On the recordSeptember 25, 2017
I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for leading this Special Order. Mr. Speaker, in 1971, then-President Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs, which he labeled as ``public enemy number one in the United States.'' Now, at the time of this declaration, America's prisons and jails held fewer than 200,000 people. Today, that number sits at over 2 million people. In fact, the United States incarcerates 25 percent of the world's prisoners, but we have only 5 percent of the world's population. In fact, shamefully, my State of Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate of African-American men on the planet Earth. Now, John Ehrlichman, then-counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Nixon, admitted, Mr. Speaker, that the war on drugs was an effort to vilify African-American leaders and to disrupt the African-American community; admitted that the war on drugs was contrived to diminish the reputation of African Americans. Indeed, they were successful because the burden of this failed war has fallen overwhelmingly on African-American communities. In 2014, African-American adults accounted for just 14 percent of those who used drugs, but close to one-third of those who are arrested for drug possession. And although African Americans and Whites consume drugs at a similar rate, African Americans are significantly more likely to be arrested.…
