Race, ethnicity, and drug war

Full site / Mobile. Weed War. 2023. 2024. Years. Home. Republican states. Canada. Portugal. End.

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Share links: race or racism. This article was written by Timeshifter. See: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. And: Influential black cannabis users. And: The U.S. Drug War. Republicans lead. And: Vote out most US Republicans and their cannabis war.

7 Oct 2020. Dumping Trump is the only way marijuana legalization will happen | Leafly. From the article:

rural sheriffs have become legalization’s most vocal opponents, for obvious reasons. ... The imagined “smell of marijuana” offers deputies a pretext to stop and search whomever they choose. And of course they mostly choose Black people ... Civil asset forfeiture laws give cops in rural outposts the power to seize the cash, vehicles, and assets of any citizen based solely on a drug charge. Not a conviction. All it takes is a charge. For these rural sheriffs, marijuana prohibition is a powerful tool of white supremacy

New York Times article and video on epic fail of drug war. Narrated by Jay Z (Shawn Carter). Sept. 15, 2016. [1][2][3][4].

23 Mar 2017: Let's Reform the Criminal (In)justice System | Ben & Jerry’s. The racism of the Criminal (In)justice System, and the drug war.

KKK's racist holy war.

See 2004 article source. And Wikipedia: Ron Reagan.

The majority of people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA are in due to drug-related offenses, crimes to get money for drugs, or drug-related parole or probation violations. Wikipedia: Drug-related crime. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. It peaked in 2008. Obama's Democrat landslide in 2008 turned the incarceration rate around. The cost of the U.S. drug war is at least 1.5 trillion dollars. Cannabis is safer! Share link.

Mass incarceration due to the drug war began in the 1980's due to Republican-led hysteria about marijuana, followed up by whipping up fear of black men and crack cocaine. See: The American Drug Panic of the 1980s. Chapter 12 of Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. See: Drug war, mandatory minimum sentencing, handguns, homicide rates.

See chart sources: [5] [6], with notes.

U.S. adult male incarceration rate is astronomical compared to the rest of the world. For both whites and blacks. But especially for blacks. Rates in the USA peaked in 2008, and declined slowly after that under Obama. Obama became President in January 2009.

Chart is from: U.S. Has World's Highest Incarceration Rate. 2012 article. Rates peaked in 2008.

This quote from Nixon aide John Ehrlichman (in 1994) is from an April 2016 Dan Baum article in Harper's Magazine: Legalize It All. How to win the war on drugs. Quote: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
See: CNN info. See article: Nixon's drug war against black people and hippies.

New Republican governor of Kentucky removes voting rights of all felons for their entire lives. [13]. A RepubliKKKan dream. Dec. 23, 2015 article.

Jackie Robinson. From his 1972 autobiography.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions

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  Source. Viral video.

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  Republican-led drug war.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Is a Drug War Dinosaur. [14]. And: More than 1,100 law school professors nationwide oppose Sessions’s nomination as attorney general. And: MSNBC Guest: Upcoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions Is a ‘KKK Sympathizer’. And: Sessions: KKK "was O.K. until I found out they smoked pot." [15]. And: Sessions Racism Accusations: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. [16]. See: Race, ethnicity, and drug war. And: US News & World Report. Activists Roll Joint, Offer Free Pot at Jeff Sessions Office as Threats Swirl to Legalization Framework. [17]. Viral video.

Racism, interracial marriage, public opinion

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It is long past time to end Nixon's racist drug war, [18], and the "Southern Strategy".

Interracial Marriage Highest It's Ever Been in the U.S. May 19, 2017. Newsweek. From the article: "Attitudes toward mixed marriages have shifted even more drastically when considering American views on the matter back in 1990, when 63 percent of non-black adults said they would be completely or somewhat opposed to a family member marrying a black person. In 2015, only 14 percent of non-black adults surveyed said they wouldn’t agree with a relative marrying a black person."

Casualties of war. Incarceration by race

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• Black men below poverty line have lowest overall survival. By Stephen Feller. July 18, 2016. See also: Canadian single-payer healthcare and Portuguese drug decriminalization.

Incarceration gap widens between whites and blacks. Pew Research Center. September 6, 2013.

John Trudell.

• Number incarcerated in the USA peaked in 2008.
• The Drug War, Mass Incarceration and Race. June 12, 2015. Drug Policy Alliance.
• Race and Prison | Drug War Facts: "Human Rights Watch’s analysis of prison admission data for 2003 revealed that relative to population, blacks are 10.1 times more likely than whites to be sent to prison for drug offenses."
• Chart below from: The meteoric, costly and unprecedented rise of incarceration in America. By Emily Badger, April 30, 2014. The Washington Post.

Drug arrest rates by race (per 100,000 population).

European alternatives to mass incarceration

Return to top. See also: Alternatives to Republican-led mass incarceration.

Look at the decreasing crime rates in the G7 countries in the chart to the right. All of the those countries except for the USA have low incarceration rates.

