As is the tradition with all great op-ed pieces, I would like to start this one off with a Dylan quote:

Well, they'll stone ya when you're trying to be so good/ They'll stone ya just a-like they said they would../They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to go home./ Then they'll stone ya when you're there all alone./ But I would not feel so all alone/ Everybody must get stoned.

Now we all know that Brother Bob smoked as much weed as the human body can tolerate, but my reading of this "text" (it's actually lyrics from the song "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35") is not that it is a recommendation that everybody get stoned, but rather a parody of the paranoia that surrounds drug use.

This paranoia is partly justified in that drugs can have an adverse affect on both body and mind via intoxication and addiction, but the current system takes this healthy concern and turns it into a perversion of Democracy.

And when I say perversion, I mean like sodomizing infant goats. The only way Democracy can be so perverted is when, instead of giving equal representation to all people, it systematically takes away a group's right to vote.

Because of the racism inherent in the war on drugs, this is exactly what is happening right now.

I learned this from something I read in Scientific American. I highly recommend this quality publication (it's far better than TSL) to anyone somewhat interested in science because it really does an excellent job of elucidating current scientific ideas. That is why it was so striking to read what I read in the August 1999 issue; it wasn't science. It was a statistic: "One in seven adult black males has lost his voting rights because of a felony conviction."

And, from the same article, "Although 13 percent of drug users in the U.S. are black, [proportional to the size of the black population, 13% of the nation,] blacks account for 74 percent of all those sentenced to prison for drug offenses."

From Bureau of Justice Statistics I found that in 1996, 35% of felons were convicted for drug offenses. Since 74% of these were black, 26% of felons were black and convicted of a drug related offense. Thus, in 1996 alone, about 270,000 blacks lost the right to vote because of the war on drugs.

These numbers might be off one way or another (i.e. second convictions, fluctuations of the 74% figure, etc.) but the picture is clear. Our government is systematically re-disenfranchising its African-American citizens via a racist policy that is supposed to protect all its people.

This is a horrible perversion of Democracy. However, many defenders of the status quo (all of whom I have decided shall go straight to Hell after they die) would say that there is nothing to be done.

Whenever a person breaks a law, they give up the rights of a normal citizen and thus should not be allowed to vote. These criminals should stay straight if they fancy their rights.

What these people do not understand is that the deprival of rights associated with a crime is actually an exchange of rights, that by violating others' rights, and thus breaking the law, they forfeit their own. But selling someone a drug, let alone using it, does not violate anyone's rights in the same way that stealing from one or beating one does.

There is no direct infliction of harm, no malicious intent to do harm, no violation of one's wishes. Whatever cost to society might come of drug use, it has no direct victim, and so is a victimless crime. Because of this, taking away the right to vote for a felony drug offense is not justified.

Even if you don't buy that, you cannot overlook the basic pragmatic need within our country to preserve the integrity (as little of it as remains) of the democratic process. Voting is the fabric of democracy, and it is essential that all peoples whose positions in this country are not dominant have the fullest voice in government to protect them from the powerful.

That Democracy protects minorities by giving them a voice is one of the main reasons it is considered the most humane and just form of government. So, given the history of blacks in this country, as well as the current socioeconomic inequalities and cultural bullshit they have to deal with, it is necessary to take steps to ensure their voice in government if the government is to be a Democracy.

Thus, we must change our drug policies. I personally believe that a shift from total prohibition and incarceration to controlled distribution and rehabilitation is the right way to deal with the drug problem. But I realize that many people don't agree with me, so I will simply say that we need to work on many levels of the criminal justice system to solve this problem.

Firstly, get our law enforcers some therapy so they will dispense with the racism that plagues their otherwise generally honorable (at least ideally) actions.

We also need to have better lawyers for those who cannot afford one, and district attorneys who are not under pressure to put drug offenders behind bars.

Most importantly, we need to reform sentencing. The bulk of drug offenses should not be felonies. Mandatory minimum sentences also pose a problem, because they create a desperate prison population which will fabricate lies about defendants which convict them of worse crimes than they actually committed, because conviction minded DA's offer them sentence reductions in exchange for testimony.

Regardless of whether the policies here outlined strike your fancy, remember that we need to change the current system to ensure representation for all within government, to ensure Democracy. The war on drugs is stripping away the rights of black citizens to have their voices heard.