America s War On Drugs - 2885 Words

Running head: AMERICA’S WAR ON DRUGS 1 America’s War on Drugs: A Battle against Drugs or a display of Racial Intolerance? Sharon Curry-Robinson, Duval County Court Bailiff Florida Gulf Coast University America’s War on Drugs 3 Abstract It was surprising to learn that, while the United States makes up just five percent of the world population, over twenty-five percent of the world’s detainees are from the United States. Yes, at a projected figure of more than 1.58 million inmates, the United States has the largest prison system in the world, (Glaze, 2014). These incarcerates are held in federal prisons, penitentiaries, and jails. They are also probates, as well as being held under house arrests.†¦show more content†¦(CASA, 2008). On June 19, 1986 Len Bias, a top-notch NBA draft pick was found dead of a crack cocaine overdose. His death prompted media turmoil and it was not long before the authorities came to realize that cocaine was accessible to black people in the form of â€Å"crack cocaine.† In a matter of weeks, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. As a result of the Act, mandatory minimum sentencing for precise amounts of cocaine was enacted. Simultaneously, law-makers establ ished tougher sentences for crack cocaine but not for powder America’s War on Drugs 4 cocaine. For example, dispersal of a mere 5 grams of powder cocaine carried a minimum 5-year federal prison sentence, while the same amount of crack cocaine dispersal carried one- hundred times the penalty for possessing the same amount of crack, although the drugs are pharmacologically the same. The difference you ask? It was believed that powdered cocaine was more popular with wealthy white people and crack cocaine was associated with poor, uneducated black people. Quoting, Dr. Carl Hart, â€Å"The hype around cocaine, for example, has a lot more to do with political expedience—politicians cynically vilifying poor black people for electoral gain – than the drug’s potential for harm.† Further, Dr. Hart, the author of the book, High Price, â€Å"indicated that targeting crack cocaine in black communities was easier than addressing more grave concerns such as the â€Å"War on Poverty,† high