DRUG PROHIBITION SERVES RACIST AGENDA

The writer of the letter "Illegal drug trade causes city's carnage" (Aug. 3)
says that she just doesn't get why drugs are illegal when you can still buy
them easily and the only effect of drug prohibition is a huge number of
murders.

One answer is that the drug laws are the successor to the Jim Crow laws,
just as the Jim Crow laws were the successor to slavery.

Drug prohibition keeps African-Americans in an inferior status. It gives the
government an excuse to imprison millions of them. And, by giving a
substantial percentage of the minority population criminal records, it
prevents them from becoming educated, getting jobs, entering professional
occupations and voting.

Another answer is that drug prohibition is big business. Private prisons are
springing up; municipalities rake in millions from forfeiture laws;
politicians and police depend on bribes from drug dealers.

Everybody benefits -- except crime victims and members of racial minorities.

Henry Cohen
Baltimore