This article was originally published on Reality Sandwich, and appears here with permission.
Drug use is a public health issue, yet in the United States it is treated as a war. The “War on Drugs” refers to the United States’ domestic and global campaign of drug prohibition, criminalization, policing, military interventions, and policymaking that responds to the issue of drug use with the violence of the state. Since this declaration of war, federal and state legislatures have incentivized police departments by linking funding to the number of drug arrests, while underfunding programs and policies for drug addiction prevention and rehabilitation.