Where have all the burglars gone? July 2013 article. See chart to the right. In contrast to Republican-led mass incarceration the article explains other methods that are lowering crime rates in countries with low incarceration rates. They also have few handguns. See also Wikipedia: Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries.

Past month illicit drug use by race or ethnicity

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Chart below. Past month illicit drug use. Age 12 or older, by race or ethnicity 2002-2010. Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality.

Over 100 years of drug war

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See: Cost of U.S. drug war.

• Four of the Major Fear Campaigns That Helped Create America's Insane War on Drugs. By Phillip Smith / AlterNet. February 9, 2015. History of racist U.S. drug war since the 19th century.
• Canada: Emily Murphy: A pioneer in the war on pot. By Mark Bourrie. Sept. 30, 2012. National Post. "Emily Murphy ... made Canada the first Western country to launch a war on pot. She convinced the government to ban cannabis by writing a book that, if it came on the market today, would certainly fall under the hate crimes provision of the Criminal Code."

2015. 70th anniversary: Victory over fascism in WW2. 35th year: Reagan's cannabis war. Today, Republicans often block cannabis legislation state by state (except low-THC bills). U.S. federal narcotic law enforcement began in 1915. 1915 was also the year of Billie Holiday's birth. 2. The movie, "The Birth of a Nation," came out in 1915. Originally called The Clansman. First blockbuster movie. Roots of hate radio, Fox News, Nixon's racist Southern Strategy, and racist drug war.

• The Drug War, Mass Incarceration and Race. See PDF. June 12, 2015. Drug Policy Alliance. See chart from the article:

Chart is for December 31, 2012. Data comes from: Prisoners in 2013. From Table 14 of the PDF. By Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Richard Nixon

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Nixon Aide Admitted Drug War Was Meant To Target Black People and Hippies. Intense racial targeting associated with the drug war wasn’t an unintended side effect — it was the whole point. And GOP mass incarceration helps in enforcing income inequality.

Republican wars on brown people

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The "War on Drugs". Why is everything a "war" or a "crusade" to Republicans? The war on drugs is a war on people.

George Carlin: Youtube: George Carlin: "We Like War!" 1992. "Especially if your country's full of brown people." (1 min 20 sec in. Direct link there). Bush's "crusade".

Black Lives Matter

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The ugly message behind erasing ‘Black’ from ‘Black Lives Matter’ signs. Petula Dvorak. 6 Aug 2015. The Washington Post. You Don't Have to Be Racist to Benefit From White Privilege. Erika Kleinman. 14 Aug 2015. Huffington Post.

• Trump said it was OK to "rough up" black protesters, and sent a racist tweet [19]. And you wonder why the Republican-led drug war is so racist.
• The Man Beaten And Choked At A Donald Trump Rally Tells His Story.
• 'Muslim-Free' Gun Store Now Selling George Zimmerman's Confederate Flag Paintings. 18 Aug 2015. You can't make this stuff up. And: [20].

Black Lives Matter.

• There's blatant inequality at nearly every phase of the criminal justice system (charts and article). By Andrew Kahn and Chris Kirk, Slate. 9 Aug 2015. Business Insider. [21]
• Racism and Mass Incarceration in the US Heartland: Historical Roots of the New Jim Crow. 27 November 2015. By James Kilgore. Truthout.
• Alicia Keys released a beautiful video to get 1 million signatures for prison reform. By Erica Williams Simon. 25 Nov. 2015. Upworthy.

All We Want Is Justice: Fighting for Eric Garner [22]. By Erica Garner and Reggie Harris. Dec. 3, 2015. Huffington Post. NYPD cop who killed Eric (I can't breathe) Garner with a banned chokehold is still on the payroll.

Cory Booker & Quentin Tarantino on Drug War

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• Quentin Tarantino. War on Drugs is Like Slavery. Youtube link. Articles: Tarantino - War on Drugs is Like Slavery. [23]. Wikipedia: Quentin Tarantino. Source video. George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, and The Young Turks. [7][8][9][10]. From June 2007. Click links for sources, and more recent quotes. Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey: "I'm going to battle on this," the mayor says. "We're going to start doing it the gentlemanly way. And then we're going to do the civil disobedience way. Because this is absurd. I'm talking about marches. I'm talking about sit-ins at the state capitol. I'm talking about whatever it takes." Quote source.

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  U.S. incarceration rate peaked in 2008.

Incarceration rates by race, age, and ethnicity

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2009 numbers in first 2 charts below. See charts source for more info.

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Incarceration rates in the USA peaked in 2008.

2008 chart below is from page 8 of the PDF for a September 2010 report by The Pew Charitable Trusts: Collateral Costs. Incarceration's Effect on Economic Mobility. Numbers are for 2008.

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Chart below has numbers for 2010, and is from:

• Chart of the Week: The black-white gap in incarceration rates. By George Gao, July 18, 2014, Pew Research Center. And: Charting the shocking rise of racial disparity in our criminal justice system. By Christopher Ingraham, July 15, 2014, The Washington Post. And: The Prison Boom and the Lack of Black Progress after Smith and Welch. By Derek Neal and Armin Rick, July 2014, National Bureau of Economic Research.

