DRUG WAR UNFAIRLY ATTACKS MINORITIES

Regarding Erin Schwartz's excellent Feb. 9 column (Drug war has turned into
race, class conflict), the drug war's early beginnings are rooted in a race
and class conflict. The drug war is mainly a war on marijuana, by far the
most popular illicit drug. Prior to passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of
1937 and the subsequent reefer madness campaign, few Americans had heard of
marijuana, despite widespread cultivation of industrial hemp. Recreational
use was limited to Mexican migrants. Historians argue the first marijuana
laws were a reaction to Mexican laborers taking jobs from whites during the
Great Depression. Legislation was passed in large part because of newspaper
magnate William Randolph Hearst's sensationalist yellow journalism.

Incredibly violent acts were allegedly committed by minorities under
marijuana's influence. Interestingly enough, whites did not begin smoking
marijuana until the government started funding reefer madness propaganda.
These days the plant is confused with 1960s counterculture, despite
mainstream use. This misguided culture war is dangerous. As the most
popular illicit drug, marijuana provides the black market contacts that
introduce users to drugs like heroin. Current drug policy is effectively a
gateway policy. Given that marijuana is acknowledged by many public health
experts to be less harmful than alcohol, it makes no sense to perpetuate
flawed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate hard drug use.
Unfortunately, mainstream politicians, many of them former pot smokers, are
more prone to counterproductive preaching than cost-effective pragmatism.

Robert Sharpe program officer at The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation, Washington, D.C.