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.
