Involvement in Drugs

As history has shown, the state decides which race/ethnicity it wants to demonize, and then associates a substance with it. This is done to gain legitimacy of the people. An example of this is the way Germany was demoralized as well as anything associated with it during prohibition. American propaganda portrayed Germans as kegs of beer, again linking alcohol consumption to an un-American activity. They even penalized people for owning Daschund dogs, or speaking German. This was also a great example of how a drug that was alright to consume, is suddenly presented as evil and racialized.

Lets also not forget the situation with the opium and the Chinese immigrants in 1870s. According to http://thedea.org/prohibhistory.html, they had to deal with racism to begin with, and on top of that were ridiculed for their habit of smoking opium. Physicians concluded that opium smoking could potentially lead to the demise of the U.S. William Randolph Hearst published a series called the “Yellow Menace”, where it described the Chinese using opium to seduce American women. The legitimacy of the people was gained, as people were becoming fed up with Chinese immigrants and wanted to stop them from entering the country. Dr. Harry Hubbell Kane wrote about opium’s effects and claimed it had less of an effect on Americans, than it did on Chinese workers. That’s statement was said to have resulted from his desire to demonize Chinese immigrants. The people started spreading the fear and belief, that smoking opium among Americans would result in them developing Chinese characteristics. The Harrison Narcotics Act was passed, constraining opium and cocaine. Figuring it was unconstitutional to outlaw drug sales, they decided to tax the drug. This is yet ano...

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...ing his “Dark Alliance” series, exposing the CIA for pouring drugs into black neighborhoods. The drug was cocaine, and unobtainable in those neighborhoods until the CIA’s army brought it into South Central in the eighties. There have been numerous reports that the agencies created to protect us; the CIA, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, has provided cocaine to African American gangs such as the Crips, and the Bloods. They have also provided deadly assault weapons to the gangs, to fuel violence and wars. This all allowed Ricky Ross to obtain drugs at low prices. Roland Freeman, who is a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Chapter of the International Campaign to Free Geronimo Pratt said, ‘he knows firsthand of the deceit of which the government is capable; a government that tries to "set itself up as if it's higher than God when really it's lower than the devil."