4 ms·
Because drug policy is about associating your political opponents with criminal activity and has nothing to do with preventing drug abuse or addiction.
by yosito 9y ago
Because drug policy is about associating your political opponents with criminal activity and has nothing to do with preventing drug abuse or addiction.
- berbec 9y agoI do believe you've hit the nail on the head there. It seems one of the big initial reasons for calling cannibis marijuana and criminalization was part of racist legislation against Hispanics. 'Numerous accounts say that "marijuana" came into popular usage in the U.S. in the early 20th century because anti-cannabis factions wanted to underscore the drug's "Mexican-ness."' [1] 1: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025...
- angry_octet 9y agoExactly. Its dog whistle politics, portraying Hispanic and African American people as the major source of drug crime.
- berbec 9y agoThey are the major source of drug crime. We make sure to arrest more minorities for drug offences, therefore they must be the source. Ignore any spurious "facts" that show drug use and incarceration rates don't match! It must be the brown people.
- MrsPeaches 9y agoSee also Opium and Chinese people at the turn of the 20th century. US has a long history of drugs policy being tightly integrated with racial politics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act https://www.counterpunch.org/2009/02/06/the-opium-exclusion-act-of-1909/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2009/02/06/the-opium-exclusion-...