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Race, Class, Gender and Crime Community Syllabus

War on Drugs

Topics include the criminalization of powder cocaine versus crack cocaine (i.e. 100 to 1 ratio), mandatory minimum sentencing, mass incarceration, the Controlled Substance Act and Nancy Reagan’s “Say No to Drugs” Campaign.

Suggested Readings

  • Baum, D. (1993). Tunnel vision: The War on Drugs, 12 years later. ABA Journal, 79(3), 70-74.
  • Block, W. E., & Obioha, V (2012). War on Black men: Argument for the legalization of drugs. Criminal Justice Ethics, 31(8), 105-120.
  • Cooper, H.L. (2015). War on Drugs policing and police brutality. Substance Use and Misuse, 50(8), 1188-1194.
  • Galliher, J. F., Keys, D. P., & Elsner, M (1997). Lindesmith v. Anslinger: An Early Government Victory in the Failed War on Drugs. The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 88(3), 661-682.
  • Martin, D.L. (1993). Casualties of the criminal justice system: Women and justice under the War on Drugs. Canadian Journal of Women, 6(2), 305-327.
  • Lynch, M. (2011). Crack pipes and policing: A case study of institutional racism and remedial action in Cleveland. Law and Policy, 33(2), 179-214.
  • Lynn, V. (2018). Dialogues of the War on Drugs: Towards restorative reentry initiatives. Contemporary Justice Review, 21(2), 159-184.
  • Nicholas, P., & Churchill, A. (2012). The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and the origins of modern drug enforcement in the United States, 1950-1962. Contemporary Drug Problems, 39(4), 595-640.

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Discussion Questions

  1. What effects has the War on Drugs had on the mass incarceration of black people?
  2. What effect has the War on Drugs had on Black families, specifically the loss of Black male figures in the house?
  3. How has the War on Drugs indirectly effected Black women within the criminal justice system?
  4. How was the War on Drugs really a “War on Minorities”?
  5. What role did Harry Anslinger play in the War on Drugs? Why was his role so big?
  6. With the recent wave of legalizing of drugs, like marijuana and MDMA, what do you think should be done about the people currently incarcerated for possession of these same drugs?
  7. How has what you read and watched in this syllabus change your view on the “War on Drugs” and the mass incarceration of Black men?