"On any given day in 2010, almost one in ten black men ages 20-39 were institutionalized". [24]. "Institutionalized" means incarcerated for the most part nowadays: "Few persons under age 50 are in nursing homes, and the populations housed in mental hospitals have declined greatly over the past three decades." [25]. See: US timeline of imprisonment and mental hospital rates. "By 2010, nearly a third of black, male high school dropouts aged 25-29 were imprisoned or otherwise institutionalized." [26].

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More 2010 numbers in chart below. It is adapted fron this article: Chart: Black America's incarceration rate is almost 37 times as high as Canada's. By Dylan Matthews on October 16, 2014. Vox Xpress.

The 2010 rates in the above chart are per 100,000 of all ages. Except for black American men which is per 100,000 adults in 2010. More variations of the chart, and more sourcing info:

• Correctional Populations in the United States, 2010. NCJ 236319. Published December 15, 2011. By Lauren E. Glaze. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. See appendix table 3 of the PDF.
• Inner-City Violence in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Oct. 30, 2014. The Atlantic.
• Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment. August 28, 2012. by Peter Wagner. Prison Policy Initiative.

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Chart below is US timeline of adult male incarceration rates by race and ethnicity. From this article: Our penal system - Why Nations Fail. By Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.

News

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• Sex, drugs, and racist policing in Rutland, Vt. By Farah Stockman. 26 Aug 2015. Boston Globe.
• Cops "Smelled Weed", and Raped Woman Publicly in Gas Station Lot [27]. 6 Aug 2015.
• ‘I can’t breathe! I’m choking on my blood': Disturbing video of Black soldier dying in Texas jail. 20 May 2015 article. While serving "A two-day sentence for driving while intoxicated".
• After Rising Dramatically, Marijuana Arrests Are Falling In New York City And Across The Country. 20 Nov 2014. Forbes. From the article: "Low-level marijuana possession arrests by the New York Police Department (NYPD) skyrocketed from about 3,000 in 1994, when [Republican] Rudolph Giuliani took office as mayor, to more than 51,000 six years later. The crackdown continued during Michael Bloomberg’s administration, when the NYPD arrested an average of nearly 39,000 pot smokers each year, compared to 24,487 under Giuliani, 982 under David Dinkins, and 2,259 under Ed Koch". The Million Marijuana March started because of Giuliani. See: 1998 Million Marijuana March.
• Wikipedia: Death of Eric Garner. "I can't breathe". Black man choked to death on July 17, 2014 for selling "loosies" (single cigarettes) from packs without tax stamps. As of December 28, 2014, at least 50 demonstrations had been held nationwide specifically for Garner.
• 2014 New York City: Democrat Mayor de Blasio seeks mail-in payment for pot fines. He stopped Giuliani and Bloomberg's policy of arresting tens of thousands of brown people yearly for cannabis possession. [28][29][30]. See Saturday Night Live video.

Donald Andrews, Jr., owns a smoke shop in Scotia, New York.

• Black smoke shop owner’s surveillance cameras catch undercover informant planting crack at the behest of cops.
• The black/white marijuana arrest gap, in nine charts. By Dylan Matthews. 4 June 2013. Washington Post.
• The War on Marijuana in Black and White. 3 June 2013. American Civil Liberties Union.
• Fabrice Olivet talks to TalkingDrugs about race and drugs in France. By Rupert George, 22 Mar 2013.
• Former surgeon general Joycelyn Elders calls for marijuana legalization. By the CNN Wire Staff. 18 Oct 2010.

The new Jim Crow

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• The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste. NORML Blog. By: Russ Belville, NORML Outreach Coordinator. See Wikipedia: Jim Crow.

• Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

"At the bus station in Durham, North Carolina." Jim Crow in May 1940. Jack Delano, photographer. Image info.

Map of U.S. incarceration rates by state

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Adult rates of incarceration on December 31, 2013.

See Wikipedia article.

Adult incarceration on December 31, 2013

Jurisdiction	Adults in prison or jail	Incarceration rate per 100,000 adults
State	2,012,400	830
Federal	215,100	90
U.S. total	2,227,500	910

• Above map. Adult incarceration rates by state. State prisons and local jails. Rate per 100,000 adults. Does not include numbers for federal prisons. Click to enlarge. Note the higher incarceration rates in the South. See Wikipedia: List of U.S. states by incarceration rate. See also: Commons: File:US Adult Incarceration Rate by State.svg for sources, and detailed state-by-state data table. The federal rates and counts are listed there too, and can be added to the state rates and counts.

Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the above map. It is the highest rate in the world.

