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University of Cincinnati researcher Michael Rosino 15 minutes He argued that the first drug laws in the United States already referred to marginalized ethnic groups. In 1875, for example, a ban on opium bars associated with Chinese immigrants was passed.
“The laws were linked to fears that increased immigration from non-Caucasian countries posed a threat. The ban on opium bars is linked to the so-called” yellow danger “that non-white immigrants be criminalized and punished.
Photo from Scanpix / Opium Bar in San Frasisk
This even led to the Chinese expulsion law, one of the first strategies of the United States to prohibit the entire ethnic group from entering the country. From the beginning, there has been a connection between certain criminalized materials and marginalized ethnic groups, ”said M. Rosino.
However, the term “war on drugs” is derived from a 1972 speech by the then President of the United States, Richard Nixon. During his years of leadership, the country was embroiled in the Vietnam War, which sparked mass protests, while the civil rights movement continued.
In 2016, journalist and writer Dan Baum published scandalous information in a comment published in Harper’s Magazine. John Ehrlichman, a former Nixon aide, admitted to him in 1994 that the administration sought to associate peace-seeking hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And criminalize both groups before the 1972 presidential election in the United States.
Photo by Scanpix / US troops during the Vietnam War
However, the author’s critics questioned: why was this quote not mentioned in Baum’s 1996 book Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure, to which he referred to J. Erllichman?
Military police style
US researchers Rosin and Matthew Hughey, in a 2018 study, note that law enforcement introduced a “war” on drug policy in the early 1980s when President Ronald Reagan signed the Enforcement Cooperation Act. of the Army Law in 1981.
Scanpix / AP Photo / Ronald Reagan with his wife Nancy
The law gave the police access to military weapons, equipment, training and intelligence, all to combat drugs.
“From the way the local police responded to the ‘black lives’ protests, we can see that the officers are still wearing a lot of military equipment,” Rosino said.
In 1986, when baseball star Leonard Bias died of a cocaine overdose, although he was initially reported to have cracked it, Reagan managed to push through the Anti-Abuse Act in Congress, which introduced 29 new mandatory minimum prison terms for felony crimes. drugs.
For 5 grams of crack, a strain of cocaine, a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years has been entered in federal prison. The same year in prison, it began to cost 500 grams of cocaine.
A study by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) highlights that because of its relatively low price, crack is more readily available to the poor, many of whom are African-American.
Scanpix / AP Photo / Crack Dosage
Much more expensive powdered cocaine is most commonly used among wealthy white Americans. Statistics show that African Americans are more likely to be prosecuted for crack-related offenses and white Americans for cocaine-related offenses.
Carl Hart, a professor of neuroscience and psychology studying drug abuse and addiction, talks about disproportionate penalties for crack and cocaine users.
“Crack and cocaine powder are the same drug. People caught with a small amount of crack had to spend five years in prison, applying the same punishment for a hundred times more cocaine.
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