DRUG WAR, A WASTE OF MONEY

Together with community leaders, an ex-marine, and police officers, Amanda
Brazel, a senior majoring in communications and president of the students
for a sensible drug policy needed to give back dignity in order to save the
society.

This weekend Brazel spoke up against drug policy and its effects on people
of color.

Some of the supporters of the conference were: Senator Hansen Clark,
Conyers, and Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver, who through two police
officers as his spokesmen said, we will never arrest our way out of the
problem.

1.5 million prisoners will be released at the end of the decade and there is
no infrastructure or support system in place for our society to handle this
influx of citizens, said Brazel.

Employers don't want to hire prisoners, but are even less likely to hire
prisoners with drug convictions she said.

Brazel said the problem only starts with jobs, the Higher Education Act
either delays or prohibits a person with a drug conviction from getting
financial aid.

However, convicted murders, and rapists are allowed to have financial aid,
she said.

The general consensus of the conference was a conclusion: the war on drugs
is not working, we are not winning and there is no end in sight.

Glen Osowski, spokesperson for U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. and
marine of 13 years, said military leaders such as General Norman Swartzkoff
said it's crazy to fight a war on drugs.

Our soldiers aren't trained to fight this kind of war, Osowski said.

According to a press release by Conyers, the war on drugs is a failure.

This war has no end in sight and no exit strategy, said Debra Wright, coach
for the Drug Policy Forum of Michigan.

Many at the conference felt the drug policy has been ineffective and
detrimental to people of color.

This is evidenced by the disproportionate amount of Blacks and Hispanics
imprisoned for drug use to whites imprisoned for drug use, said Wright. She
said whites use drugs as much blacks and Latinos. However, more blacks and
Latinos are imprisoned on drug related charges then whites.

The problem lies in the inequitable enforcement of the drug laws, Wright
said.

Deborah Peterson Small, Director of Public Policy Drug Policy Alliance said,
"When it comes to enforcing the drug laws, it has been poor urban minority
communities that have the principle fronts. Street sweeps, buy and bust
operations, and other police activities that target Black and Latino
communities have been the principle tools for engaging this war...."

Wright, a recovered heroine addict, said being white and being from the
suburbs afforded her some privileges her inner-city friends who are now in
prison for using drugs and not selling drugs didn't have.

The privileges included support systems, which allowed her to go to school
and achieve a master's degree.

The higher education act keeps people down and the people it keeps down are
people of color, she said.

Conyers said the war on drugs is the new Jim Crow, according to a press
release.

Brazel said the conference had a good turnout.

"It wasn't the quantity of people that came to the conference, but the
quality," she said.