Drug Related Racism And Reparations

I wrote this around 13 March 2002. The heat about reparations has died down (except for Allan Keyes here in Illinois, who surprisingly enough is a Republican). The drug war racism is still ongoing.

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We have been hearing a lot about reparations for slavery these days. I must admit I have great sympathy for the slaves and their children. But the hurt was done long in the past and most of the people living in this country are descendants of people who had nothing to do with slavery. The same cannot be said of the scourge of prohibition. The Drug War that Cliff Thornton, Jr. of Efficacy says is being waged mainly against the lower class Black and Hispanic communities of America is going on as we speak..

Who is responsible for the crime of prohibition? Government agents enacted it and enforced it. Many still in Congress voted to strengthen the prohibition laws. Certain newspaper chains fired the flames of drug related racism to enhance their prestige and circulation. Those who gave false testimony at the congressional hearings are well known. In fact the government still has a whole stable of false testifiers it trots out any time it needs some headlines. The people of America encouraged it and to a great extent still do. But I give them the benefit of the doubt because they have been lied to by the government at every turn. And then we have the pharmaceutical and tobacco companies who used to give large contributions to the Partnership for a Drug Free America until people started calling them on this sneaky way of holding down the competition. Medical marijuana is a threat to the drug companies and recreational marijuana is a threat to the beer companies. And you thought prohibition was about safety? Not a chance.Prohibition is done in the name of an American war on the users of competitive drugs. Drugs less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco.

Who has directly benefited from prohibition? Police and other government organizations benefited through confiscations of drug related property and cash. Jail corporations have been doing quite well. Every victim of prohibition is a profit center for them. Drug courts supply a ready pool of prisoners to keep the prisons filled. Kicking any addiction may require many tries for some. Some never succeed. This group of "failures" is always ready to fill up a cell when there is an opening. Second chances are given until a place in the prison system opens. Guard Unions benefit from incarcerations because every added prisoner is another addition to job security. Lawyers benefit from drug cases win or lose it is easy money. Individual Americans have benefited by being able to buy forfeited goods for pennies on the dollar. Governments made out by not having to raise taxes. After all highway robbery is easier than raising taxes and more popular too - among the un robbed.

We have as yet to see any great number of people in the mainstream actively working against prohibition. The attitude is "if its not happening in my neighborhood it is not happening". Despite the fact that 70 to 75 percent of Americans say that prohibition is not working and 35 per cent favor legalization.

All America has benefitted from the Drug War through the effect of drug money propping up the economy. The economy advances through the sufferings of those addicted. Drug cartel money has been the backbone of American finance for at least a decade maybe much longer.

Explained by former HUD Assistant Secratary Catherine A. Fitts in this article: Narco Dollars .

We can identify the victims of prohibition both actually and statistically. The actual victims include those arrested. We can identify the prisoners their wives and families. In addition we can identify the neighborhoods most impacted. Statistical measures with high confidence can be figured from locating the arrests of dealers and users geographically. We can also plot heroin deaths.

This gives another method of figuring the impacted neighborhoods.

No significant amount has been paid to any of the victims. What debt exactly are the persecuted drug users and their suppliers actually owed by America? No actual amount of money can pay for the suffering caused to these victims of prohibition. So I think that asking for only one year's worth of American GNP to repay over eighty years of misery is fair. About ten trillion dollars this year. A token payment and acknowledgement of the wrong.

Blacks, Whites, Hispanics and many others are victims of a known lie. The lie that prohibition ever does anything but enrich criminals, corrupt the police and politicians, and destroy neighborhoods wholesale. The lie that the prohibited drugs are more dangerous than tobacco and alcohol. The lie that prohibited drugs are harder to get.

The historical record is so clear from alcohol prohibition in America that no sane person could ever deny the lesson. Alcohol prohibition made alcohol more available to minors, enriched criminals, financed gang wars, corrupted politicians, and destroyed neighborhoods. The only people who still deny the lessons of alcohol prohibition are either profiting from drug prohibition, gain power from it or are incapable of reason. The first time we tried prohibition perhaps the results were excusable. We didn't know any better. We have no such excuse this time.

This weeks saying:

Prohibition is the biggest anti-capitalist, anti-property rights, anti-human rights, racist, government corrupting, taxpayer funded, social engineering program going in America. I don't understand why the right, the left, or the middle supports it.

Ask a politician:

Do you support drug prohibition because it finances criminals at home or because it finances terrorists abroad?

This week's politician:

Senator Dianne Feinstein Phone: ( 202 ) 224-3841 Fax: ( 202 ) 228-3954 TTY/TDD: ( 202 ) 224-2501

And she has one of those obnoxious e-mail forms at:

e-mail Senator Feinstein

M. Simon is an industrial controls designer and independent political activist.

Copyright: 2002 M. Simon - All rights reserved. Permission granted for one time use in a single periodical publication. Permission also granted for concurrent publication on the periodical's www site.