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Full-Text Articles in Law
Roadmap For Anti-Racism: First Unwind The War On Drugs Now, Steven A. Ramirez, Andre Douglas Pond Cummings
Roadmap For Anti-Racism: First Unwind The War On Drugs Now, Steven A. Ramirez, Andre Douglas Pond Cummings
Faculty Publications & Other Works
The War on Drugs (WOD) transmogrified into a war on communities of color early in its history, and its impact has devastated communities of color first and foremost. People of color disproportionately suffer incarceration in the WOD even though people of color use illegal narcotics at substantially lower rates than white Americans. As a result, the WOD led to mass incarceration of people of color at many times the rate of white Americans. Indeed, as a stark illustration of the power of race in America, even after Illinois and Colorado legalized cannabis, over-policing in communities of color resulted in a …
Toward A Socially Just Peace In The War On Drugs?: The Illinois Cannabis Social-Equity Program, Steven A. Ramirez, Andre Douglas Pond Cummings
Toward A Socially Just Peace In The War On Drugs?: The Illinois Cannabis Social-Equity Program, Steven A. Ramirez, Andre Douglas Pond Cummings
Faculty Publications & Other Works
Laudably, when Illinois legalized the recreational use of cannabis, it also sought to repair the damage wrought by the War on Drugs (WOD) through its social-equity initiatives. That harm included excessive and disproportionate incarceration in communities of color, over-policing within those communities, and all of the social and economic harms implicit in those realities. This harm necessarily creates intergenerational harm, as parents and children lose necessary pillars of support. Moreover, compelling evidence suggests that the progenitors of the WOD intended this harm. Measured against this historic social injustice, the social equity efforts in Illinois fail to secure a material unwinding …