Nia Norris Nicole Cardoza Nia Norris Nicole Cardoza

End disparities in crack cocaine sentencing.

Racism in drug sentencing has been debated for years. Huge disparities in mandatory minimum sentences meant possession of crack cocaine, associated with Black urban communities, was punished much more harshly than possession of the same amounts of powder cocaine, favorite of celebrities and suburbanites. These sentencing requirements contributed to the mass incarceration of Black Americans, often low-level drug offenders. Though on Monday the Supreme Court had the chance to right this wrong, it instead ruled that low-level drug offenders do not always require new sentencing under the First Step Act of 2018 (New York Times).

Happy Thursday! This week, the Supreme Court ruled that low-level crack cocaine offenders convicted more than a decade ago can’t take advantage of a 2018 federal law to seek reduced prison time. We're diving into the history of the "War on Drugs" and the racial disparities in crack cocaine sentencing.

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Nicole

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By Nia Norris (she/her)

Racism in drug sentencing has been debated for years. Huge disparities in mandatory minimum sentences meant possession of crack cocaine, associated with Black urban communities, was punished much more harshly than possession of the same amounts of powder cocaine, favorite of celebrities and suburbanites. These sentencing requirements contributed to the mass incarceration of Black Americans, often low-level drug offenders. Though on Monday the Supreme Court had the chance to right this wrong, it instead ruled that low-level drug offenders do not always require new sentencing under the First Step Act of 2018 (New York Times).

​

Drug laws have been racist ever since Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971 (Drug Policy Alliance). In the 1980s, unfounded fears that pregnant people of color who used crack would give birth to a generation of disabled “crack babies” (NPR) incentivized harsher laws like the Sentencing Act of 1984 and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which imposed mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. A mandatory minimum means that someone convicted of a certain crime must receive at least a certain sentence, no matter what other extenuating factors may have been present. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act prescribed significantly harsher penalties for crack cocaine, with five grams of crack carrying the same mandatory minimum sentence as 500 grams of powder cocaine (CJPF).

​

Crack and powder are two delivery mechanisms of the same drug, though one was punished 100 times more harshly than the other. “The primary difference between crack and powdered cocaine, some say, is the public perception of the user and the seller,” said the New York Times. “The white suburbanite [is] usually linked with powdered cocaine, and the young, urban black man connected to crack” (New York Times). The Clinton administration’s 1994 Crime Bill enacted even tougher sentencing laws and incentivized the construction of private prisons (ACLU). In 2000, several organizations which had been advocating for sensible drug policies instead of mass incarceration since the late 1980s came together to form the Drug Policy Alliance (Drug Policy Alliance).
​

Up until 2010, crack cocaine possession continued to be the only drug that carried a mandatory prison sentence whether it was a small amount for personal use or a large amount for distribution. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 eliminated this mandatory prison sentence and reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine from 100:1 to 18:1 (USSC). The First Step Act of 2018 reduced mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, with some reductions applied retroactively to those already sentenced. However, the law did not eliminate mandatory minimums entirely (CRS Reports). Monday’s Supreme Court ruling held that only people sentenced specifically under a mandatory minimum modified by this law could apply for retroactive relief.

​

The proposed EQUAL Act would eliminate the disparity in sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine entirely and offer people who are incarcerated for crack offenses to retroactively reduce their sentencing (Vox). Although it would be a step in the right direction, we need to look at full decriminalization if we want to combat the impact that the so-called “War on Drugs” has had on minorities. In November, Oregon became the first state in the country to fully decriminalize drugs. The impact of drug decriminalization would be to reduce the prison population (and the costs associated with it), use law enforcement resources more meaningfully, prioritize health and safety over punishment, reduce the stigma associated with substance use disorders, and make evidence-based harm reduction practices more accessible, including syringe and other safer-usage supply access, supervised use sites, and naloxone (Drug Policy Alliance).

​
The so-called “war on drugs” has done nothing to reduce drug use and has only served as an avenue to incarcerate Black Americans at higher rates through the use of mandatory minimum sentencing and other sentencing biases (American Progress). Reduction in sentencing is a good first step, but the ultimate goal should be decriminalization in order to treat addiction as a public health crisis instead of a criminal matter.

Key Takeaways

  • Drug policy has historically been written with racist intentions and fueled by hysteria over the crack crisis. Crack carries a significantly larger (18:1) sentence than powdered cocaine.

  • Recent legislation to reduce mandatory minimums for crack have continued to treat crack more harshly than powdered cocaine, and efforts to eliminate this disparity entirely have only recently been introduced through the EQUAL Act.

