Drug addiction is a terrible epidemic that destroys many lives, and therefore many countries of the world are waging war on drugs. However, the methods used, insufficient data quality, and biases affecting the course of the struggle have negative consequences. Laws against drugs have a disproportionate impact on national minorities, women, and other oppressed groups. At the same time, the roots of the addiction problem, which lie in poverty and social inequality, are often ignored. Despite all the dangers of drugs, the fight against them should not worsen the living conditions for the population and aggravate injustice.
The problem of racism in America’s justice system is particularly acute. The American system is the largest globally and contains the most prisoners. At the same time, people of color, especially African-Americans, are detained more often. After detention, representatives of other races are more likely to be convicted and sentenced to harsher punishment. Such injustice is especially noticeable in the drug situation, where the number of crimes for different races is approximately the same (The Sentencing Project, 2018). The police distribute their efforts focusing on areas where they believe a crime is more likely, and policies like “Broken Windows” and “Stop, Question, and Frisk” make people of color the target (The Sentencing Project, 2018). Given the disproportionate level of poverty, structural racism, and small efforts to combat these problems, the drug war is a more significant burden for minorities.
The fight against drugs also unfairly affects women, especially women of color. Racial bias is also relevant to them, but several other problems supplement it. Women have less access than men to treatment during detention (Drug Policy Alliance, n.d.). Child protection policies fight drugs, and sometimes children can be taken from mothers only for suspicion of them in connection with drug crimes (Drug Policy Alliance, n.d.). Conspiracy laws are also severely used against women, imposing penalties for not informing about the involvement of a partner or family member in drug sales (Drug Policy Alliance, n.d.). Thus, existing laws against drugs are unfair to racial minorities and women.