Pubdate: Sat, 02 Jun 2001
Source: Santa Fe New Mexican (NM)
Copyright: 2001 The Santa Fe New Mexican
Contact:  http://www.sfnewmexican.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/695
Author: Steve Terrell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

WATERS SEES RACISM IN WAR ON DRUGS

ALBUQUERQUE -- The national war on drugs has created an "apartheid" in
the United States because black people and Hispanics are more likely
to go to prison for drugs and more likely to get longer prison
sentences than whites.

This was the message from U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on
Friday, speaking at the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation's
annual conference.

According to Waters, though black people constitute only 15 percent of
drug users, they make up 33 percent of all federal drug
convictions.

While 17 percent of cocaine users nationwide are black, 57 percent of
all federal cocaine convictions are black defendants, Waters said.

"Mandatory minimum sentences are not uniformly applied," Waters said.
"Whites are more likely to get sentenced below the maximum."

Creating minimum sentences for drug offenders has handed over the
power of sentencing from judges to prosecutors, she said, because
prosecutors have the freedom to decide which cases to take to court.

Waters said she recently reintroduced a bill to repeal mandatory
sentences in federal cases.

She also blasted "drug conspiracy" laws, which have resulted in
sending many women to prison for crimes committed by their boyfriends
- - "sometimes just for answering the phone in their own homes," Waters
said.

One such "conspiracy" convict, Dorothy Gaines of Mobile, Ala., was at
the conference. Although she never used or sold drugs herself, she
said, an investigation of her drug-dealing boyfriend eventually led to
her being convicted on conspiracy charges.

Gaines, a black woman, served six years in federal prison before
President Clinton granted her clemency last year.

"The war on drugs is a war against us," Gaines said.

Other conference speakers sounded similar themes.

Theodore Shaw, director of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund, said that when the
crack epidemic hit in the 1980s, black leaders were at the forefront
demanding stiffer sentences for crack dealers and making penalties for
crack stiffer than for powdered cocaine.

"It turned out to be a terrible mistake," Shaw said. "The war on drugs
turned out to be a war on people of color, legitimizing oppression of
black and brown people."

Waters said that it is important to "reach across the aisle" to those
with different backgrounds and politics to fight against the drug war.
She noted that the issue of drug-law reform had united adamant liberal
Democrats such as herself with conservative Republicans like New
Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, whom she praised as "a man of courage."

Referring to the well-known right-wing radio host who frequently has
made her a target of his scorn, Waters said."I want Rush Limbaugh to
just eat his heart out."

After the speech, Johnson told a reporter that he agreed with
virtually everything Waters had said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake