"... the racist war on drugs."

oh so Close
it's Actaully our racist
War on Drug USERS.

let's keep it Sraight shall we?

it's kinda like 'Socialism:'
see: the nyt:

Were the Airline Bailouts Really Needed?

Once again, we have socialized an industry’s losses and privatized its profits, our columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin writes.

more at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/business/dealbook/airline-bailouts.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/business/dealbook/airline-bailouts.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

I'm shocked! Shocked!!

Well, not that shocked.

Completely ending the war on drugs would do a lot at helping this country achieve more equality, not only for minorities but also for the poor.

The data is bad, and the data are bad, and I hope as this project evolves it can shake the data into better shape.

No Blacks in the San Juans? I don't think that's right at all. No Blacks In Ferry? Definitely wrong.

As to the disparities, possession is (or was) often charged in place of distribution, simply because it's much easier to bring a simple possession case to a conclusion. And young Black males are more prevalent in street-level commercial distribution (as opposed to backyard acquaintance networks of casual users ... B2B vs P2P).

Not to discount the racially stacked deck at all times, places, and levels of criminal justice systems.

@5 how so? while decriminalizing may keep more people out of jail it will probably also lead to a rise in usage which will then equate to higher medical costs, unemployment and homelessness for those who become addicted enough that they can no longer function in society. I think the negative consequences of that scenario will be more severe in BIPOC communities. We need to move away from the notion that anytime a law or regulation does not equitably impact society across racial demographics that it needs to be abolished. The underlying reason for the law and the application of the law are two separate things.

@6:

Yeah, yeah, we've heard this song-and-dance before: if you legalize/decriminalize X then everyone will abuse X in greater numbers. Unfortunately for you, the evidence proves otherwise. Once you eliminate the "forbidden fruit" factor, the numbers invariably start trending down - assuming other factors, such as lack of jobs, shelter, et al aren't in play. Because the sad truth is, many people don't become homeless and unemployed BECAUSE of drug abuse - think of all the HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL coke addicts out there - they abuse drugs because they're ALREADY homeless or jobless.

@7 Much as I hate to agree with Jackkay on anything, he is right about this. There are Black people in San Juan and Ferry Counties. Might wanna check those stats, Rich, before you go arguing that stats prove you right.

In re @7, by "right" and "wrong" in comment @5, I meant "true" and "false", not "good" and "bad", respectively.

@6 mistakenly refers to my @5, but means @4.

And @9 apparently credits JackKay @7 for my comment @5.

I'll chalk it all up to the celebration of St Patrick, who was famous for refusing to suck men's nipples (you can look it up).

The disparities show what UW, Seattle U and countless other studies have consistently shown in Washington going back to 2005: Police don't look for law breakers, they look for black, brown and native people assuming all to be criminals. And occassionally they come across white law breakers, not out of seeking but purely out of numeric abundance. Black drug users in Seattle are less than 4% of drug trafficers but represent almost 70% of SPD targeted drug profiling according to a UW study that literally said "We reviewed every other possible explanation including random chance and nothing fit except pure racial targeting"

-source:"RACE AND DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT IN SEATTLE Prepared on behalf of the Defender Association’s Racial Disparity ProjectSeattle, Washington"

https:// www. prisonpolicy. org/ scans/ Beckett -20040503.pdf

Then again 15 years later in: "Preliminary Report on Race and Washington's Criminal Justice System System"

https: //digitalcommons. law. uw. edu /cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4715&context=wlr

Western Washington, and Washington law enforcement in general, are essentially active elements of white supremacy. Including (and especially) their Black and Brown members out to show off for their white leadership.

@12:

All the evidence points to the inescapable conclusion that when drugs are legalized use drops dramatically. Look at the results in Portugal, which has 20 years of data to back this up:

https://drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-decriminalization

https://time.com/longform/portugal-drug-use-decriminalization/

And now that our neighbors to the south have effectively enacted universal decriminalization, there's no reason to not to expect they'll show similarly positive outcomes.

New Data Analysis Shows the Astonishing Breadth of Racial Disparity, period.