  • Decriminalization of drugs would reduce the impact of mass incarceration and treat addiction as a public health crisis instead of a criminal offense.

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Kashea McCowan Nicole Cardoza Kashea McCowan Nicole Cardoza

Rally for marijuana justice.

Last week, five White House staffers were fired because of their past use of drugs, including marijuana (AP). News of this action recirculated conversations on the federal government's stance on decriminalizing marijuana and expunging the records of those with felonies related to drug use and distribution. Despite repeatedly advocating to end marijuana criminalization during their campaign (Teen Vogue), a new video suggests that their stance shifted. A former member of the Biden-Sanders task force stated that the president opted against a pro-legalization stance because they were worried about its impact on the election (More Perfect US).

Happy Tuesday and welcome back! I hope yesterday's newsletter inspired you to find a local publication to support. There, you might have stumbled across news about marijuana laws in legislation in your state. Or, you may have heard about the fired White House staffers. Either way, today we're learning more about the legacy of marijuana enforcement and looking beyond decriminalization towards justice – and accounting for these historical wrongs.

This newsletter is a free resource made possible by our paying subscribers. We'd love you to consider making a monthly recurring donation on our website or Patreon. You can also give one-time on PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). Thank you for all your support!

Nicole

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By Kashea McCowan (she/her)

Last week, five White House staffers were fired because of their past use of drugs, including marijuana (AP). News of this action recirculated conversations on the federal government's stance on decriminalizing marijuana and expunging the records of those with felonies related to drug use and distribution. Despite repeatedly advocating to end marijuana criminalization during their campaign (Teen Vogue), a new video suggests that their stance shifted. A former member of the Biden-Sanders task force stated that the president opted against a pro-legalization stance because they were worried about its impact on the election (More Perfect US).

For many years, cannabis, also known as marijuana, has long been classified as an illegal drug. Though the rates of usage between white and non-white communities are grossly similar, people from predominantly black communities are mostly targeted for having possession of it. Today, eleven states and the District of Columbia have fully legalized recreational pot, fifteen states decriminalized it, thirty-three states have authorized medicinal use of it, and nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that marijuana should be legal even if they don’t use it (The Atlantic). Though this is a big leap towards reform, making up for the brutal inequalities of an expensive and racist drug war is a long path to tread. 

According to the ACLU's 2013 analysis, “marijuana arrests account for more than half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, eighty-eight percent were simply for having marijuana in their possession. Despite the roughly equal usage rates, Black people are 3.73 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana (American Civil Liberties Union).” 

By 2020, the analysis for arrests in the Black population dropped only nine points, making people of color 3.64 times more likely to get arrested. These facts are calculated on a nationwide basis, but it is reported that not only are people of color prone to being arrested for the possession of marijuana in every single state, but in some states, they are up to six, eight, or almost ten times more likely to be arrested compared to the same amount of white people being stopped and/or caught for the same thing. Even in Canada, statistics show that Black and Indigenous people are over-represented amongst those arrested (NORML).

“Politicians across the political divide spent much of the twentieth century using marijuana as a means of dividing America. By painting the drug as a scourge from south of the border . . . marijuana as a drug and the laws that sought to control it played on some of America’s worst tendencies around race, ethnicity, civil disobedience, and otherness,” says John Hudak of his book, Marijuana: A Short History. “. . . U.S. government officials first painted cannabis as an insidious substance flowing across the border like immigrants from Mexico. Next, the government described cannabis as a drug for the inner city and for Blacks while also lying about it leading to murder, rape, and insanity. Next, political opponents of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan designed and enforced laws to target a variety of groups across America (Brookings).”

As a result of the aggressive enforcement of the marijuana possession laws carried out by excessive racial bias, hundreds of thousands of people are thrown into the criminal justice system. This not only deducts billions of dollars out of taxpayers’ pockets, but the personal cost individuals pay for those arrests is significant and can linger for years. The repercussions for being arrested prevent those charged from being eligible for public housing, student financial aid, employment opportunities, child custody determinations, and immigration status (American Civil Liberties Union). Not only do these people get pushed out of society after going to jail but now, the industry that once provided a living for them and their families is legally out of arm's reach because of the marijuana drug charges on their backgrounds. The industry that once financially supported people of color in low-income communities historically, is now being deemed as medicinal when big white corporations, white businesses, and white farmers want to make a profit. 

