Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences
Zawadi, I am going to agree with everything you said. I feel, however, that you missed the point of my little essay. Not once did I say that doing drugs, even marijuana, was a good thing. I am fully aware of the negative effects of marijuana, and more harmful drugs, and I was in no way attempting to encourage their use. In fact, let me inform you that I do not, and have never, abused illegal narcotics. My point was, and continues to be, this: as with most criminal ‘justice’ in this society, the prohibition against drugs is enforced with obvious bias, and has done more harm to the more vulnerable communities than the drugs themselves. This is not only evident in the presence of the illegal, violent distribution networks (esp. street gangs) in poorer communities, but also in the startling lack of comprehensive treatment programs. More money is poured into prosecuting and jailing drug users than into rehabilitating them. How many more people would seek treatment if a) it were more readily available and b) they didn’t have to fear possible incarceration for revealing their debilitating ‘habit?’ Also, the federal, state, and local jurisdictions seem to have declared war on crack, which is more prominent in poor, minority communities; they are practically looking the other way from the distribution and use of powder cocaine, which is more commonly abused by middle-class and rich whites. Its like trying to kill a salamander by repeatedly cutting off its tail. So, my point is not that drugs should be tossed around like free candy, or that the morality of the drug issue is irrelevant. If the drug problem is ever to be brought under control, this country is going to have to stop treating it, as you say, strictly as a problem of the ‘poor, lazy, stupid, and weak (and, I might add, black).’