Research and Course Guides: Teach-in Tuesday companion guide: The War on Drugs

Teach-in topic

The United States has been fighting the War on Drugs for the past 40 years. With the declaration of the War on Drugs came changes in policing strategies, drug sentencing guidelines, media attention on drugs and a large increase in the number of people incarcerated in the United States for drug-related crimes. In the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has disproportionately affected African Americans and communities of color. The disproportionate impact of the War on Drugs is not reflected by racial differences in drug use, calling attention to the fact that the War on Drugs has been racially biased. The long-lasting consequences of this disproportionate impact of the War on Drugs include mass incarceration of people of color and the repercussions of incarceration for individuals, families and communities.

"The War on Drugs is Really the New Jim Crow" is licensed by d_r_conrad under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Articles

King, R.S. & Mauer, M. (2006). The war on marijuana: the transformation of the war on drugs in the 1990s. Harm Reduction Journal, 3 (6), 1-17.
A 2006 study of marijuana offenders at all stages of the system. The study found that since 1990, the primary focus of the war on drugs has shifted to low-level marijuana offenses.
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As the "war on drugs" enters the latter half of its third decade since being forged into the American lexicon by President Ronald Reagan, the public has grown more skeptical of the current strategy and has proven to be receptive to a broader consideration of alternatives to incarceration. This has been the case most notably with marijuana offenses, where the policy discussion has shifted in some localities to one of decriminalization or de-prioritizing law enforcement resources dedicated to pursuing possession offenses. Despite the increased profile surrounding marijuana policy in recent years, there remains a significant degree of misunderstanding regarding the current strategy, both in terms of how resources are being allocated and to what eventual gain.
Jensen, E.L., Gerber, J., & Mosher, C. (2004). Social consequences of the War on Drugs: the legacy of failed policy. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 15 (1), 100-121.
The objective of this 2004 study is to bring attention to these broader societal costs of the drug war.
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The current war on drugs has radically transformed the criminal justice system. Although criminologists are aware of the multitudes of problematic justice system outcomes associated with this war the widespread social, economic, health, political, and human costs of the current antidrug crusade have not been studied extensively by criminologists.
American Civil Liberties Union (2006). Cracks in the system: twenty years of the unjust federal crack cocaine law.
A comprehensive examination of the 100-to-1 crack versus powder cocaine sentencing disparity.
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A comprehensive examination of the 100-to-1 crack versus powder cocaine sentencing disparity under which distribution of just 5 grams of crack carries a minimum 5-year federal prisonsentence, while distribution of 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same 5-year mandatory minimum sentence.
Levy-Pounds, N. (2013). Going up in smoke: The impacts of the drug war on young black men. Albany Government Law Review 6(2), 563-588.
On overview of the war on drugs and developments in marijuana legalization initiatives.
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For the last thirty years or so, America has been embroiled in a great domestic war. This war has had devastating impacts on the lives of countless individuals, families, and in some cases whole communities. This war has left numerous casualties in its wake; some of its youngest victims are small children whose parents have been captured in this war and incarcerated.' This war has cost our nation trillions of dollars and the ongoing loss of human and intellectual capital. Many of the unintended consequences of this war are irreversible. This war is a war on drugs.

Need background information?

More places to go for background information
The background information page of our library guide for Criminal Justice. Provides links to encyclopedias and dictionaries and more that the library has in our collection.

Further Research

Want to do more research on the War on Drugs?

Start with our library guide on Criminal Justice. Created by our librarian, Merrie Davidson, it pulls together links to our sources and starting points for criminal justice research.

Films

The house I live in, directed by Eugene Jarecki. (2012) DVD is in the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library Collection. Click link for availability.

13th, directed by Ava DuVernay. (20160. NetFlix.

Books

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander; Cornel West (Introduction by)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9781595588197
Publication Date: 2012-01-16
Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book.
\With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control relegating millions to a permanent second-class status;even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness.
High price : a neuroscientist's journey of self-discovery that challenges everything you know about drugs and society by Carl Hart
Call Number: O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library QP353.4.H37 A3 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Hart goes beyond the hype of the antidrug movement as he examines the relationship among drugs, pleasure, choice, and motivation, both in the brain and in society. His findings shed new light on common ideas about race, poverty, and drugs, and explain why current policies are failing.
Race to Incarcerate by Marc Mauer
Call Number: O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library HV9950 .M32 2006
Publication Date: 2006
Marc Mauer, executive director of the United States' leading criminal justice reform organizations, tells the tragic story of runaway growth in the number of prisons and jails.
Race to Incarcerate by Marc Mauer; Michelle Alexander (Foreword by); Sabrina Jones
Call Number: Law Library: HV9950 .J665 2013
Publication Date: 2013-04-02
Sabrina Jones has collaborated with Mauer to adapt his seminal book into a vivid graphic narrative designed to reach a mainstream audience. Jones's dramatic artwork adds passion and compassion.