• Louisiana's Republican Governor Bobby Jindal Denies Clemency to Non-Violent Pot Offenders. By Mike Adams, June 22, 2015. "Without a doubt, Louisiana is a veritable concentration camp for marijuana offenders, currently housing more prisoners for petty pot-related crimes than any other state in the nation—with some of these people forced to spend as much as 20 years in prison due to the state’s three-strike rule." See also:
• Petition · Grant Clemency to Bernard Noble, 13 years for 2 joints · Change.org. Louisiana's Republican governor needs to be voted out of office for denying this man's clemency. "Due to two, decades-old prior drug convictions, he was charged under the state’s habitual offender law and faced a mandatory sentence of thirteen and one-third years. ... A father of seven children and he works hard to support them. His youngest child suffers from autism, and another of his young children suffers from rheumatoid arthritis for which there is no cure. To support them he started two businesses, a janitorial service and a restaurant."

How Billy Holiday was hunted down

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• How Billie Holiday Was Hunted Down In The Early Days Of The War On Drugs. By Johann Hari. April 9, 2015. From article (emphasis added):

"To Anslinger, this [jazz] was musical anarchy, and evidence of a recurrence of the primitive impulses that lurk in black people, waiting to emerge. 'It sounded,' his internal memos said, 'like the jungles in the dead of night.' Another memo warned that 'unbelievably ancient indecent rites of the East Indies are resurrected' in this black man’s music.' ... 'Please prepare all cases in your jurisdiction involving musicians in violation of the marijuana laws. We will have a great national round-up arrest of all such persons on a single day.' ... But when Harry came for them, the jazz world would have one weapon that saved them: its absolute solidarity."

YouTube link [31]. Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit. See lyrics in the Youtube description, or here.

William Randolph Hearst and Harry Anslinger

Pancho Villa

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• Worth Repeating: Marijuana Prohibition and Sexual Politics. March 30, 2012. By Ron Marczyk, R.N.. Toke of the Town. From the article:

"The early black jazz musicians of the 1920s and 1930s blended their love of marijuana with sexuality. This music broke through the color barrier, and was enjoyed by both white and black audiences. Marijuana was the driving force for jazz, and it was the fear of the mixing of these races that drove the white elite. ... And who was the 1937 black star who was the model for stealing white women by using the reefer music that Hearst and Anslinger feared? Cab Calloway -- that funny, funny Reefer Man! ... The large number of songs glorifying marijuana use in the decade leading up to cannabis prohibition shows what a large part marijuana played in black culture and music. ... Hearst's hatred of Mexicans and his hyping of the 'Mexican threat' to America likely was rooted in the 800,000 acres of timberland that had been confiscated from him by Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution. The Hearst papers carried paid-for columns by both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, rationalizing his relationship with the two men as one of 'helping to fight Communism.' However, during a continental tour Hearst actually attended the Nuremberg rally of 1934. He later completed a newsreel deal with Hitler during the trip!"

NAACP billboard and ACLU lawsuit.

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"Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world's people & 25% of the world's prisoners." NAACP, ACLU File Lawsuit Against City of Philadelphia for Rejecting Criminal Justice Reform Ad. Article by NAACP. Lawsuit filed October 19, 2011 during the period of the Occupy movement. Also see the ad banner article by Courthouse News Service. The drug war and prisons are big business, and a big part of how the 1% controls the 99%. See Facebook comments about the banner. The Republican Party leads the racist drug war.

Incarceration peaked in the USA in 2008. <<--See that article for sources, stats, and charts for the banner. Most inmates are incarcerated due to the drug war.

Image info. See billboard and stats.

• Blacks in Government Say War on Drugs Is Racist. Article on Black Entertainment Television (BET) site. September 2, 2011. By Naeesa Aziz. "Another Black organization has added its voice to the growing number of groups and individuals who are publicly calling for the end of America’s war on drugs. ... In July [2011], the NAACP made a similar move and passed its own resolution calling for the end of the drug war and asking government to shift the focus to substance abuse treatment and education. The call for the end of drug criminalization and drug law reform has also been echoed by other organizations such as the National Black Police Association and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, and is gaining momentum."
• GOP War On Voting Is Most Determined Disenfranchisement Effort Since Jim Crow. By Ian Millhiser. July 7, 2011. ThinkProgress.
• Inactive U.S. Marshal speaks about war on drugs. April 9, 2008. Collegiate Times. In the article Matthew Fogg, a black member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), and former Chief Deputy US Federal Marshal, is quoted: "Drug prohibition helps the US maintain a racial apartheid prison industrial complex."

Astronomical U.S. incarceration increase

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USA and territories. 2,424,279 inmates in 2008. ...

In 2008 with less than 5% of world population the USA had 2.4 million of 9.8 million world prisoners (b). See latest numbers and World Prison Population List. The majority of inmates in the USA are in due to the drug war. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. It peaked in 2008.

Incarceration nation

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Number incarcerated in the USA peaked in 2008.

November Coalition graph. Some Congressmen and police who prosecuted the War on Drugs now believe it caused a large increase in the United States incarceration rate. See Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and larger chart with sources. See template. Incarceration peaked in 2008.

"I Was Wrong About the War on Drugs – It's a Failure". By Bob Barr (former Republican, former federal prosecutor, and former Congressman). June 11, 2008. AlterNet. "The solution to the failed drug war". By Jack A. Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Sept. 13, 2008. Boston Globe.

