *not* to do them because it's illegal; ergo, legalization would reduce the overall usage, long-term.)
Also, criminalization means that you can't easily get treatment for abusing the drug... because if you admit that you're abusing it, you admit you're breaking the law, and going to jail is usually seen as worse as whatever the drug is doing to you (especially considering how excessive our drug law penalties are). So it has to remain a secret. Legalization would mean that those who have a drug problem can get help for it without having to worry about the goverment ruining their lives, putting them in prison (and costing taxpayers money, not to mention removing someone who, with a relatively small amount of effort, could be contributing to society), and so forth.
If a drug can't be responsibly used by anyone, then the theoretical solution is to make it illegal. Therefore no one will do it. Reality, however, shatters this idea, as people break laws all the time (and "victimless" crimes, i.e. crimes that are not against another's person or property, are generally ignored to a far larger degree than other crimes). Criminalization of such drugs is, for various reasons, not the best answer. Widespread education as to the TRUE effects of the drug (none of this propaganda bullshit the DEA spews out), legal treatment for those with problems, etc., are a much better solution.