Jun 12, 2008 2 min read

Drug arrests accounted for 8.2 percent of all arrests in Atlanta in 1980. By 2003, they represented 18.5 percent of all arrests, according to a new analysis of urban drug arrests by the Sentencing Project. That surge in arrests has not resulted in fewer drugs, only more prison beds. And most of those men and women marching off to jail aren’t the powerful and dangerous drug czars, but the street hustlers and small-time sellers. The time that police and prosecutors devote to nonviolent drug cases impedes their ability to pursue and prosecute violent crimes. …

Today, black people account for about half of prison admissions nationally. Most end up in prison because of nonviolent, small-time drug dealing. Many people deny the role that race plays in who goes to prison and who doesn’t, but the data highlight racial disparities.

In 2003, blacks constituted 80 percent of those sentenced under federal crack cocaine laws, while whites constituted just 7.8 percent. Yet according to testimony before the U.S. Sentencing Commission, more than 66 percent of crack cocaine users are white or Hispanic.

The same imbalance exists for marijuana arrests. While surveys show that white teens use and sell pot at higher rates than blacks, black dealers are far more likely to end up arrested and jailed. In its new study, “Targeting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States,” Human Rights Watch found that blacks were 10.1 times more likely than whites to enter prison for drug offenses.

The nation’s 40-year war on drugs has been expensive, inequitable and, ultimately, futile. …