The Common Good: on Drugs

Drug use is falling anyway; drug war is fraudulent

The utterly fraudulent war on drugs was undertaken at a time when everyone knew that use of every drug-even coffee-was falling among educated whites, and was staying sort of level among blacks. The police obviously find it much easier to make an arrest on the streets of a black ghetto than in a white suburb. By now, a very high percentage of incarceration is drug-related, and it mostly targets little guys, somebody who’s caught peddling dope. The big guys are largely ignored.

Drug-related crimes, usually pretty trivial ones, are mostly what’s filling up the prisons. I haven’t seen many bankers or executives of chemical corporations in prison. People in the rich suburbs commit plenty of crimes, but they’re not going to prison at anything like the rate of the poor.

Source: The Common Good, interviews by David Barsamian, p. 35 & 38 Feb 7, 1997

*The above quotations are from The Common Good, interviews of Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian.* Click here for definitions & background information on Drugs. Click here for other issues (main summary page). Click here for more quotes by Noam Chomsky on Drugs.
*2012 Presidential contenders on Drugs:*
	*Democrats:* Pres.Barack Obama(IL) V.P.Joe Biden(DE) *Republicans:* Gov.Mitt Romney(MA) Rep.Paul Ryan(WI)	*Third Parties:* Green: Dr.Jill Stein(MA) Libertarian: Gov.Gary Johnson(NM) Justice: Mayor Rocky Anderson(UT) Constitution: Rep.Virgil Goode(VA) Peace+Freedom: Roseanne Barr(HI) Reform Party: André Barnett(NY) AmericansElect: Gov.Buddy Roemer(LA)
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Page last updated: Apr 16, 2013