Now that marijuana is being legalized, it is becoming harder for people of color to share in the cannabis boom. Government rules will decide who can profit from growing the crop. At the moment, those rules favor well-connected, corporate growers rather than independent farmers, much less independent farmers of color (The Atlantic). In places where medical marijuana is legal, people are finding that it is extremely difficult to obtain a growers license. In New York, only ten companies own licenses to cultivate and dispense marijuana and licenses can sell well up to tens of millions of dollars. When regulators dictate who grows a cash crop, they can make choices to help spread the wealth. but when it is done “wrong”, these regulators deliberately make it to where a “certain type of person” doesn’t get to partake in it, in this case, the exclusion of BIPOC farmers. But like the tobacco industry, cannabis is made legal so that the rich can get richer, “endowing a designated class of Americans with a way of life that buoyed entire regional economies (The Atlantic).” 

When it comes to the War on Drugs, Black and Brown people still face the brunt of it. There are too many people in the BIPOC community that are incarcerated because of charges related to the possession of marijuana. To make matters worse, that same industry portrayed as being destructible for society is now legal in most states. The licensure system for marijuana cultivation should award licenses to a larger number of applicants from communities hit the hardest. Legalization and decriminalization should eliminate future arrests and s expunge past offenses. And, more effective policies should be implemented to create new and lasting ownership opportunities for people of color and those with previous, low-level cannabis convictions, including farming, distribution, and sales. Though efforts are being made toward repair, we still have a long way to go. The history of cannabis policy and the criminal justice system in the U.S. shows that racism is institutionalized and enforced in Black communities. It is now legalization that must institutionalize the means for the recovery of Black and Brown people and the communities they live in (Brookings).

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Black people are nearly four times more likely to get arrested for possession of marijuana than white people. 

  • Eleven states and the District of Columbia have fully legalized recreational pot, fifteen states decriminalized it, and thirty-three states have authorized medicinal use of it.

  • There needs to be more inclusive policies for marijuana farming.

  • There should be automatic expungement for people who hold low-level possession of marijuana convictions.

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Nia Norris Nicole Cardoza Nia Norris Nicole Cardoza

Promote harm reduction during the overdose epidemic.

Since the coronavirus pandemic shut down America, opioid overdoses have been on the rise. There are many explanations for this, including new stressors and uncertainty, general isolation, and a decline in the accessibility of recovery programs and treatment centers (US News). Though Black people use opioids at about the same rate as the rest of the general population, they have seen the highest increase in opioid deaths (SAMHSA).

Hi and Happy Sunday! How are you feeling this week? It's been a busy couple of weeks for us – we're hiring two new staff members and just brought on a designer to introduce video and updated assets to the brand. I'm excited and eagerly counting down the days til 2021.

Today we're joined by Nia who's unpacking the disproportionate impact of the opioid crisis during COVID-19, particularly on communities of color. I'm committing to taking a CPR class (online!) this month.

This newsletter is made possible by our generous group of contributors. Support our work by making a one-time gift on our website or PayPal, or giving monthly on Patreon. You can also Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). To subscribe, go to antiracismdaily.com. You can share this newsletter and unlock some fun rewards by signing up here.

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  • If you know people who use opioids (including legal prescription opioids), consider obtaining naloxone and getting training on using it. Depending on your state, naloxone may be available over the counter at your pharmacy. Naloxone can also be accessed through local harm reduction initiatives. If you are having a hard time finding naloxone in your area, you can get naloxone online.

  • Take a CPR training class to be prepared if you encounter someone who is unresponsive due to an overdose.

  • Consider donating to harm reduction organizations that distribute lifesaving overdose reversal medications free of charge.

GET EDUCATED

By Nia Norris (she/her)

Since the coronavirus pandemic shut down America, opioid overdoses have been on the rise. There are many explanations for this, including new stressors and uncertainty, general isolation, and a decline in the accessibility of recovery programs and treatment centers (US News). Though Black people use opioids at about the same rate as the rest of the general population, they have seen the highest increase in opioid deaths (SAMHSA).

There has also been a decrease in the accessibility of medication-assisted treatments (MATs), such as methadone and buprenorphine (also known as Suboxone). Buprenorphine can be prescribed by a doctor to be taken at home, but methadone requires a daily trip to the clinic. Harm reduction advocates argue that methadone maintenance should be more flexible, especially during the pandemic, and that clinics should be offering additional take-home doses for patients (Filter). However, many clinics do not provide extra take-home doses, forcing patients to risk their health to come into the clinic daily (Talk Poverty). 

