Pubdate: Wed, 23 Mar 2005
Source: Daily Aztec, The (US CA Edu)
Copyright: 2005 The Daily Aztec
Contact:  http://www.dailyaztec.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1420
Author: Veronica Rollin, Staff Writer
Note: Veronica Rollin is a political science sophomore
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women)

'DRUG WAR' TARGETS WRONG PEOPLE

Since Sept.11, 2001, the media have spent countless hours discussing a 
pointless "war" that can never be won - the war on terrorism. Because of 
this, media have largely ignored another objectionable "war" - the war on 
drugs.

Since the war on drugs was first declared in the 1970s, it has ruined lives 
and made no progress. Although there are two parts to the war - drug 
enforcement on the home front and a more literal war in drug-producing 
Third World countries - both ends do the same thing: They create victims 
without solving a single problem. People become victims when the war on 
drugs targets the least powerful in a society.

A recent report from the American Civil Liberties Union cited the latest 
victims of the war on drugs are women. This has led to skyrocketing numbers 
of women being jailed for drug violations, according to The Associated 
Press. Lenora Lapidus, the ACLU's women's rights director, reported women 
who were hardly involved in drug trades have been handed long prison terms 
for such minor infractions as failing to turn in their husbands or 
boyfriends. Because of this, women have been incarcerated and separated 
from their children, who often end up in the foster care system. The report 
also stated that sentences for female accomplices never take into account a 
woman's dependency on her husband or boyfriend.

Unfortunately, black and Hispanic women are more affected by the domestic 
drug war. The ACLU reported Hispanic and black females are sentenced more 
frequently for drug violations than their white counterparts, despite the 
relatively equal rates of drug use.

In Third World countries, the war on drugs is waged with no regard for the 
well-being of residents. There have been various reports of pesticides used 
to kill coca plants in South America, which have negatively affected the 
health of the local population.

This is the recurring theme of the war on drugs, both here and abroad. In 
the United States, it targets ethnic minorities and women; abroad, it 
targets Third World countries. What the war on drugs fails to do is target 
the real and only root of the drug problem - poverty.

Interestingly enough, poverty and unemployment are the common bonds between 
minorities, women and inhabitants of Third World countries. In the United 
States alone, the unemployment rate in black communities is more than 
double the rate in white communities, according to the National Association 
for the Advancement of Colored People. The unemployment rate for Hispanics 
is also rising, according to the National Council of La Raza.

Furthermore, women have always received less pay than men in every 
occupation, according to the National Organization of Women. In Third World 
countries, the United Nations reports that more than 600 million children 
do not have a decent place to live. It's no surprise drugs are bought and 
sold by the very poor.

Essentially, the so-called war on drugs ignores the indigent communities 
plagued most by drugs, while harshly mistreating these very communities. 
Because of this, the poverty-stricken areas consistently fail to achieve 
any of their goals. This war has not reduced demand for narcotics, and it 
certainly has not reduced supply.

This war will not be won until national and foreign drug policy shifts 
focus from maligning the powerless to battling the poverty. The U.S. 
government must work to eliminate Third World poverty, the economic malaise 
of minorities and the pay disparity between genders. The drug trade is the 
industry of the world's most desperate people. Only relieving this despair 
can help win the war on drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Beth