USA: Peak of 7.3 million people in 2007 under adult correctional supervision: On probation or parole, or incarcerated in jail or prison. About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults. More info here. See template.

Minorities under control of US corrections

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The number of people incarcerated in the USA peaked in 2008. The number of people in the correctional system as a whole (jail, prison, probation, parole) peaked in 2007.

Charts below are adapted from Race and Prison. DrugWarFacts.org

U.S. corrections system. Jail, prison, probation, parole
	1990	2000	2007	2008	2009
TOTAL persons in system	4,346,941	6,423,708	7,326,734	7,319,419	7,234,209
Blacks and Hispanics in system	2,351,516	3,309,566	3,622,726	3,607,341	3,611,911
: Blacks and Hispanics % of TOTAL	54.1%	51.5%	49.4%	49.3%	49.9%
Blacks in system	1,614,195	2,347,066	2,446,834	2,453,170	2,472,920
: Blacks % of TOTAL	37.1%	36.5%	33.4%	33.5%	34.2%
Hispanic/Latinos in system	737,321	962,500	1,175,892	1,154,171	1,138,991
: Hispanics/Latinos % of TOTAL	17.0%	15.0%	16.0%	15.8%	15.7%

Percent of inmates that are Black or Hispanic. Prisons and jails
	1990	2000	2007	2008	2009
Percent	60.0%	63.4%	60.3%	60.4%	60.5%

About the above chart:

Blacks and Hispanics Under Control of the US Correctional System: In 2009, there were around 3.6 million blacks and Hispanics/Latinos who were on probation or parole, or housed in federal and state prisons, or in local jails. Between 1990 and 2009 blacks and Hispanics consistently represented around 50% of those under control of the system, even though they collectively comprise only 30% of the U.S. population (blacks around 12.6% and Hispanics/Latinos 16.3%). Blacks and Hispanics Incarcerated in Prisons and Jails: Numbering around 1.3 million, blacks and Hispanics/Latinos made up around 60% of those housed in America's prisons and jails in 2009.

Table below is from here:

• Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013 (NCJ 248479). Published December 2014 by U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). By Lauren E. Glaze and Danielle Kaeble, BJS statisticians. See appendix table 5 on page 13 in the PDF, for "Estimated number of persons supervised by adult correctional systems, by correctional status, 2000–2013."

Collateral Costs. Pew Trusts

Children with incarcerated parents

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• Collateral Costs. Incarceration's Effect on Economic Mobility. Sept. 28, 2010. The Pew Charitable Trusts. From page 4 of PDF:

"One in 9 African American children (11.4 percent), 1 in 28 Hispanic children (3.5 percent) and 1 in 57 white children (1.8 percent) have an incarcerated parent."

Above chart is from page 19 of the PDF for a September 2010 report by The Pew Charitable Trusts: Collateral Costs. Incarceration's Effect on Economic Mobility.

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Charts below are from page 8 of the same PDF. The numbers are for 2008.

Cannabis is safer

Return to top. Full site / Mobile. To Top or End. Note: This section and the following ones are at: Beyond drug war, debt, and wealth concentration. To single-payer healthcare and progressive taxation.

See articles: Cannabis is safer. And:
History of US Republican-led war on cannabis, and their lies about its health effects.

See 2024 GMM-420 on Fandom and on Shoutwiki. See 2024 talk page (no need to log in) to leave event links, and especially compilations.

Source and comments.

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Portugal's decrim

Return to top. See: Portugal. Cannabis-related links and decriminalization. See the utter failure of the US Republican-led drug war and mass incarceration: It is killing Americans at the rate of one Vietnam War every 6 months.

There were around 112,100 US drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending August 31, 2023, at a rate of 307 deaths per day. 335 deaths per million US population. Only around 10 to 72 total deaths per year in Portugal, a country with universal healthcare, and where all drugs have been decriminalized since 2001. See timeline table of yearly overdose deaths by European country.

63 in 2020. Sources: [11][12].

Chart from: December 15, 2020 article: Scotland's drug death crisis in six charts. BBC News.

Harm reduction

Return to top. End the expensive, incarceration-heavy US drug war with Portuguese and Canadian single-payer universal healthcare, and Portuguese decriminalization.

Government debt

Return to top. Share link: Debt ceiling. See: Wikipedia: US debt ceiling.

Save $1.5 trillion:

Per year in the US:

Single-payer

Return to top. Republicans oppose single-payer universal healthcare. US would save 1.5 trillion dollars per year if it instituted Canadian universal healthcare. That is 5.4% of US GDP.

Canada spent 11.2 percent of its GDP for total healthcare costs in 2022. US spent 16.6 percent in 2022. Former US Lawmaker Finally Enjoys Social Policies He Fought for—In Europe.

Medical bankruptcies

Return to top. See: Health Care Costs Number One Cause of Bankruptcy for American Families. And: Americans have high personal medical debt, unlike Canadians. [32][33][34]. High student debt is another problem Americans have due to Republican politicians. Unlike Canadians. Changing the age of adulthood to 17 would free up a year of education money.

