The War on Drugs

see also the War on Crime

Organizations

The Drug Policy Alliance

General Commentary

Virginia ramps up its war on pot – and the arrests show a disturbing racial divide, Washington Post, October 28th, 2015

Why the Drug War was a Forty Year Lynching, Op-Ed News, October 28th, 2015

How a Botched Drug Raid in Utah Sparked an Unlikely Movement, Huffington Post (6-part series), October 26th, 2013

There is No Good Drug War by Maya Schenwar, in TruthOut, July 31st, 2013

The People vs. the War on Drugs by Maya Schenwar in TruthOut, November 13th, 2012

The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Created a Permanent American Underclass, Michelle Alexander in the Huffington Post, May 8th, 2010

Addiction & Public Health

In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek a Gentler War on Drugs, New York Times, October 30th, 2015

Heroin, Murder, and the New Front in the War on Drugs, Vice, September 28th, 2015

Crack, Heroin, and Race: How White Users Made Heroin a Public Health Problem, The Atlantic, August 12th, 2015

The Surprising Factors That Can Make People 4600% More Prone to Addiction, Alternet, May 27th, 2015

The War on Drug Addicts – and Everyone Else by Maya Schenwar, December 19th, 2011

Global War on Drugs

Cartel Land: The War on Drugs is the Elephant in the Room, PanAm Post, December 23rd, 2015

The Beginning of the End for the War on Drugs? UN Agency Advocates Decriminalization, Says War on Drugs Violates Human Rights, Atlanta Black Star, October 29th, 2015 (archived)

Key Figures in CIA-Crack Cocaine Scandal Begin to Come Forward, The Huffington Post, October 10th, 2014

Mandatory Sentencing

A Plea from Behind the Walls: Please Limit Mandatory Minimums, Huffington Post, November 10th, 2015

Justice at last? Michigan Chronicle, November 4th, 2015 (discusses federal release of prisoners, see below)

The Truth About Mandatory Minimums: The Left’s Painful but Necessary Conversation, Salon, October 29th, 2015 (a review of Michael Fortner‘s book, Black Silent Majority)

Thousands of Federal Inmates Being Released Early Are Headed Home Starting Friday, Washington Post, October 28th, 2015

Justice Department set to free 6,000 prisoners; largest one-time release, Washington Post, October 6th, 2015

Inmate Released by Presidential Decree: ‘I am completely confused,’ Colorlines, July 23rd, 2015

We Talked to One of the 46 Inmates Barack Obama Released from Prison, Vice.com, July 21st, 2015

Releasing Drug Offenders Won’t End Mass Incarceration, FiveThirtyEight blog, July 18th, 2015

Obama Commutes Sentences of 46 Nonviolent Drug Offenders, The New York Times, July 13th, 2015

Federal Judge: My Drug War Sentences Were Unfair and Disproportionate, The Atlantic, June 29th, 2015

Mandatory Rehab is Just the Newest Front in the Flawed War on Drugs by Maya Schenwar, op-ed in The Guardian, October 27th, 2014