Is the drug war in the United States similar to slavery? It may seem like a stretch, even for Quentin Tarantino, but the film director says that the drug policy of the United States and the resulting widespread incarceration of black Americans is not much different from the policy of slavery of African Americans once legalized by the United States government before the Civil War.

Criminalized Drug Possession = Slavery?

According to Tarantino, despite the abolishment of slavery, the current state of the law still reeks of racial injustice. Says Tarantino: “This whole thing of…this ‘war on drugs,’ and the mass incarcerations that have happened pretty much for the last 40 years has just decimated the black male population. It’s slavery…it’s just slavery through and through, and it’s just the same fear of the black male that existed back in the 1800s.”

Tarantino most recently directed a film called Django Unchained starring Jamie Foxx as a freed slave, and his experience during the production of that film has influenced his current opinions on the state of racial issues in the US. He points to the prison system and the fact that a disproportionate number of inmates are black as proof of his assertions.

Tarantino says: “Especially having even directed a movie about slavery, and you know, the scenes that we have in the slave town, the slave auction town, where they’re moving back and forth. Well, that looks like standing in the top tier of a prison system and watching the things go down. And between the private prisons and the public prisons, the way prisoners are traded back and forth.”

NAACP Says African American Men More Likely to Be Jailed for Drug-Related Crimes

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) holds views that are similar to Tarentino’s. In a statement, they said that African Americans are 13 times more likely than white people to end up behind bars for committing the same drug-related crime. Though African Americans make up 13 percent of the American population, they make up 53.5 percent of drug offenders in prison despite the fact that drug use and abuse are as common among Caucasians as they are among African Americans.

Drug War Isn’t Effective

Tarantino’s is one more voice added to the growing opinion that the so-called “war on drugs” in the United States – i.e., sending addicted people to jail when they are arrested for crimes related to their addiction – isn’t working. Instead of jail time, addicts need treatment. If someone you care about is struggling with dependence upon alcohol or other drugs, don’t wait for the court system to step in. Instead, contact us at Axis and learn more about our treatment programs – and how we can help.