Substances are inextricable from the human experience, from the chemicals in the foods we eat like sugar and caffeine to the daily medications we take, prescribed or unprescribed, to the recreational substances we prefer, legal or illegal. Altered states of consciousness are so integral to the human experience that Peter Furst argues in Flesh of the Gods that a fourth drive exists in the human condition, which is the drive for intoxication (Furst, 1990). According to Furst, "the desire for periodic "high states" has its origins in the human nervous system, independent of any external substances" (Furst, 1990). Neurologically, the human brain is built with specific receptors designed to process specific chemicals, both endogenous and exogenous. An adrenaline junkie gets their fix from sky-diving, a religious devotee communicates with god through prayer, an athlete needs their daily "runner's high." Humans instinctively yearn to alter their state of consciousness and manage to do so through a massively wide array of behaviors. Still, the most effective and immediate way to change one's brain chemistry is through the ingestion of a substance.
Consider the intertwining relationship between religious rituals and substance use. In Catholic mass devotees consume "the blood of Christ" when they drink wine in that ritual context, some tribes indigenous to Northern America utilize peyote in sacred ceremonies and carry on the traditions of Shamanism, Andean descendants such as the Ayamara continue to train Yatiris to conduct spiritual healing and divination rituals with coca leaves. These religious contexts were the very beginning of what we now refer to as the War on Drugs. The existence of Native peoples hampered colonial efforts in the Americas, so by outlawing their languages and cultural practices, colonizers could more easily incarcerate and exterminate them, taking ownership of the natural resources and sacred lands that constituted an integral piece of Indigenous cultural and spiritual life.
Cultural contexts for the ingestion of substances, particularly psychoactive plants such as peyote, ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, cannabis, etcetera, are markedly different from recreational contexts. The most illustrative example is the coca leaf, which not only has incredible cultural and spiritual significance, but is widely considered a cure-all in many South American countries. It is recommended for headaches, nausea, altitude sickness, pain relief, etcetera. It is made into teas, salves and balms, skincare, and the leaf itself is chewed to release its densely packed nutrients and many beneficial alkaloids. The cultural significance of being offered a handful of leaves to chew cannot be overlooked or underestimated. Bolivia's legal coca market brings in an estimated 400 to 600 billion dollars annually, making coca a cornerstone of the nation's economy. In the 19th century, the alkaloid cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and saw widespread usage; medical professionals used the substance as revolutionary local anesthesia, Freud championed its therapeutic effect, cocaine drops were beneficial for those pesky teething pains, "Instantaneous cure! For sale by all druggists" reads in an advertisement from March 1885. Not to mention a particular soda company's underhand dealing with the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The turning point for cocaine was a predominantly racial and ethnic reckoning. Misinformation spread, claiming that Jewish doctors were responsible for spreading the substance and that cocaine made Black men invincible, bullet-resistant, insane, and murderous.
Historian Richard Miller points to a repetitive pattern of propaganda and policy; smoking opium was associated with Chinese migrant workers on the west coast, and Marijuana became associated with Mexican migrant workers. Those in power spread misinformation that cocaine made Black men bulletproof and violent as the Great Migration of Black Americans to urban manufacturing areas occurred (Jarecki, 2012). The laws were made with the intent to criminalize non-white workers as a way to "protect" white America and their jobs (Alexander 2010). Working in conjunction with racist housing laws such as red-lining and the exclusion of non-white people from vital social programs such as the GI Bill, drug laws ensured poor Black and Immigrant Americans would be trapped in multi-generational cycles of poverty, drug use/abuse/addiction, incarceration, and violence (Alexander, 2010).
Intended Consequences
It is critical to understand the War on Drugs as a globalized system of structural oppression, a latticework of policies, precedents, and perceptions that demand for the exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence against millions of people (Young, 2007). Drugs were identified as public enemy number one, and there is no question as to the destructive power of highly addictive substances. However, it is crucial to understand that "what drugs haven't destroyed the War on Drugs has," succinctly stated by David Simon, journalist and creator of The Wire, in Eugene Jarecki's The House I Live In (Jarecki 2012).
A primary example of this destruction is the era of mass incarceration and the disproportionate representation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in every aspect of the judicial system. America's prison population grew by nearly 600% between 1974 and 2014, primarily due to Drug War policies, as 1 in 5 incarcerated people are serving time for a drug offense (Sawyer & Wagner, 2018). According to The Sentencing Project, 47.1% of the people in federal prisons are serving time for a drug offense. African Americans and Latinos make up 57% of the people serving time for a drug offense in state prisons.
