A lot of people think the war on drugs is an example of structural racism. They’re not wrong. Crack and cocaine are, chemically, virtually the same substance. However, crack is, due to its low price, used predominantly by black communities. Possession, the sale and the production of crack also carry a much higher sentence than that of cocaine, despite the chemical similarity. However, before we jump to conclusions, please, consider the following.
There’s a reason why someone that makes $500,000 a year who robbed their company of $3 million got a lighter sentence than the homeless person that robbed their local convenience store. It’s because the point of the justice system isn’t to provide justice, it’s to keep the population as productive as possible, to make sure the country keeps or betters its economic status. While yes, it’s bullshit, it’s at least a reason for the unfair treatment of the poor by the justice system. It’s the same for the war on drugs. It’s (hopefully) not racism that led lawmakers to make the punishment much harsher for crack, it’s the desire for productivity. In the eyes of the law, the rich are doing the most good for the world, and they should be punished less so they can go back to doing good.
I still believe the war on drugs unfairly treats minorities. Searches without warrants still happen, there are still racist cops that are able to practice their beliefs, minority communities are targeted by law enforcement, the list goes on. I just hope that lawmakers didn’t have racism in their mind when they made such unfair laws. However, I’m not sure if enforcing productivity is the best move either. I should also note that I’m going off the knowledge I have of American law, New Zealand could be completely different and thus this blog post would not apply here.
Reference: Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault
The war on drugs is such a complex subject so reading people’s thoughts and research on it is always an interesting read. I found your commentary on society been policed on ‘productiveness’ thought-provoking.
I’ve grown to understand that under a historically well-established capitalist society, our collective idea of what being productive is often built and centred around whiteness and white ideals. The war on drugs, in my mind, is tied up in racist ideal that a whiter society is a more productive society – which is something I hope the anti-racist movement breaks down and abolishes completely.
I believe that historically, people in high positions of social authority (e.g lawmakers and law-enforcers, usually white people) don’t necessarily consider themselves racist or go out of their way to make ‘racist’ laws, but they use their authority to ensure their biases are upheld. Racism unchallenged (internally or externally) is just the status quo and therefore it’s a foundational concept in how the war on drugs affects people of colour. As I said before, this is a complex issue and I’m aware it’s challenging to sum up one’s thoughts on the war on drugs in a 500-word essay! If you’re interested in looking into biases surrounding the cannabis laws and the upcoming cannabis referendum, I’ve dropped a link below I found very helpful when researching for this comment. I’d be keen to talk about the war on drugs (here and in the US) if you’d like 🙂
https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/09-09-2020/why-our-cannabis-laws-are-racist/
The perspective of productivity ruling society is a very interesting one. However, I would hope that, if this is truly something law-makers prioritised over a racist agenda, something would have changed by now. In the context of America, sure, within this point of view someone off of Wall Street is worth more to the economy than a handful of homeless ‘junkies’ – but there comes a point when there are so many people struggling to make a living that finding ways to diminish these numbers should become a priority. Would an overall healthier society not benefit an economy since more people are able to contribute? Such high numbers of people struggling with addiction and falling into the cycle of crime is a clear enough sign that something is wrong with the systems in place. Instead, these harsh and unjust laws have stayed the same – despite clear improvements in countries that have decriminalised drugs and treat addiction as a health issue as opposed to a criminal one.