Thread by @PushDemsLeft

To celebrate 4/20, here is a thread on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' record on the War on Drugs, and what they can do now to repair the damage they've caused.

Biden once said, “Whenever people hear the words ‘drugs’ and ‘crime,’ I want them to think ‘Joe Biden.’” Here's why. 1/

Biden worked with leading segregationist Strom Thurmond to architect the disastrous War on Drugs, creating:

- the racist disparity between crack and cocaine
- mandatory sentencing
- cancellation of parole and reduction of sentences for good behavior

harpers.org/archive/2019/0… 2/

Biden spearheaded the effort to brand the Democratic Party as "tough on crime" like drug use by enacting crueler sentencing.

Watch as he gloats about expanding the (racistly-applied) death penalty to cover 53 offenses, including convictions of drug dealing and homicide. 3/

Biden and Thurmond architected the expansion of civil asset forfeiture, which allows police to steal property from people who are merely suspected of drug crimes, even without being convicted.

Years later, Harris aggressively worsened the issue even further. 4/

Biden worked with Reagan to create the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the propaganda arm of the War on Drugs.

This "Drug Czar" banned "any study relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use)" of cannabis.

leafly.com/news/politics/… 5/

Biden and Thurmond intentionally set the mandatory minimum threshold for the crack cocaine found in black communities 100x lower than the powder cocaine found in white ones, causing the average drug sentence to skyrocket nearly 5x higher for black individuals. 6/

Biden made the opioid epidemic harder to fight, by banning social services like the safe houses used to treat those struggling with addiction.

politico.com/magazine/story… 7/

Biden led the criminalization of raves, pushing to jail those associated with them and literally "bulldoze down" the venues. (Credit to @nandorvila for the video.) 8/

The RAVE Act that Biden passed to do this stifled information about safe drug use, resulting in preventable deaths.

sgvtribune.com/2015/10/08/why… 9/

Biden was so aggressive, he criticized Republican President George H. W. Bush for not being aggressive enough, demanding he literally invade foreign countries to fight drug dealers with military action. (Credit to @ggreenwald for the video.) 10/

Biden decimated South America by internationalizing the War on Drugs with his Plan Colombia, which displaced millions, killed thousands, and actually increased cocaine cultivation, creating the conditions that cause refugees to flee to the US. 11/

Despite his anti-drug zealotry harming disproportionately black and poor Americans, Biden's nepotism has shielded his own children from any consequences for their rampant drug use. His son even landed a lucrative book deal to chronicle his addiction.

washingtonexaminer.com/politics/biden… 12/

Kamala Harris, though she's had less time in office, has carried on Biden's War on Drugs legacy with glee.

As recently as 2014, Kamala literally laughed at the idea of legalizing weed, despite running as a strong favorite in solid blue CA vs a Republican who supported it. 13/

It wasn't the first time Harris laughed at the idea of legal weed, either. (Credit to @WalkerBragman for the video.) 14/

Of course, Harris' decision to block California from joining less liberal states in removing marijuana from the DEA’s list of most dangerous substances resulted in disproportionate harm to her black constituents.

afropunk.com/2019/01/kamala… 15/

In fact, Harris was so aggressive in prosecuting drug use, she oversaw arresting 10% of San Francisco’s black population in just one year alone, prosecuted black women at 50x the rate of other CA counties, and caused 40% of CA’s felony drug convictions of black girls alone. 16/

When the Supreme Court ruled that Harris' unconstitutionally overcrowded prisons were "cruel and unusual punishment," her lawyers pushed back to protect their prison labor profits. 17/

It's no surprise that Biden and Harris have built their careers on funneling disproportionately poor and black folks into the for-profit prison system, considering that their campaigns have been bankrolled by the people who run them.

theintercept.com/2019/12/31/joe… 18/

When supporting legal weed became politically expedient, Harris shifted to laughing about how she herself smoked marijuana before and/or while locking others up for the same thing.

marijuanamoment.net/kamala-harriss… 19/

Harris' hypocritical exploitation of cannabis was so egregious that her own Jamaican father came out with a statement saying, "we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty."

politico.com/story/2019/02/… 20/

Despite their watered-down campaign promise of decriminalization, Biden/Harris have since failed to make any meaningful move to deschedule cannabis or expunge the criminal records of those they imprisoned for its use. 21/

In fact, Biden even fired his own staffers over previous legal use they were tricked into divulging. Harris was not held to the same standard, despite her own admitted drug use.

thedailybeast.com/biden-white-ho… 22/

The only time Biden seems to make any progress on legalizing marijuana, it's working to hand the growing industry over to Big Pharma, which will keep it from benefitting the black communities his War on Drugs has devastated.

vice.com/en/article/43k… 23/

Despite his campaign promise to eliminate the racist mandatory minimum sentences for drug convictions that he once championed, Biden has pushed to extend them instead now that he's in office. 24/

In case you thought this thread was too harsh, here is the Biden admin’s statement today, 4/20/21. 25/

https://twitter.com/moreperfectus/status/1384603412877172743