In Michelle Alexander’s "The New Jim Crow," she comments on the increase of funding for drug enforcement during the rise of the War on Drugs under the Reagan administration while also saying, “Funding for agencies responsible for drug treatment, prevention, and education was dramatically reduced.” The policies of punishing the populace and not treating them like consenting adults has caused the War on Drugs to hurt society as a whole. Through the militarization of police, absurd legislation by the government, and the destabilization of African American communities the War on Drugs has proven to be harmful to the population of the United States.

Police forces have been heavily altered by the War on Drugs in they are now heavily militarized. In 1981, Ronald Reagan got Congress to pass the Military Cooperation with Law enforcement Act. It gave state and local police access to military intelligence and weaponry to extract drugs from the populace (Alexander 2012). These grants of militarized resources has led to an increase of police working to remove substances from the masses and causes police to force themselves on the people to continue receiving these grants. This law enforcement act came in the 1980s and people may ask what kind of polices exist today; “Today the program known as ‘1033’ has provided a large number of small towns with tank-like MRAPs while others have received grenade launchers and high caliber assault rifles” (Johnson 2014). Militarization of simple law enforcement creates fear of police from the populace. The incentives for programs like “1033” are to get people on drug charges which becomes easier as they gain more equipment putting a higher strain on the populace; this illustrates how the war on drugs inflicts harm on the people of the United States.

Legislation has always been at the forefront of the failed war on drugs. One of the most absurd laws aimed at further gaining the support of local law enforcement are forfeiture laws made in the 1980s. Through these laws “state and local law enforcement agencies were granted the authority to keep, for their own use, the vast majority of cash and assets they seize when waging the war on drugs” (Alexander 2012, 78). Law making like this incentivized police to continue to perpetuate the war on drugs putting the population of the United States under this legislation to be relentlessly persecuted. The war on drugs has attacked the poor vivaciously and may be seen best in the legislation of the 100 to 1 law. This law deals with two different forms of the same drug, crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Powdered cocaine tends to be more of a rich person drug that uses the kinetics of snorting while crack cocaine is primarily used by poorer people and is smoked. The 100 to 1 law dictates “to be charged with a felony, crack users needed to possess only 5 grams of the drug. To be hit with the same charge, powder cocaine users needed to be caught with 500 grams” (Grim 2011). This disparity directly attacks those who uses crack cocaine which is predominantly the poor. Luckily, back in 2011 Congress voted to reduce the sentencing from 1 to 100 to 1 to 18 (Grim 2011). This disparity still illustrates a reason for why the populace of the United States continues to be hurt by the war on drugs, it attacks those who need help the most and can end in them going to prison for much longer than a counterpart caught with the same amount of powdered cocaine. Legislation like police forfeiture laws and the 1 to 18 law hurt the populace by increasing the zealousness of police in the fight of the war on drugs and disadvantaging the poor.

The group primarily disadvantaged by the War on Drugs continues to be the African American community. In Michelle Alexander’s book "The New Jim Crow," she addresses how the War on Drugs has acted to be a new system of oppression against African Americans. She explains how during Bill Clinton’s time in the Whitehouse “Washington slashed funding for public housing by $17 billion (a reduction of 61%) and boosted corrections by $19 Billion (an increase of 171 percent), ‘effectively making the construction of prisons the nation’s main housing program for the urban poor.’” (Alexander 2012; Wacquant 2010). The populace of the urban poor was primarily composed of African Americans. The War on Drugs not only hurts the availability of housing for African Americans due to government funding but the war convicts more African Americans at a higher rate than any other group (Alexander 2012, 98). These high rates of convictions have extremely hurt black communities and caused them to be disconnected. Alexander gives the example of a mother by the name of Constance when saying, “Some, like Constance, are silent because they blame themselves for their children’s fate and believe that others blame them as well” (2012, 166). African American communities suffer an inability to communicate with each other because of the way the system has affected them at higher rates. The War on Drugs has disadvantaged many people but especially African Americans and this further shows how the War on Drugs hurts the populace in the United States.

By increasing funding for militarization of police, creating ludicrous legislation, and tearing the fabric of African American communities the War on Drugs has been destructive to the populace. Big Brother attempting to interfere with drugs has only damaged society. Perhaps it is time to reallocate resources to treatment and education instead of attempting to police the populace which has proven to be a failure.

Work Cited

Alexander, Michelle (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.

Johnson, Hank (2014). The Failed ‘War on Drugs’ Is Militarizing Law Enforcement, Fueling Police Violence. Huffington Post. Retrieved From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-hank-johnson/the-failed-war-on-drugs-i_b_6043558.html

Grim, Ryan (2011). Crack-Powder Sentencing Disparity Reduced by Congress. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/28/crack-powder-sentencing-d_n_662526.html

Wacquant, Loic (2010). Class, Race & Hyperincarceration in Revanchist America.

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