America’s War on Drugs

I believe black men are incarcerated more because the war on drugs, which has been ongoing for multiple decades, targets black people. Drug arrests bring in a tremendous amount of business for the criminal justice system. In fact, drug arrests account for half of overall arrests in the U.S. and half of these are for marijuana. Although it has been studied that black and white men use marijuana at similar rates, a black person is 3.7 times more likely to get arrested for possession over a white person. Between 1980 and 2000, the black arrest rate in the U.S. dramatically increased from 6.5 to 29.1 people per 1000, whereas the white arrest rate only rose from 3.5 to 4.6 per 1000 people. These statistics seek to illustrate that the U.S. government has enacted much stricter drug laws that authorize longer jail sentences for even minor drug crimes. Police officers and the criminal justice system target black men, especially in the realm of drugs.