wfn.org | Board asks U.N. to spotlight racial nature of drug war

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 28, 2001    News media contact: Joretta Purdue 7(202)
546-87227Washington    10-31-32-71B{365}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - An executive of the United Methodist international
agency for social action and advocacy has signed a letter to the staff head
of the United Nations urging him to speak out against the racial impact of
the U.S. war on drugs.

Jaydee Hanson, a staff member of the Board of Church and Society, signed the
letter asking U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan to raise the matter at the
U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance, set for Aug. 31 to Sept. 7 in Durban, South Africa.  

"While drug use is consistent across all racial groups" the letter stated,
"blacks and Latinos are far more likely to be arrested and prosecuted and
given long sentences for drug offenses. Blacks constitute 13 percent of all
drug users, but 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession, 55 percent
convicted, and 74 percent sent to prison." The statistics were attributed to
Human Rights Watch.

In writing the letter, the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation blamed
racism for the inequity between crack and cocaine sentences, citing figures
from a 1995 U.S. Sentencing Commission report. 

"There is a 100-to-1 disparity in federal sentences for crack versus powder
cocaine offenses, despite the fact that as scientists and courts alike have
declared, there is no rational basis for distinguishing between the two
substances. Nonetheless, 90 percent of persons convicted of federal crack
cocaine offenses were black; 6 percent Latino; and less than 4 percent
white. Federal powder cocaine offenders were 30 percent black, 43 percent
Latino and 26 percent white." 

Hanson quoted a passage from the United Methodist Church's Book of
Resolutions: "The United States policy response to the drug crisis has
focused almost exclusively on law enforcement and military solutions. This
policy, in some cases, has led to the erosion of precious civil liberties
and human rights, especially for poor and minority communities." 
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United Methodist News Service
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