By Alexandra D. Datig
Yesterday, Russell Simmons had an opinion piece featured in
the Huffington Post (which made false claims on the number of prison inmates behind bars. Simmons number 2.3 million. Reality, 1.610 million) calling for the end of the drug war. This may be a popular thing to say, but reality on what ending the war on drugs would look like is another story. Surely, in a perfect world, like the one Russell Simmons lives in, this would be a wonderful idea. The world however, is not perfect and ending
the war on drugs today would mean losing the war on drugs tomorrow.
Quite frankly, the world would be better served if Mr. Simmons made some substantial
financial contributions to prison re-entry and recovery programs. Simmons should stick to his craft and help clean up the lyrics in rap music, which has fueled the mindset of black on
black crime, violent felons, drug abuse and degradation and violence against women.
The war on drugs will never stop. Not as long as we have drug cartels
infiltrating our nation and domestic criminal networks looking to make a buck
off those who are gullible enough to believe in a “two wrongs make a right”
argument such as; drugs like marijuana are safer than alcohol.
In his fairytale-like rant in the HuffPost, Simmons uses
buzz word after buzz word, churning the same rhetoric we have been hearing from
drug legalization enthusiasts. Most importantly however, Simmons wants to change the ratio of blacks that have been
incarcerated on drug charges, that have little opportunity to get out of the
life of crime once he or she gets out of prison. Surely, the situation Simmons describes is
dire and has been public knowledge for some time, but Simmons should also know
that the solution is not simple.
A few days ago, the Department of Justice released a speech
by United States Attorney General Eric Holder on the problems of incarceration
and re-entry into society. Re-entry is
an enormous challenge because while the idea of releasing prisoners early seems
like a novel concept for some people, the reality is they have limited or no
skills to survive once he or she re-enters society.
Prisoners are used to being taken care
of. Housing prisoners can cost between
$24,000 to $55,000 per year. Prisoners
who re-enter societies have little means to find work which supports this level
of income. Therefore, he or she often
reverts back to a life of crime leading back to incarceration. A tragedy of circumstance, yes. A reason to end the war on drugs? No.
If we are gong to help people and rehabilitate them successfully,
prisons need to be reformed from within.
Mr. Simmons should know that. Mr.
Simmons should also know while his pie in the sky ideas of legalizing drugs
sound like music to him and his ilk, reality of rehabilitating those who become
drug dependent is a challenge we have yet to fully realize.
The United States has more than 7 million
addicts and no effective way to treat them (35 million drug dependent Americans qualify for Obamacare, (R. L. Kirkish, 2013).
Ending the war on drugs with no solution on how to handle drug cartels
that are now producing more methamphetamine due to the suppression of the marijuana
market, remains to be the inconvenient consequence of legalizing and
decriminalizing marijuana. Legitimizing illegal
drugs has not and will not bring about real solutions on how to combat the problem of making drugs more available to addicts or to get rid of drug cartels. Yet Mr. Simmons wants to end
the war on drugs and legalize them. So far, the forecast
proves to be catastrophic.
Faces of Meth:
Faces of Meth:
