Pitchperfect pr the war on drugs1/2/2023 It brought individuals with no previous criminal background into the realm of crime, which experts say is a cycle that is hard to escape. Imprisoning people of color at such an alarming rate left a generation without parents and the guidance all children need. It also strengthened the roots that structural racism already had in America. The disproportionate amount of black to white convictions wasn’t the only outcome of the War on Drugs, though. PITCHPERFECT PR THE WAR ON DRUGS CRACKIn 1986, years after Nixon declared his War on Drugs, people of color were still being unjustly but legally persecuted through the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which “allocated longer prison sentences for offenses involving the same amount of crack cocaine (used more often by black Americans) as powder cocaine (used more often by white Americans).” The Human Toll Black neighborhoods were devoured by drug busts, and more and more people of color entered the correctional system. Racism was still rampant, and now law enforcement agencies had even more cause to arrest minorities. Cannabis became stigmatized despite its previously common usage, and heroin was policed largely only in minority communities. Ehrlichman stated that the government, “…couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” Stigmatizing CannabisĪnd the War on Drugs did just that. John Ehrlichman, President Nixon’s domestic policy chief, gave an interview in 1994 which explained the true motives behind the War on Drugs. However, this was not the intent of Nixon and the United States government, despite their political advertisements. In a perfect world, having a government fight toward the eradication of illegal acts in the hopes of creating safer lives for all Americans sounds virtuous. Nixon even went on to create one of today’s best-known governmental agencies, the Drug Enforcement Administration, as part of his continued crusade on drugs, drug sellers, and users. In June of 1971, the drug climate changed when Nixon announced the War on Drugs, declaring substance abuse as “public enemy number one.” Illegal drug use would now label someone a criminal and result in extensive prison time. This scheduling is still used today, although some drugs have changed classifications as science continues to explore various substances’ medical benefits. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act signed into law by Richard Nixon sought to classify drugs according to their addictive nature and medical benefits by separating them into schedules. Where did the War on Drugs Start?įrom the Opium Exclusion Act in 1909 to the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, regulations on drugs became all the more standard with the procession of time. The War on Drugs played a huge part in the embedding of structural racism in the United States today. It also led to decades of continued unjust imprisonment for people of color. Policing primarily minority communities - while pretending not to do so - reinforced the structural racism at the heart of political campaigns for the time. The government initiative, presented under the guise of creating a safer America for all, led to disproportionate incarceration rates and further strengthened the questionable underpinnings of an already-racist nation. The War on Drugs played a pivotal role in the history of cannabis and continues to impact society today.
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