War on Drugs becomes a war On Black Communities?

70% of the population has taken illegal drugs. Because of its high price and status of glamour, the class A drug, cocaine is mainly taken by the upper echelon of our society. Many tens thousands of young people, mainly white, take ‘clubbing’ drugs on a weekly basis when going clubs and or music festivals. Those dealing drugs come from all walks of life.

Yet, if you looked into our prisons and in particularly youth incarceration, you might conclude the problem of drugs is predominantly a problem within Black communities. David Lammy’s review interim findings last week shockingly revealed that over 40% of youth incarceration is BME, many of whom would be there on drug related offences. Once inside the University of Prison becomes a school to scale up criminality, and decent goes from bad to worse.

Next week -29th Nov at the House of Commons, Coreplan launch a ground breaking report that gives a unique voice to those Black people and their families and friends caught up in a wretched cycle of UK drugs policy that disproportionately targets Black people.

At almost every juncture of the criminal justice system, from ‘Stop and Search’, to arrest, to sentencing, ‘rehabilitation and parole, drugs policy not only targets Black people, but for similar offences to white people, according to Lammy’s findings, they are also treated harsher.

In many ways the report will call for paradigm shift in the way the Government and campaigners deal with drugs policy. At the moment any progressive debate has its focus on the important areas of harm reduction, and decriminalization, but not on structural race inequality. Without adding this third dynamic –race equality- the report’s authors –Viv Ahmun Lee Jasper, and Annette Dale Perera, feel that Black people will remain a target within drugs policy by fair means or foul.

To give you an example, when I was a commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, I went to see the Minister of Policing Nick Herbet, to talk about reducing section 61 ‘Stop and Search’, which primarily was being used to search for cannabis amongst young Black men.

He said to me, “Simon, our police forces are targeting what we’ve found to be drugs ‘hot spots’, and so that’s where we’re going, and don’t try and stop us,” he menacingly warned.

I was forced to remind him that the EHRC was an independent body, and the present drugs policy became a self fulfilling prophecy, adding, “If the same forces targeted swanky nightspots around the wealthier parts of London they also might find drugs ‘hotspots’ and there’d hardly a Black face in sight.” There was silence.

This ground breaking report should force the Government and drugs policy reformers to urgently include the idea of confronting structural racism to tackle 'the war on drugs'. Sadly, a drugs policy that disproportionately targets Black people not only demonizes a whole community but also puts thousands of Black men and women on a criminal justice helter-skelter that is difficult to get off.

Simon Woolley

STRUCTURAL RACISM AS UK DRUGS POLICY

An exploration of the views of British black youth and communities on UK Drugs policy 2016

November 29th 4.00pm-6.00pm

Committee Room 11, House of Commons London SW1A0AA

There are a few places left for this event. If you’d like to go

Register to secure your place here: bit.ly/coreplandrugs Or call 07985 395 166.