Source and comments.

US household debt at all time high. By quarters. 1st quarter 2003 to recent times. Chart.

US is Broke, not Woke. Healthcare spending and debt ceiling.

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Richer Canadians

Return to top. Many sleepy Americans can't do the math concerning healthcare costs and medical debt. Also, incarceration and family debt due to the GOP-led war on drugs. Also US student debt, and US household debt due to GOP's low minimum wages, etc...

Source and comments.

Canadians are richer on average than Americans, and they have more energy because Canadians don't have to take 3 jobs, go bankrupt, or sell their homes, due to medical and student debt. See Wikipedia: List of countries by total health expenditure per capita. See: Student debt balance is forgiven after 15 years payment in Canada.

USA. Two Leading Economists Say Medicare for All Would Give 'Biggest Take-Home Pay Raise in a Generation'.

Medicare spends 1.4% on bureaucracy. Insurance companies spend 16-20%. See chart. We need Medicare for All.

Nearly a third of our health care dollars (mostly outside Medicare and Medicaid) go to something other than health care.

Healthier Canadians

Return to top. See: End drug war with universal healthcare and decriminalization. Cannabis is legal across Canada. See Wikipedia: Cannabis in Canada.

Canadians are richer, healthier, safer than Americans. Their universal healthcare. Their far lower murder rate due to much lower percentage with handguns. 2. Country Median wealth per adult. US dollars. Healthcare cost per person. US dollars PPP. Canada $151,248 (2022) $6,319 (2022) USA $93,271 (2022) $12,555 (2022) Country Maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births. Life expectancy. 2021 Canada 11 (2020) 82.6 years USA 33 (2021) 76.3 years Country Under-5 mortality rate per 1000 live births. 2020 Murder rate per 100,000. 2021 Canada 5.0 2.1 USA 6.3 6.8

US Republicans Voted Often to Kill Coverage of Pre-Existing Conditions. [35][36][37].

Health spending

Return to top. Republicans are responsible for the large US government deficit. Because they support the wasteful US healthcare system over the much cheaper single-payer universal healthcare in Canada and elsewhere. See: Canadian single-payer universal healthcare versus US healthcare.

See more countries.

Wikipedia: Health spending by country. Percent of GDP. See Gross domestic product. 11.2% for Canada in 2022. 16.6% for the US in 2022.

See Wikimedia chart source.

Wikipedia: Health spending per capita. OECD countries. US dollars, using economy-wide PPPs. Public, private, and total expenditures. $6,319 for Canada in 2022. $12,555 for the US in 2022.

See Wikimedia chart source.

Poor and sick:

Return to top. Canadians are healthier on average, and their preventive healthcare is much cheaper! Versus US Emergency Room care. See Wikipedia: Health spending as a percent of GDP by country (gross domestic product). And: Wikipedia: List of countries with universal health care.

"The Easy-to-Digest Republican Party Platform" from Michael Moore has this image: "Keep 'em poor and sick".

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Republican states;

Prohibition plus;

Return to top. See Wikipedia: Republican states.

See article: US Republican states. It's not just cannabis prohibition. Many maps. It's also their low minimum wages, high Covid death rates, poor healthcare, high household debt, high gun death rates, high homicide rates, high incarceration rates, etc.. See: Drug war and other excessive uses of force. They are autocratic gerrymandered states that have long avoided federal oversight due to the Republican filibuster. See Wikipedia: Filibuster in the United States Senate.

The US Republican Party wants to concentrate wealth at the top. So they want most people to be Broke, not Woke: Trickle-down economics. See: Beyond drug war and conservatism.

The federal minimum wage would be $13.46 in 2022 dollars if its real value had remained at the 1968 level. Even more in 2023 dollars. See graph below.

Note the low minimum wages in the Republican south:

See Wikimedia SVG map. See PNG map [38] (for Facebook, etc.).

History of the US federal minimum wage. $13.46 inflation-adjusted peak in 1968. $7.25 an hour now due to Republican filibusters in the US Senate. See Wikimedia GIF chart.

• See Wikipedia: Republican states.
• Wikipedia: List of US states by minimum wage.
• Wikipedia: List of European countries by minimum wage.

Voter suppression;

Return to top. Vote out the many Republicans supporting backward cannabis laws. It is purposely made more difficult by the lack of no-excuse postal voting. Just one example of Republican voter suppression in GOP states. Such as many states in the south.

See Wikipedia: Postal voting in the United States.

Lies of GOP radio

Return to top. Google image search: Top right wing radio hosts.

How Fox News and the Right-Wing Media Machine Made My Dad Crazy. Republicans dominate talk radio. Especially in the Republican south with its backward cannabis laws.

See Wikipedia: Conservative talk radio. A percentage of people in many states do not have access to broadband internet, and desktop or laptop computers. Cell phones are a poor substitute for many people. So they are left with Republican misinformation radio.

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Senate filibuster

Return to top. A minority of Senators should not be able to block cannabis laws supported by the majority of Americans.

