Introduction

Lassiter, M. D. (2023). Introduction. In The Suburban Crisis: White America and the War on Drugs (pp. 1–31). Princeton University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.3079201?

Race has played a huge part in the criminalisation of drugs, often laying the blame upon POC for the influence, spread, distribution, and consumption of drugs. However, white Americans that were consumers of drugs did not see it to be this way, and rather saw it as an effect of the law and carceral system in the U.S surrounding drug use. Reform was pushed for as it was thought to be legalised because criminalising it was ought to do more harm than good. Many policy efforts were put in place to decrease the percentage of youth engaging in illicit drugs during the Reagan presidency. These did not have the intended effect, however, as this led to grassroots forming for groups wanting decriminalisation of cannabis and marijuana use. Two approaches that were in aid of diminishing the Drug War include:

→ Campaigns by public health institutions to coerce users to stop using, mainly targeting white Americans in middle-class suburbs

→ Combative approaches especially targeted towards POC urban areas