#5. War on Drugs
Since its inception in the early 1970s, the War on Drugs has been an absolute disaster on all levels. What started out as a program whose objective was to promote order and strengthen the social fabric has done the exact opposite. It has torn families apart, created massive black markets for drug trafficking, and has destroyed countless civil liberties.
Most notable, is the disproportionate amount of damage that the War on Drugs has done towards the black community. Blacks generally face harsher punishments for possession crimes and tend to be targeted more during drug raids and busts. None of this happened in a vacuum or is a complete coincidence.
The drug prohibitionary framework that existed prior to the launch of the War on Drugs was very racist in nature. Blacks were generally associated with cocaine use that purportedly made them unruly and more likely to commit crimes. As a result, a new set of drug prohibitions was put in place to “put them in line”.
Despite not having openly racist rhetoric, the current War on Drugs campaign still affects blacks negatively. Families with no fathers, high incarceration rates, and the temptation to partake in black market activities are just some of the most deleterious effects of the Drug War. No matter how colorblind certain statist polices claim to be, they will always maintain vestiges of their originally racist results.
