NAACP calls for end to War on Drugs

Nafari Vanaski, wrote for Gateway newspapers 18 August 2011, NAACP calling for truce in nation's drug war

If you grew up at the same time that I did, you'll remember the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign that became popular in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

It manifested itself in many ways, from the posters and talks in class to the "very special episodes" of shows such as "Blossom" and "The Facts of Life," where a character encounters a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who is pressuring him or her to try drugs. Inevitably, good prevailed and the druggie turned out to be from a broken family and needed only a good face-to-face with Nancy Reagan, the driving force behind the campaign, to overcome his addiction. (She appeared on "Diff'rent Strokes," and considering the real-life histories of Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges and Dana Plato, she probably should have stuck around for a five-episode story arc.)

"Just Say No" was part of the larger war on drugs the Nixon administration declared in 1971. For grown-ups, that war symbolized a lot more than sappy primetime television. Especially for black adults. For them, it meant stricter laws for those found buying, selling and distributing illegal drugs.

To that end, the NAACP took an interesting step at its national convention last month. It approved a resolution to end the war on drugs because of its devastating effect on the black community.

Interesting how the headline writer watered that down: NAACP called

for an end (here's the NAACP's own press release), and the head just says "truce". A truce with what? "Drugs" don't shoot guns. Drug gangs do. End drug prohibition and we'll end their source of funds.

However, indeed it was Nixon who started the so-called War on Drugs and Reagan who ramped it up with that "Just Say No" nonsense. While it may have seemed like a good idea at the time to some people, it has failed miserably, and it's time to end it. We can't afford $40 billion a year on a failed fake war. How about this instead:

Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president of the NAACP, is calling for a new enforcement system that puts an emphasis on "evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America."

Hm, that doesn't seem quite what the NAACP said, either. Here's their own PR's summary:

The overall message of the resolution is captured by its title: A Call to End the War on Drugs, Allocate Funding to Investigate Substance Abuse Treatment, Education, and Opportunities in Communities of Color for A Better Tomorrow.

I don't see anything in the PR about "a new enforcement system"; seems to me it's about ramping down a failed enforcement system and shifting to treatment, education, and opportunities.

Similarly, we can't afford a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia, to lock up people for this failed fake war. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq