Samuel Thompson
301 Helen Keller Blvd.
Tuscaloosa, AL 35404
April 1, 2021
Governor Kay Ivey
600 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36130
Dear Governor Ivey:
The criminal justice system in Alabama has suffered for far too long. Alabama prisons are overrun,
underfunded, and do little to rehabilitate convicts. Much of these problems are exacerbated by the
racism that permeates through our justice system. While only 26 percent of the population of Alabama
is black, they make up 54 percent of those behind bars (Sakala). This disparity is linked to laws that
disproportionately target African Americans like the “War on Drugs.”
The “War on Drugs” that started in the 1980s fueled the mass incarceration of blacks in America. Blacks
constitute 13 percent of all drug users, 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession, 55 percent of
those convicted, and 74 percent of those sent to prison (Small 897). If this disparity is indicative of
anything, it is that there is a racial bias in the policing of the black community. Michelle Alexander
compares the 1980s “War on Drugs” to the start of “The New Jim Crow.” Drug offenses alone are
responsible for an increase in more than half the state prison population (Alexander). The purpose of
the “War on Drugs” is not to reduce the number of drugs that are on the streets, but to give police the
means to arrest young black men and put them into a system that labels them felons making them
functionally second-class citizens.
This focus on enforcing drug laws only burdens the Alabama criminal justice system and takes us further
from a just society. I implore you to support the decriminalization of marijuana. In states that have
decriminalized marijuana, it is shown that there is no increase in the prevalence of marijuana use and
results in substantial savings in the criminal justice system (Single). If Alabama were to do the same not
only would the strain on Alabama courts and prisons be lessened, but the fines collected can go to
programs designed to benefit the disenfranchised communities of Alabama.
I understand the reluctance of my more conservative fellow constituents to support legislation that
seemingly promotes drug use, but the notion that marijuana is a gateway drug has proven to be a fallacy
cooked up during the Reagan administration. In states that legalized medicinal marijuana, consumption
of marijuana increased by 10-15 percent, but cocaine and heroin arrests decreased by up 15 percent
(Chu). Not only does this prove that marijuana is not a gateway to a life of hard drug use, but it also
shows that the opposite is true.
Please support the bill to decriminalize marijuana that is currently in the senate.
Sincerely,
Samuel Thompson
Work cited
Sakala, Leah. Breaking Down Mass Incarceration in the 2010 Census: State-by-State Incarceration
Rates by Race/Ethnicity. Prison Policy Initiative, 2014, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep27301. Accessed
1 Apr. 2021.
Small, Deborah. “The War on Drugs Is a War on Racial Justice.” Social Research, vol. 68, no. 3,
2001, pp. 896–903. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40971924. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021.
Alexander, Michelle. “The War on Drugs and the New Jim Crow.” Race, Poverty & the Environment,
vol. 17, no. 1, 2010, pp. 75–77. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41554723. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021.
Single, Eric W. “The Impact of Marijuana Decriminalization: An Update.” Journal of Public Health
Policy, vol. 10, no. 4, 1989, pp. 456–466., www.jstor.org/stable/3342518. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021.
Chu, Yu-Wei Luke. “Do Medical Marijuana Laws Increase Hard-Drug Use?” The Journal of Law &
Economics, vol. 58, no. 2, 2015, pp. 481–517. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/684043.
Accessed 1 Apr. 2021.