The War on Cannabis. It accelerated in the US, and that's where it will end. US Congress could legalize, reschedule, or remove cannabis from the federal schedule if the Republican filibuster were gone. Vote in US Senators who will abolish it. [39][40][41][42]. Senators Manchin or Sinema could abolish it now.

Electoral college

Return to top. Presidents should not be elected who do not receive the highest number of votes.

Abolish the electoral college. Imagine the US without the 12 years of the Bush and Trump presidencies and their backward cannabis policies.

Ranked voting

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See Wikipedia: Ranked voting.

Presidential veto

Return to top. Presidents should not be able to block cannabis laws supported by the majority of Americans.

See Wikipedia: Veto power in the United States.

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End war powers

Return to top. Nixon, Reagan, and Bush are responsible for the US War on Drugs, and the lie that massive incarceration is a solution. See more lies in
Reagan's frequent demonization of cannabis.

Presidents have too much power. Wars later determined to be started based on lies of Presidents, or done in secret:
Vietnam War: President Johnson and the lie of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Cambodia: Nixon and Kissinger's secret B-52 carpet bombing campaign that helped create the unrest that led to Pol Pot's genocidal regime. And Kent State shootings in US.
Iraq War: President Bush and the lie of the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Trump and Biden

Return to top. Institute a mandatory retirement age for US Congress members and the President. [43]. Mandatory retirement exists for many US judges. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are too old to be President. And Trump is just too dumb: Video: Robert De Niro on Trump Being “So F**king Stupid”. See Robert Reich: Seriously, again, how dumb is Trump? And: Trump’s Brain Is Not Okay. An expert’s view of Trump’s mental slide into dementia.

Generic Democrats

Return to top. Biden and Trump both underperform generic opponents, poll finds. A Plea to Biden: If You Truly Want to Prevent Trump Authoritarianism, Please Withdraw. Trump was not good for cannabis reform the last time around. We need more cannabis reform. That does not come from the Republican Party. Generic ballot : 2024 Polls | FiveThirtyEight. Biden needs to drop out. March 09, 2024 Newsweek report on poll: Joe Biden Voters Tell Him to Drop Out.

Source. Text added later. More "flying hair" photos.

Gaza. Canada vs US

Return to top. Compare genocidal American politicians to Canada's politicians stopping military aid to genocidal Israel. Read EXCERPT: Bernie Sanders: "This bill also provides another $3.3 billion in U.S. military aid for Netanyahu’s right-wing government to continue this barbaric war. The Netanyahu government should not receive another penny from U.S. taxpayers."

Gallup Poll chart below showing US change from majority approval (Nov. 2023) to majority disapproval (March 2024) of Israeli military action in Gaza. Source: Majority in U.S. Now Disapprove of Israeli Action in Gaza. March 27, 2024 by Jeffrey M Jones. Gallup Poll.

Tax cuts for rich

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April 15, 2024. Biden: "If Congress enacted President Biden’s tax plan, tens of millions of workers and families would have their taxes cut, nobody making less than $400,000 would pay a penny more in taxes, and the wealthy and big corporations would finally pay their fair share—which would fully pay for the President’s tax cuts and investment agenda."

Democrats who attack the rich do better in elections. The party should take notice. Republican dynasties created by regressive taxation: See: The poster child for the perils of dynastic wealth. By Robert Reich.

US Republicans have led cannabis and drug wars worldwide. All to create 2nd class citizens who are blocked from many educational, job, and voting opportunities. Part of the conservative plan to concentrate wealth in fewer hands worldwide.

Trump's 2017 tax cuts for the rich.

On average, taxpayers in the income groups highlighted in yellow will incur a net cost (shown as a positive figure as this reduces the budget deficit), due in part to reduced healthcare subsidies. Higher income taxpayers receive a benefit via tax cuts (shown as a negative number as this increases the budget deficit). The percent of taxpayers in each income group is also shown for the 2023 period. "Taxpayer" in the chart refers to a tax return, meaning it could represent one person or a married couple filing jointly, among other options. [44][45]. Commons source.

Wealth inequality

Return to top. See: Wikipedia: Progressive tax. Mar 19, 2024: Sanders, UAW president press harder for shorter workweek. "Today, American workers are more than 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, despite this fact, millions of our people are working longer hours for lower wages," they wrote. "In fact, 28.5 million Americans now work over 60 hours a week and more than half of full-time employees work more than 40 hours a week." After adjusting for inflation, American workers make almost $50 less a week than they did 50 years ago, they said.

Jan 24, 2024 article: $8.5 Trillion in Untaxed Assets: Data Shows Why 'We Need a Billionaire Income Tax'. EXCERPTS: analysis found that the wealth of America's billionaires and centimillionaires has exploded in recent years as Republicans have enacted massive tax cuts for the rich ... "The cumulative $8.5 trillion of unrealized capital gains held by America's billionaires and centi-millionaires in 2022 has jumped by more than half–or $3.2 trillion–just since the last Fed survey year of 2019," END.

USA. The sorry state of the nation.

Robert Reich. Source and comments.

