Obama’s changed view on drugs is welcome
By David A. LOVE
McClatchy-Tribune
President Obama is moving in the right direction in the war on drugs.
After 40 years and $1 trillion wasted, the war on drugs has been a resounding failure. It has had ruinous consequences here and in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The drug war has given America the world’s largest prison population, at nearly 2.5 million people, or roughly one in 100 Americans. The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, but almost 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Many nonviolent drug offenders, who shouldn’t have been locked up in the first place, are languishing behind bars.
Moreover, this war has been a war on black and brown people, who are 70 percent of the prison population. Unfair drug sentencing for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine targeted communities of color for years.
Drug criminalization separates parents from their children with prison bars, and destroys urban neighborhoods by shipping their adult population to prisons in white rural areas.
People who could be productive members of society, good citizens, taxpayers and community leaders are rotting in jail because of the war on drugs. And when they return to society, they cannot find a job because of a felony record.
Our drug policies have also helped spark violence in countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Drug mafias have taken over the region because drugs in the United States are illegal and demand for them is still high.
Look at Mexico, where almost 23,000 people have been murdered in the last 31/2 years, as drug-related gang violence has exploded.
THE CHANGE IN POLICY
The Obama administration has taken a step forward with his new National Drug Control Strategy. He says he plans to treat illegal drug use as more of a public health issue than a criminal justice problem. And his strategy claims to take a balanced approach by focusing on prevention, treatment and law enforcement.
Nevertheless, it is uncertain that the Obama White House will put its money where its mouth is. Nearly two-thirds of the $15.6 billion federal drug control budget request is devoted to law enforcement and interdiction, which is more of the same.
David A. Love is the executive editor of BlackCommentator.com. He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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