20 2 / 2009
"Silver continued that putting drugs like heroin or PCP in the hands of pharmacists as opposed to streetcorner dealers would evaporate the drug trade rapidly. The system as-is is hypocritical and racist — she notes that the percentage of minorities incarcerated on drug charges is disproportionate to statistics regarding drug use among races, and penalties for “black” drugs like crack tend to be harsher than for “white” drugs like cocaine."
I find this kind of radical action to be incomparably awesome; regardless of its relative distance from the mainstream, I believe it’s the only kind of thing that starts the shift toward policy change. I suppose we are a product of the community that rears us; Carol Ruth Silver was a city supe during the first seven years of my life, and in her resignation letter (also linked in the article, worth a click-through) she mentions the possibility of a center for Restorative Justice at USF, my alma mater and a longtime under-the-radar social justice incubator.
