Two sharp discussions of the inefficacy and inequities of the war on drugs

Today I saw two different types of commentary coming from two different authors saying in different ways the same fundamental resolute point: the war on drugs has been a failure full of injustices and we must dramatically change course.  Both pieces should be read in full, and I hope these snippets prompt clicks through:

First, be sure to check out Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Health Affairs blog entry titled "Addiction Should Be Treated, Not Penalized." (Hat tip: Marijuana Moment).  Here are excerpts (links from original):

[Health] disparities are particularly stark in the field of substance use and substance use disorders, where entrenched punitive approaches have exacerbated stigma and made it hard to implement appropriate medical care. Abundant data show that Black people and other communities of color have been disproportionately harmed by decades of addressing drug use as a crime rather than as a matter of public health....

Although statistics vary by drug type, overall, White and Black people do not significantly differ in their use of drugs, yet the legal consequences they face are often very different. Even though they use cannabis at similar rates, for instance, Black people were nearly four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than White people in 2018.  Of the 277,000 people imprisoned nationwide for a drug offense in 2013, more than half (56 percent) were African American or Latino even though together those groups accounted for about a quarter of the US population.

During the early years of the opioid crisis in this century, arrests for heroin greatly exceeded those for diverted prescription opioids, even though the latter — which were predominantly used by White people — were more widely misused.  It is well known that during the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s, much harsher penalties were imposed for crack (or freebase) cocaine, which had high rates of use in urban communities of color, than for powder cocaine, even though they are two forms of the same drug.  These are just a few examples of the kinds of racial discrimination that have long been associated with drug laws and their policing....

Drug use continues to be penalized, despite the fact that punishment does not ameliorate substance use disorders or related problems.  One analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts found no statistically significant relationship between state drug imprisonment rates and three indicators of state drug problems: self-reported drug use, drug overdose deaths, and drug arrests.  

Imprisonment, whether for drug or other offenses, actually leads to much higher risk of drug overdose upon release. More than half of people in prison have an untreated substance use disorder, and illicit drug and medication use typically greatly increases following a period of imprisonment. 

Second, be sure to also read Nkechi Taifa, convener of the Justice Roundtable, commenting at the Brennan Center under the title "Race, Mass Incarceration, and the Disastrous War on Drugs."  Here is how the (relatively more optimistic) piece concludes (again links in original):

Fortunately, the tough-on-crime chorus that arose from the War on Drugs is disappearing and a new narrative is developing.  I sensed the beginning of this with the 2008 Second Chance Reentry bill and 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the disparity between crack and powder cocaine.  I smiled when the 2012 Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama came out, which held that mandatory life sentences without parole for children violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.  In 2013, I was delighted when Attorney General Eric Holder announced his Smart on Crime policies, focusing federal prosecutions on large-scale drug traffickers rather than bit players.  The following year, I applauded President Obama’s executive clemency initiative to provide relief for many people serving inordinately lengthy mandatory-minimum sentences.  Despite its failure to become law, I celebrated the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, a carefully negotiated bipartisan bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2015; a few years later some of its provisions were incorporated as part of the 2018 First Step Act.  All of these reforms would have been unthinkable when I first embarked on criminal legal system reform.

But all of this is not enough.  We have experienced nearly five decades of destructive mass incarceration.  There must be an end to the racist policies and severe sentences the War on Drugs brought us.  We must not be content with piecemeal reform and baby-step progress.

Indeed, rather than steps, it is time for leaps and bounds.  End all mandatory minimum sentences and invest in a health-centered approach to substance use disorders.  Demand a second-look process with the presumption of release for those serving life-without-parole drug sentences.  Make sentences retroactive where laws have changed.  Support categorical clemencies to rectify past injustices.

It is time for bold action.  We must not be satisfied with the norm, but work toward institutionalizing the demand for a standard of decency that values transformative change.