Billy and Jason
Billy and Jason
71: Looking at the War on Drugs Through the Racial Justice Lens (Sort Of)
71: Looking at the War on Drugs Through the Racial Justice Lens (Sort Of)
71: Looking at the War on Drugs Through the Racial Justice Lens (Sort Of)
Sunday 21st February 2021
Kassandra Frederique and Tracie Gardner explore the war on drugs, racial justice, and the need for decriminalizing drug possession on 'Recovery (Sort Of)'.
Explicit
82 minutes
Inspiring
Informative
Hopeful
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Transformative
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Billy and Jason
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Recovery Reimagined
Family Recovery from Addiction
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Get the buttons here!Rethinking the War on Drugs: Voices for Racial Justice and Reform
And I think part of it is because there's a cognitive dissonance. And there was this narration that drugs were an issue of the urban person of color.
Imagine a world where drug policies were designed to heal rather than punish. In this eye-opening episode of 'Recovery (Sort Of) - The Podcast', hosts Billy and Jason welcome Kassandra Frederique, Executive Director at Drug Policy Alliance, and Tracie Gardner, Vice President of Policy Advocacy at Legal Action Center. Together, they unravel the tangled history of the war on drugs, beginning with its roots in racial discrimination against Asian immigrants in the 1800s.
They trace the evolution of these policies through Nixon's tough-on-crime era and the devastating impact of the Rockefeller Drug Laws on communities of color. The conversation doesn't just stop at historical analysis; it delves into the present-day implications of these policies, revealing how they continue to marginalize not only people of color but also those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Frederique and Gardner argue passionately for the decriminalization of drug possession, highlighting how criminalizing health issues like addiction and mental illness only serves to further ostracize vulnerable populations. They emphasize the importance of multiracial organizing and community involvement in driving meaningful reform. This episode is a call to action, urging listeners to consider how drug policy can evolve to support, rather than punish, marginalized communities.
Tune in for a transformative discussion that sheds light on the urgent need for change and offers hope for a more just future.