DRUG INCARCERATION RATES REAL BUZZ KILL

I would like to open with a sincere apology to my elementary school
D.A.R.E. officer. Although his mustache was more memorable than his
name, the message of drug and violence resistance he promoted to a
classroom full of fifth graders was both noble and necessary. At
least, that's what I used to think.

These days, after weighing my options, I have decided it's probably
about time to start smoking pot. But I am not looking to engage in
illicit drug use in order to relax myself or figure out what Pink
Floyd is really trying to tell me. I plan on doing it simply because,
legally, I have nothing to fear. There is a simple, self-administered
test that will quickly tell your risk of drug-related incarceration.
First, look at your skin. If you're white, turn up the Bob Marley and
toke on. However, if you're black, just do as D.A.R.E. taught you and
say no.

Recently, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that Dane County ranks
No. 3 in the nation in regards to the racial disparity of drug
offenders. According to U.S. Bureau of Justices numbers, for every one
white person Dane County puts away for a drug offense, the county
locks up 97 black people for similar offenses. Now, numbers might be
cold and unconvincing, but there is little doubt in the injustice
evidenced by this report. How can it be that a county like Dane, whose
progressivism is known nationwide, be so inherently backward in its
criminal prosecution?

Although I do not have a statistic to back it up, I am willing to put
my journalistic integrity on the line when I say that black people do
not partake in 97 percent more drug use than whites. To suggest
otherwise would be nothing short of absurd. But to admit that is to
concede that somewhere in our great legal system is an error, or to
put it better, more errors than an Enron tax statement. This statistic
is nothing more than a reflection of the way the American justice
system works and has worked for a number of years.

The first fault lies with the police. It is much easier for the police
to drive through a high-crime, low-income area and pick up a few minor
drug dealers than it is to investigate how the businessman next to you
is getting high. But this is where this issue becomes less
black-and-white, for isn't it good for society to get every drug
dealer off the street, whether they sell on the corner or the back of
the bar? Yes, it is, but at some point -- and that point is now -- we
need to examine the effect of these incarceration rates on the black
community.

This is a college town, and no one is under the illusion that drug use
does not exist within the overly white college population. So when the
black community sees the hammer come down on them at a rate that is
nearly 100 times greater than the white kids in the apartment complex,
this is going to breed a negative sentiment among them, which isn't
good for the police or the community.

The second culprit is the courts and the political culture, which has
put a premium on a desire to be harsh with criminals. Although locking
up minor drug offenders may take nothing more than the drop of a
gavel, it accomplishes even less. By filling up the prisons and
costing the county millions of dollars, we are creating a generation
of disgruntled convicts. Prison is not a drug-free environment, and it
does not offer inmates the necessary opportunities to function as both
sober human beings and productive community members. By passing on
alternatives such as rehabilitation and lesser penalties in order to
make a statement and preserve a political ideal, the courts and
politicians are compounding an already massive problem.

No matter what your pigment may be, drug prosecution in this country
is out of hand. But when an already troubled system shows what can be
construed as racial underpinnings, it becomes obvious that action must
be taken. While we are not turning a blind eye to drug crime, we are
turning a very selective one, and the effects are damaging the entire
community -- some parts more than others. While the issue is complex,
it is necessary that the criminal playing field become more level and
that drug prosecution take its focus off reelection and back onto the
community. I can only hope they'll do so before I smoke myself silly.