DRUG WAR'S TWO FACES

A drug raid at San Diego State University last week made headlines.
Student drug dealers were caught openly selling drugs to fellow
students over the Internet, in frat houses and dormitories. The
arrest of children of privilege is noteworthy mostly because of its
rarity. Despite rampant drug use on many college campuses, student
dealers and users seldom risk prosecution.

The novelty of the SDSU raid stands in sharp contrast to the contents
of two reports issued last week about the nation's 30-year "war on
drugs." The reports detail the devastating effects of a drug policy
that has targeted poor blacks in inner cities even as rates of
illegal drug use have remained similar for blacks and whites.

The reports, one by the Sentencing Project and the other by Human
Rights Watch, rely on federal law enforcement data to document racial
disparity in drug arrests and imprisonment. The statistics show a
consistent pattern of discriminatory enforcement that has sent blacks
- - young men especially, but black women as well - to prison at rates
disproportionate to their presence in the population.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, African American men are
nearly 12 times as likely to be imprisoned for drug convictions as
whites. In its report, "Targeting Blacks: Drug Enforcement and Race
in the United States," Human Rights Watch includes statistics from
the 2003 National Corrections Reporting Program. Combined reports
from the 34 states that responded show that blacks are imprisoned for
drug crimes at a rate of 256 for every 100,000 African Americans.
Whites were imprisoned at a rate of 25 per 100,000. In California the
rate was 280 blacks in prison for drug crimes per 100,000, compared
with 26 for whites.

The incarceration strategy has had a destructive impact on black
communities. For black men, imprisonment carries a stain that is
impossible to erase. It leads to joblessness and hopelessness that in
turn translate into more crime.

It has also contributed to the widespread belief among African
Americans that the criminal justice system is racist, that young
black men selling nickel bags of crack in the gritty inner city of
San Diego are more likely to be arrested, prosecuted and sent to
prison than young white men who sell drugs out of frat houses. The
recent reports give those beliefs substance.

The point here is not to treat white drug dealers more harshly. What
the nation needs is a drug strategy that treats everyone equally and
moves from a failed strategy of expensive incarceration toward
greater emphasis on treatment, education and social programs that are
more effective and less damaging to individuals and communities.