In Chicago’s Cook County, Black people account for half of the overdoses  (Chicago Tribune). The numbers are similar in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Inquirer). Black people have also been affected by the Covid-19 virus at disproportionately higher rates nationally, making the increase in overdose deaths and the coronavirus pandemic an intertwined issue (NY Times). 

Historically, the “war on drugs” targeted Black individuals, disproportionately incarcerating Black Americans, despite the fact that they do not use drugs at a higher rate than white Americans. It has led to family separations due to incarceration and a new form of slavery through prison labor. The ACLU described the war on drugs as “The New Jim Crow” in 2003 (ACLU). 

The opioid crisis provoked a media discourse that is largely differentiated from the “war on drugs,” when the “crack cocaine crisis” was painted as a problem of the Black community. White Americans started dying from opioid overdoses due to the overprescription of painkillers. Discrimination in prescribing practices led to lower rates of Black people being addicted to prescription painkillers. The opioid epidemic caught the nation’s attention because of its impact on white, middle-class Americans, and helped rebrand addiction from an issue of criminality to a public health crisis (NCBI).

However, as restrictions were placed on painkiller prescriptions, more Americans turned to heroin and fentanyl. This led to an upward swing in overdoses among Black people (NY Times). However, Black people who suffer from substance use disorders are still largely invisible in the public health discourse (Addiction Psychology).

Systematic racism accounts for the disproportionate overdose rates of Black people during the Covid-19 pandemic. First of all, Black people are less likely to have access to MAT medications like buprenorphine and more likely to rely on methadone clinics. (Remember, buprenorphine can be prescribed to be taken at home, but methadone must be taken at a clinic.) Doctors have to possess a special certificate to supply buprenorphine and are limited in the number of patients they can see. Because the number of doctors who prescribe buprenorphine does not match the demand, doctors can force patients to pay out of pocket or choose to accept only private insurance (NY Times). If clinics are closed or unsafe due to disproportionate coronavirus rates, it impacts the accessibility of needed medications, leading to more relapses. There are also racial disparities in access to addiction treatment (Addiction Center) and the pandemic-related closure of support groups such as Narcotic Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous.  


We can mitigate the impact of the overdose crisis on the Black community through better funding for treatment programs and increasing accessibility of life-saving medication-assisted treatment, such as a loosening of restrictions on the prescribing of methadone and buprenorphine. Harm reduction also has a vital role in this discourse. Everyone who loves someone who uses drugs should keep the life-saving overdose reversal medication naloxone on hand. Harm reduction initiatives are largely underfunded: private donations primarily fund organizations that provide syringe exchange services and naloxone free of charge. Some operate on the fringe of legality due to paraphernalia laws, and many states do not have syringe exchange programs at all (Drug Policy Alliance). These ideological and political barriers continue to exist in spite of evidence that these services reduce harm in the community (CDC). Donations to these programs will put naloxone in the hands of people who need it

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Overdoses are on the rise during the Covid-19 pandemic and are disproportionately impacting Black people.

  • Black people have less access to addiction treatment, as well as medicated assisted therapies such as buprenorphine.

  • Increased access to overdose-reversal drug naloxone can help avoid preventable deaths. 

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Renée Cherez Nicole Cardoza Renée Cherez Nicole Cardoza

 Help decriminalize drug possession. 

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Happy Thursday – for real this time. I guess I was trying to fast forward this week yesterday. Can you blame me?!

This has been a heck of a week, and it's still only Thursday. You may have heard that last night, players at several major sports leagues went on strike, forcing leagues to postpone games (ESPN). Renée wrote a powerful story in last week's newsletter encouraging all of us to support athletes fighting injustice. Now's the time to put that newsletter into action.

Today, Renée is back with a quick overview of the history of drug possession, its contributions to the criminalization of communities of color, and its ramifications today. Send your insights and thoughtful inquiries – each Saturday, we answer questions and dive deeper into this week's topics in our weekly Study Hall. 

You can always support our efforts by making a one-time contribution to our website, PayPal, or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). Or, subscribe monthly on Patreon. Thank you to all that have contributed so far!

Nicole

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TAKE ACTION

Urge your senators to support the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which will, if passed, decriminalize marijuana, expunge certain marijuana offenses from people’s records and “provide for reinvestment in certain persons adversely impacted by the War on Drugs.”

GET EDUCATED

By Renée Cherez

America’s 1970’s “war on drugs” introduced by Richard Nixon and continued by Ronald Regan in the eighties created deep and disproportionate outcomes for communities of color, and Black people bore and continue to bear the highest burden. In 2016, Dan Baum published an article in which he recalls a 1994 conversation with a former Nixon aide:

 

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.” 