See Wikimedia Commons PNG image.

US federal income tax rate on billionaires averages only 8.2%. Click image to enlarge.

"Most taxpayers, including firefighters and teachers, average a federal income tax rate of approximately 13.3%."

Minimum wage

Return to top. Beyond drug war, debt, and wealth concentration. To single-payer healthcare and progressive taxation. Simultaneous with the Republican-led drug war the GOP used the Senate filibuster to undemocratically severely restrict increases in the minimum wage at the federal level, and in GOP states.

US minimum wage would be $23 an hour in 2021 if it had kept up with productivity.

Source article. [46].

Your greed is hurting the economy!

• A $15 minimum wage would cost jobs, right? Probably not, economists say.
• There’s More Evidence That Raising the Minimum Wage Won’t Cost Jobs.
• The U.S. has one of the stingiest minimum wage policies of any wealthy nation. Washington Post.

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Global warming

Return to top. World Population Clock: 8 Billion People (LIVE). We need more trees and less people. More oxygen, less carbon dioxide. To slow down global warming. "Assuming no net migration and unchanged mortality, a total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman ensures a broadly stable population." - Fertility rates. OECD Data. See country graphs. Also, inflation comes from an increasing population sharing one planet's resources.

Many US Republican leaders oppose birth control and abortion rights (even early abortion). Another reason besides their backward cannabis laws to vote them out. Birth control and abortion (especially early abortion) is legal (even free) in many countries. That needs to expand further.

We need the lowest curve below, by lowering the birth rate.

See page 30 of source.

Immigration

Return to top. The US and Europe can't import all the overpopulation of the world. Europe, especially, is already too densely populated. US Democrats and progressives in Europe need to limit immigration, or they will lose power, and cannabis policies will stagnate under right wing rule. Taxes on the rich will be cut yet more, which by definition means middle class taxes will go up, or stay up, to pay for it. Wikipedia: List of countries and dependencies by population density.

See source.

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Roswell. Warming

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Share link: Roswell UFO. Much UFO technology has been back engineered, and its carbon-free energy could end global warming. See Stephen Greer playlist. [47][48][49][50][51] [52][53][54][55] [56][57]. Wildest: [58][59]. See also the David Grusch disclosures at July 26, 2023 House hearing about US possession of aliens, alien bodies, alien craft, and back engineering: [60][61][62][63] [64][65][66][67][68] [69][70][71][72]. See History channel: [73][74][75][76]. National Geographic: [77][78].

See the July 8, 1947 Roswell Daily Record below. Image info. Click image to enlarge. Full-size is readable. See full text of saucer article. [79]. U.S. Army officer Walter Haut issued the initial "flying disc" press release. His 2002 notarized affidavit said there were 2 crash sites, and that he had seen a craft, alien bodies, and handled wreckage material. (see page 14 of pdf). It was released in a 2007 book after his death in 2005.

Walter Haut in 1947

Affidavit is on pages 239-242 of the 2022 edition: Witness to Roswell, 75th Anniversary Edition: Unmasking the Government's Biggest Cover-up (more eyewitnesses). 36 pages previewed in Google Books. Click "preview" button and scroll down to pages 239-240. Search within the book. There is an inexpensive Kindle ebook. Moonwalker Dr. Edgar Mitchell wrote the foreword. The 20 paragraph affidavit is online here: [80] (page 14). [81][82].

Haut's daughter, Julie Shuster, in 2002, 3 years before his death, "verbally discussed each and every sentence" of the affidavit with him. She said it was not a deathbed confession. See Sept 2007 MUFON UFO Journal. Issue 473. Page 15. And this article from Special Broadcasting Service. Archived. See Julie Shuster on IMDb.

Google search: Walter Haut 2002 Roswell affidavit. Articles about Haut:

30 June 2007: Roswell officer's amazing deathbed admission raises possibility that aliens DID visit. By Nick Pope. Same article also published here and here. Archived here and here.

5 June 2022: Roswell officer's deathbed confession about theory of alien cover up. By Declan Carey. Archived here.

14 May 2021: Ex-Army officer ADMITS he saw ‘alien the size of a 10-year-old child’ after famous Roswell UFO crash in incredible video. By Emma Parry. Archived here. This article has a short excerpt of the video.

May 2021: Roswell Officer Speaks From the Grave: Video Released, Confesses that Alien was "the size of a 10 year old". By Anthony Bragalia. Archived here. From article (emphasis added): "This video clip is part of a memoir video / oral history over two hours in length that covers many personal and professional aspects of Haut's life. The video was taken at the Roswell Museum in 2000 with friends Dennis Balthaser and Wendy Connors."

Galactic Pot March

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420 and Global Cannabis March event lists by year.

2024 GMM-420. And Mirror.

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Site navigation

Return to top. See 2024 GMM-420 on Fandom and on Shoutwiki. Note: See the sections at the bottom of many pages: Beyond drug war, debt, and wealth concentration. To single-payer healthcare and progressive taxation.

2024 talk page (no need to log in) for event links, and especially compilations.

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