The Communal Impacts of Drug Criminalization in Maryland

Disinvestment in Black communities has left the drug trade as a major means of economic empowerment.
This was understood in the context of the mass incarceration of Black people due to drug criminalization.
Systems of White supremacy and their negative impacts on Black civil society can be connected to why
communities turn to the drug trade for economic opportunities and how the violence and mass
incarceration from drug criminalization policies are used to further dismantle the social, economic and
political power in these same communities.
As one interviewee put it:
“If one goes with the social control perspective and social control is racialized, then that's racial
control. What is the best way to control people? To convict them, lock them up. It is a vicious
cycle of being in prison, coming out without providing a lot of opportunities which places the
person at further risk. For what? Going back, a vicious cycle of incarceration.” (Jay)
The Pressures of the Prison Industrial Complex:
Incarceration and Police Brutality
Building prisons and keeping them filled in order to make more money contributes to community harm.
An interviewee who worked in the criminal justice system provided insight into the economic model of
prison systems in Baltimore, stating:
I was once in an executive meeting that was about all the money that was being put in a new
prison to be built. One of the things that was said, well if we keep building, they’ll keep coming.
If your perspective is that you should build more prisons because you'll fill them, then I think
you’re in the wrong line of work, and you're a part of the problem. You're not the solution. So,
it's the whole thinking that’s there, and it's real because it is an opportunity down to the toilet
paper that is sold in a prison system, this is a big money maker.” (Tabatha)
Police surveillance and brutality was also a recurring theme among participants when discussing
community harm from drug criminalization. One interviewee expressed their concern that police are
typically the answer to issues that arise in Black communities, which creates apprehension around a sole
approach to decriminalization. One interviewee recounted:
“In Sandtown, the boys were talking about the police being just another gang because they’d
jump our boys! In an unmarked car they'd come into the community, into the neighborhood and
jump out and just start knocking people around and pushing people around and, accusing
people of things. And the children experienced this. How can they go to the police with
anything when the police could not be trusted? [emphasis added] And they knew that
the police were busting people and taking their drugs and not reporting. You know the kid, the
corner boy would have to give up his stash and the police would leave him alone. Well, what
was this kind of thing? So, we're here talking to these children about trying to do the right thing
and obey the law and all that and then they say well, look at the people who are doing the law,
the contradiction there!” (Olusola)
The use of drugs to unjustly target Black people is a tactic that has been used for decades in the U.S. and is
still being done to this day in Baltimore. Increased surveillance in predominantly Black neighborhoods
where drug treatment centers are also usually located also created barriers to accessing services. One
interviewee recounted:
“A lot of time the police post up there [at drug addiction centers], assuming that these people
who are struggling with addiction gotta be into some criminal activities. If I’m trying to get
help, I have to deal with that. Be on display.” (Rashard)
Community members experienced unsolicited violence from the police and saw police officers breaking
the law which led to a lack of trust and fear. One harm reduction advocate working in policy advocacy and
community organizing mentioned:
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