THE DRUG WAR IS BIGOTRY IN ACTION - WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

June 11, 2000 - According to popular mythology, we start with a group
of dedicated scientists who examine various substances in the
laboratory. After running exhaustive experiments, they issue a
recommendation to a legislative body, along the line of "Substance A
is not harmful to society, but Substance B is," and the appropriate
legislation is enacted so as to remove Substance B from public access.

That's the idea you get from schoolbooks. The truth is that the
legislative decision is made more along these lines: Group C (a
racial, ethnic, or economic category not in the mainstream) is fond of
Substance D, and if we outlaw Substance D, then we diminish Group C's
political and economic power.

The latest confirmation of this explanation comes from Human Rights
Watch. Last week, it issued a report which demonstrates that the
American War on Drugs is really a war on minority populations. The
report focused on African Americans, but a quick examination of the
history of drug laws in this country shows that other minorities also
suffer.

We can start with one of the oldest known drugs - opium. Through the
Civil War, it was quite legal for ordinary citizens to possess - Mary
Lee, wife of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, once wrote to her husband
that times were so tight in Richmond that they were running out of
opium tablets at home and there weren't any to be had in the shops, at
any price.

After the war, construction of the Central Pacific began in earnest,
working east from California. Labor was in short supply, so the
railroad barons imported Chinese workers, who often relaxed after work
with a pipe or two of opium.

That was fine, as long as the workers were needed. But after the
railroad was completed in 1869, what to do with the surplus labor?

Simple. Denounce their preferred drug as a monstrous and threatening
evil, out law it, and use the laws to drive the Chinese out of
American discourse.

As the noted Western historian Richard Wright points out, "Those who
attacked drugs .took a significant second step. They did not just
define and attack 'immorality'; they associated immoral activities
with particular ethnic and racial groups attacks on drugs and
prostitution became attacks on Chinese, who were supposedly drug
addicts .Such efforts were far more successful at punishing or driving
off minority groups than in eradicating the evils under attack."

Similar analysis applies to other American drug crusades. The first
laws against cocaine were passed because, as the New York Tribune
observed in 1903, the substance was the cause of "horrible crimes
committed in the southern states by colored people."

Colorado was among the first states to outlaw marijuana, and the law
was aimed squarely at Hispanics who might otherwise be tempted to
emulate Pancho Villa's rebellion against peonage. As one historian
points out, "With the excuse of marijuana the whites could now use
force and rationalize their violent acts of repression." That was when
America went to war with Germany, and most brewers were of German
extraction, and soon the pleasure of a cold beer on a hot day became a
violation of the federal Constitution.

Most recently, we've seen the "tobacco settlement." Smokers tend to be
poorer and less educated than non-smokers, so we see class warfare in
action before our very eyes. Elevate tobacco prices so that the state
takes money from lower-class addicts (like me) and uses it for
subsidizing other groups who enjoy more political and economic clout.

We haven't quite gotten around to putting smokers in prison yet, but
that's be cause the politicians want the money so they can reward
their cronies and contributors from the public till.

No matter how you slice our drug laws, you don't find science. You
find politics at its worst - the exercise of power by one group to
inflict harm on another group. That's bad enough, but then come the
lies about how it's based on "science," as well as the continued
assault on the Bill of Rights.

You'd think that some day people would figure out that some botanic
and chemical substances may be bad - but the "cure" that our political
system produces is much worse.