RACIAL PROFILING ON DRUGS

Regarding "An atrocity of arrests in a Panhandle town" (Meanwhile, July 31)
by Bob Herbert: The problem of racial profiling in America is by no means
limited to Texas. U.S. government statistics reveal that the drug war is
waged in a racist manner through the nation.

Blacks and whites use drugs at roughly the same rates. Although only 15
percent of the nation's drug users are black, blacks account for 37 percent
of those arrested for drug violations, over 42 percent of those in federal
prisons for drug violations, and almost 60 percent of those in state
prisons for drug felonies. Support for the war on some drugs would end
overnight if whites were incarcerated for drugs at the same rate as minorities.

Racially disproportionate incarceration rates are not the only cause for
alarm. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness,
addiction and delinquency. Incarcerating non-violent drug offenders along
side hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a
taxpayer-funded education in anti-social behavior. It's time to declare
peace in the failed drug war and begin treating all substance abuse, legal
or otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

Robert Sharpe, program officer, Drug Policy Alliance, Washington