The Communal Impacts of Drug Criminalization in Maryland

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The Roots of Addiction in Black Civil Society Interviewees identified root causes of addiction in their community to the core of systemic racism in the U.S. The interviewees described how systems of racism played out in drug criminalization and how it impacted Black civil society. First and foremost, it is difficult to pinpoint in the toxic cycle of addiction, drug criminalization, and the larger historical context of racialized social control where one started and the next began. As one interviewee said, “It's like the chicken or the egg sort of concept. If we don't ask that question, because I think that's a whole ‘nother rabbit hole, but if we don't ask that question, then it's confusing of what started first?” (Donna). However, a consistent theme of the historical context of drug criminalization in Baltimore was foundational upon the racist agenda of the War on Drugs. As discussed earlier in the report, the anti-Black agenda of the Nixon administration was noted by one interviewee: “The whole idea of the war on drugs, I remember when Nixon did it. When he said it, we suspected this is just a tactic to destroy the [Black] community because Black power had just, you know, you could actually say those two words and not be knocked in the head or killed or thrown in jail.” (Olusola) Another example raised by a scholar who has worked in systems of drug treatment since the 70s recalled: “In the 80s, a lot of the stuff came together. It was the War on Drugs, the school to prison pipeline, HIV, more guns in the community, crack. All of a sudden, this is in the community. In my mind it seems to be a reaction to the 70s when there was a raising of [Black] consciousness and the backlash that was facilitated through the Reagan administration. More people of color became vulnerable to substance abuse.” (Charles) The goal of the administration was to demonize and slow the growth of Black independent political power and Black sovereignty which they saw as a threat. This was accomplished by framing the War on Drugs as a matter of safety for the nation. The question the interviewee posed of who is being kept safe by these policies is critical since the War on Drugs was never meant to keep the Black community safe but instead to create racialized violence by associating the dangers of drugs with the Black community. The drug criminalization policies that emerged from the War on Drugs cannot be separated from the anti-Black agenda of its origin. As one interviewee said, “the African-Centered perspective has a very cynical view of the social policy agenda. It does recognize that there are some good efforts out here, but the system itself is about racial control.” (Jay) The interviewee went on to explain: “We know about the whole emphasis on drugs, particularly in the 90s, with more punishment and criminalization associated with crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. You’ve seen that kind of racial disparity. So in order to really, I think, get a hold of the substance abuse problem in Baltimore City, we have to connect it to the criminal justice problem, which also is connected to the overall problem in my view of White supremacy, which is manifested in the legacy of persistent poverty, the disappointment and shame that is associated with being Black, the vilification of being Black, and the kinds of disruptions to the family system.” (Jay) The interviewee made it clear that to understand the root causes of addiction in Baltimore, one must acknowledge how White supremacy played a role in the War on Drugs and the punitive drug criminalization policies that followed. Harm manifests in Black civil society in vast and complex ways and here we break them down into topic areas based on themes that emerged from the interviews. Conditions of Persistent Poverty and Coercive Mobility Interviewees discussed how their communities have been made economically weaker by generations of government policies with an anti-Black agenda such as redlining, which began in the 1930s and was the practice of “outlining areas with sizable Black populations in red ink on maps as a warning to mortgage lenders, effectively isolating Black people in areas that would suffer lower levels of investment than their White counterparts”. One interviewee discussed how this impacted their community, saying: “Redlining, this had a serious impact on having a stagnant environment, people’s ability to vision change and get out of the environment, there is some level of conditioning to accept the day to day of the environment. The lack of quality of schools and education, as a means of 25 of 55