 

John Ehrlichman, counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon, via Harpers.

 

This may have surprised some, but Black people across America knew for decades the war on drugs was racialized terror that targeted their communities. If asked to picture a drug dealer, it’s unsurprising if the first image that comes to mind is a young, Black man. This is wholly evident in majority-white cast movies and shows where marijuana use is depicted. It’s no accident because this is how the war on drugs campaign was designed. In an April COVID-19 press conference, Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General of the United States, suggested that the disproportionate rates of death among Black and Latinx communities were caused by higher rates of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol consumption. Not only did he fail to mention systemic racism as a cause for higher rates of death in Black and Brown communities, but he perpetuated the stereotype that Black and Brown people consume substances at higher rates (NYTimes).

 

The war on drugs was intended to criminalize and vilify Black people, making it possible to lock them away in prisons under a public safety guise. Because of this, Black people continue to undergo blatant discrimination at every level of the criminal justice system, including over-policed communities, more searches, more arrests, more convictions, longer sentences, extended probation periods, and are granted fewer appeals (Drug Policy Alliance).

 

Introduced in 1973, the Rockefeller Drug Laws in New York mandated draconian prison terms for possession or the sale of small amounts of drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin for 15 years to life. (Drug Policy Alliance). The law was said to target “kingpins,” however, those overly convicted were Black, low-level, first time, non-violent offenders though white people smoked and sold crack more than Black people (NPR). Mandatory minimums for low-level offenses were set by Congress, making it impossible for judges to have their say in the event they disagreed. 

 

These laws not only ushered in the mass incarceration system we see today but the usage of the criminal justice system for drug abuse versus public health systems like cost-free rehabilitation clinics.

 

In 2018, Black men were incarcerated at 5.8 times the rate of white men, and Black women were incarcerated at a rate of 1.8 times the rate of white women (U.S. Department of Justice). Black men’s prison sentences, on average, are 19.1% longer than white men who commit the same offense (USSC). Nearly 80% of people in federal prison and almost 60% of people in state prisons for drug offenses are Black or Latino. Furthermore, prosecutors are twice as likely to pursue a mandatory minimum sentence for Black people than white people charged with the same offense (Drug Policy Alliance). 

 

Science shows that drug abuse is a disease and should be treated as a health problem rather than a moral failure (NIH). Unlike the crack epidemic of the eighties which involved poor Black people, the opioid and heroin epidemic that’s killed mostly young, white, middle-class Americans in recent years is told in a more compassionate and solution-based way. A research study analyzed 100 popular press articles from 2001-2011 found that the depictions of white, suburban heroin users to be sympathetic while the descriptions of Black and Latino heroin users were “urbanized” and criminalized (NIH).

 

As the 2020 American presidential election approaches, millions of disenfranchised Black and Brown people cannot vote due to the war on drugs and mass incarceration. Because of this, candidates running for office on any level should be advocates of the decriminalization of drugs, including marijuana. Black people who use marijuana are deemed thugs and low lives, while white people who use marijuana are considered progressive and cool.

 

Marijuana is legalized in eleven states and Washington D.C. and legal for medicinal use in thirty-three states (Business Insider). With the legalization of marijuana in states like Colorado and Washington, majority-white venture capitalists have invested and gained billions of dollars in profit growing and selling the very substance millions of Black and Brown people are imprisoned for. Many states in the cannabis industry have laws that prevent individuals with marijuana adjacent offenses who are disproportionately Black and Brown people (Forbes).

 

What does it say about a country that has more prisons than schools? What does it say about a country with more people imprisoned in cages than anywhere else in the world? Rates of drug use are as high as they were forty-nine years ago when Nixon dubbed drug abuse “public enemy number one.”

 

We cannot trust that mass incarceration and the enduring criminality of Black lives will just go away. We must advocate for the decriminalization of drug possession, which is the primary cause of incarceration among Black and Brown people. Treatment centers should be available for everyone, especially those without means. We must continue to educate ourselves about the root of issues – not only the issues themselves – to help guide our building of essential programs and resources in communities that need them the most.

RELATED ISSUES

  • President Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan ushered in the “war on drugs” in the ’70s and ’80s, which has led to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people today.

  • In 2018, Black men were incarcerated 5.8 times the rate of white men, and Black women were incarcerated at a rate of 1.8 times the rate of white women.

  • The decriminalization and legalization of marijuana will help to end mass incarceration.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.

Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza

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