The 1984 Sentencing Reform Act under Ronald Reagan allowed for the establishment of mandatory minimums for drug-related offenses that raced through congress in record time with little to no scientific consultation (Fish, 1984). At the time, there was the constant portrayal of an inner-city crack epidemic; despite usage rates of wealthy whites exceeding that of Black Americans, the drug was inextricably linked with urban-dwelling African Americans. To this day, crack is seen as a Black issue (DPA.org). The establishment of a 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine is an astonishing fact, considering the only differences between the two are baking soda, water, and heat (Jarecki, 2012). This means that 5 grams of crack cocaine carried the same sentence, the same mandatory minimum, as 500 grams of powder cocaine. Michelle Alexander's 2010 book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness argues that Drug War policies such as this constitute The New Jim Crow, a deliberate system of disenfranchisement, marginalization, and violence (Alexander, 2010). This claim stands to reason when one considers that Black Americans make up 13% of the population, 13% of crack cocaine users, and 90% of crack defendants in the United States (Jarecki, 2012). While steps have been taken to heal some of the damage done by mandatory minimums, including the Obama-era reduction of the crack-powder cocaine disparity to 18:1, this is just one example of drug policies that constitute judicial violence (Jarecki, 2012).
To return to historian Richard Miller, who applied Raul Hilberg's theories on the destruction of Jews in the Holocaust to the Drug War, Miller describes a Chain of Destruction that operates step by step (Miller, 1996):
Identification:, A group of people is identified as the source of problems;
Ostracism: In society we learn to hate and isolate this group;
Confiscation: People lose their rights, civil liberties, and property;
Concentration: Imprisonment in jails, prisons, camps;
Annihilation by direct or indirect means (Miller 1996).
It has happened in societies all over the world, over and over and over again. David Simon claims, "The Drug War is a holocaust in slow motion." (Jarecki, 2012)
The War on Drugs is a nexus of structural oppression, where race, socioeconomics, global politics, capitalism, and many other threads form a tangled and seemingly inescapable web. There are many factors that this article cannot cover in detail that should be considered vital to a holistic understanding of Drug War politics. Each topic area deserves time and research, and it is essential to acknowledge my limitations in capturing the whole picture here. Part of that picture is the ongoing, pervasive, and often ignored issue of mental health. The rhetoric around drug abuse and addiction has been in terms of epidemics and national crises; the Crack Epidemic, the Opioid Crisis. Dr. Gabor Maté would counter that the epidemic is a mental health one rooted in trauma, where substance use, abuse, and addiction operates as a coping mechanism. We are treating a public health problem as a criminal issue and while the conversation is moving forward, there is an incredible amount of work to be done in pursuit of social justice.
In closing, I want to reiterate the limitations of this short-form exploration of the greater Drug War landscape that leaves much ground uncovered; a landscaping that is changing rapidly and has wide-reaching implications across all disciplines, from law enforcement and policy makers to clinicians and social workers. The pursuit of social justice in any field must include the dismantling of the longest, most expensive and most ineffective War in human history (Drug Policy Alliance).
References:
Alexander, M. (2020). The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
Berger, K. (2019). Pharmacy's Past: The Soothing Syrup Known for Causing Death in Thousands of Babies. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.pharmacytimes.com/contributor/karen-berger/2019/03/pharmacys-past-the-soothing-syrup-known-for-causing-death-in-thousands-of-babies-
Fish, H. (1984, October 12). H.R.5773 - 98th Congress (1983-1984): Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.congress.gov/bill/98th-congress/house-bill/5773
Furst, P. T. (1990). The Fourth Drive. In Flesh of the Gods: The ritual use of hallucinogens. Prospect Heights, Ill: Waveland Press.
MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://maps.org/research/mdma
November Coalition. (n.d.). Incarcerated Americans. Retrieved December 7, 2020, from http://november.org/graphs/Americans.gif
PTSD, N. (2013, August 15). VA.gov: Veterans Affairs. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.ptsd.va.gov/index.asp
Sawyer, W., & Wagner, P. (n.d.). Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2018. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html
State-by-State Data: Trend in US Corrections: Drug Policy. (2020, July 28). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.sentencingproject.org/the-facts/
Top Adviser to Richard Nixon Admitted that 'War on Drugs' was Policy Tool to Go After Anti-War Protesters and 'Black People'. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://drugpolicy.org/press-release/2016/03/top-adviser-richard-nixon-admitted-war-drugs-was-policy-tool-go-after-anti
Jarecki, E. (Director). (2012). The House I Live In [Video file]. USA: BBC, NHK, Al Jazeera, ZDF, ITVS.
Rosen, W. (n.d.). Straight Talk at the Start [Introduction]. In 1112257692 840619932 A. Weil (Author), From chocolate to morphine: Everything you need to know about mind-altering drugs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Young. (2007). Five Faces of Oppression: Iris Marion Young. The Community Development Reader, 280-289. doi:10.4324/9780203935569-42
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