limiting a pipeline. There’s not clear paths, you either have to take an uphill road that isn’t very effective, or you have to hit the streets and accept these are the way things are.” (Rashard) An environment where conditions of poor housing and education have been created and enforced by racist policies left people without the resources needed to access the traditional job market. It also left people feeling like there were no viable options other than turning to the streets as a means of survival or use drugs to cope with the harsh realities. One interviewee described this phenomenon saying: “The problem is that we know in poor communities, like Black people's communities traditionally, there's a huge and urgent need for additional streams of income. And there's a pretty well documented history of kids taking up that type of ownership over contributions to the household space and again, if you a kid with no skills, no formal training, no like legitimate connections to large money or politics or anything else, you have what’s around you and available and so, traditionally, selling a little bit of weed is most people's introductory to being able to go and move about and make money.” (Milton) It was not only children in their community who were selling drugs to support themselves and their families. The interviewee recounted: “Like I got a homeboy right now who explained to me how he really don't want to sell coke. But if he go get an eighth of coke and some fentanyl and cut it down, he know he could pay his rent... there's no opportunity that I can see, that switches out for him.” (Milton) The interviewee went on to explain that for most people, selling drugs was due to a lack of economic opportunity saying: “A lot of these people don't want to sell drugs. Their goal is to get to a particular economic position and then get out... There's no alternative that allows them to do that. It’s not like you can take that same person and get rid of their product and then like have them work at Amazon and they'll be clearing the same amount- there's no incentive there for that. The lack of opportunity leads to this immense economic pressure for people who don't have those skills, just really look for in like the traditional job economy to like, engage in the drug economy because that's where what skills and connections they have works.” (Milton) The limited options in the traditional job market for people in their community were unable to provide the economic opportunities that would allow people to thrive and not just survive. As a result, hidden sources of social capital were explored to meet material needs which led people to the drug economy. In the scoping review, we found that existing literature often framed social connections to those who use or sell drugs as negative. But from an ACRP lens, it is important to identify these culturally adaptive structures that have been demonstrated to be beneficial to the survival and advancement of Black people. As one interviewee said: “There are a lot of people that have been incarcerated for drugs. They just needed to make money. They were trying to maintain and so a lot of brilliance is incarcerated, a lot of entrepreneurialism is incarcerated. Not because they were addicted, but because they were trying to survive in this system that was never really designed for their survival.” (J) The social capital people use to sell drugs as a means of survival and economic empowerment were viewed in a context of opportunities and constraints rather than being ruled out as negative due to the illicit nature of the drug trade. However, interviewees were clear that they did not condone the negative social impacts of addiction or violence stemming from the drug trade. Selling drugs was seen as an unfortunate option for economic advancement that resulted from historical disinvestment in Black communities. People who sell drugs can be seen as contributing members in their communities because they have the economic means to provide for community members: “You know, a lot of the people who youth look up to end up being the people using the drugs for economic opportunity. Like the dealers end up being the people who have economic means to look out for you, to drive the car, to show stability in the community, flexibility and growth.” (Milton) 26 of 55
Page 1 and 2: THE COMMUNAL IMPACTS OF DRUG CRIMIN
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements We would like to t
Page 5 and 6: “groupthink”. Also, I realize t
Page 7 and 8: Decriminalize Blackness First “It
Page 9 and 10: Indeed, this quote comes from a for
Page 11 and 12: criminal elements involved in the i
Page 13 and 14: Reparations Means Community Repair,
Page 15 and 16: The Communal Impacts of Drug Crimin
Page 17 and 18: The community-based scholar is info
Page 19 and 20: Definitions Black Civil Society Thi
Page 21 and 22: works. Specifically, we looked at h
Page 23 and 24: working with other Black Power orga
Page 25: Pseudonym Occupation/Community Role
Page 29 and 30: “Black and brown people are being
Page 31 and 32: health and for community education?
Page 33 and 34: friendship community, 'cause heroin
Page 35 and 36: “And then actually right out of F
Page 37 and 38: 3. Decriminalization does not recog
Page 39 and 40: “It’s the values that people ha
Page 41 and 42: A local pastor family interviewed r
Page 43 and 44: Policymakers and researchers intere
Page 45 and 46: advocates trust the experience of o
Page 47 and 48: powerful independent Black institut
Page 49 and 50: trust working-class people in turn
Page 51 and 52: systemic corruption and incompetenc
Page 53 and 54: & The Baltimore “Black Hole” [I
Page 55 and 56: Dan Baum investigates whether gun-c
Page 57: © 2023

The Communal Impacts of Drug Criminalization in Maryland

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