Politics, drugs, race
by Harry Alford
Power and greed go together like hand and glove. People who become rich do not stay rich unless they establish a foundation of power. Those who gain power solidify that power through a lust for wealth. A few common folk have come to the White House, but none have left without becoming wealthy and powerful. Those two adjectives go together because, “he who has the gold makes the rules.”
As the world evolved into one big theater, many nations, empires, and super-tribes began to convert the power they had gained through military prowess into a political format via vehicles of exploitation. A violent nation or empire would control its conquered subjects via front governments and psychological techniques.
The British were the first to find that infecting a large population with drug addiction enabled themto control its very being. How else could a nation the size of the British Isles control a mighty China? The Brits imported opium into the populace of this extremely large geography and thus maintained control of its economy. Using drugs to control a targeted population turned out to be very effective.
After World War II, the United States found itself in an awesome position. It had just led a victorious fight against two military powers and had just become the “leader of the world.” This was power beyond belief. What was a nation less than 200 years old to do?
Our political apparatus found a vehicle. It created the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency, to assist our newfound military might and influence throughout the world.
The CIA later got mixed up in internal matters. When Black America decided to fight for equal rights and full citizenship, the power structure saw this as a serious threat to a nation controlled by those who saw White Supremacy as a state of security and a means to maintain power (money).
It is no coincidence that shortly after the CIA was formed, drugs were imported to the streets of Black communities. This activity created a power of its own. Through friends like the Mafia, as illustrated in the movie “The Godfather,” the political apparatus pointed drugs to Black communities and any community bordering them. It was the same format that the Brits used on China: the geopolitics of using the ills and profits of drugs on a distinct class of people, whom they desired to manipulate. Oh, don’t be naïve. This is real!
This sick reality has manifested itself into something quite overwhelming. There are two distinct divisions used in this social political apparatus here in the United States: the military industrial complex and the prison industrial complex. The “Geo Politic” uses the military industrial complex to import massive quantities of drugs without fear of exposure or retribution. This complex reaps much profit for the individuals involved and also ensures that war, the mechanism for revenue, will continue here and there throughout the world.
The recent film “American Gangster” brilliantly documented that the biggest drug importer during the Vietnam War era, the 1960s and 1970s, was the CIA —and the American military itself. Wherever there is conflict involving the CIA and the military, there appears to be vast drug importation.
A better example is Afghanistan. When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, opium farming was completely wiped out. Not a gram of opium, i.e., heroin, was exported from this nation. But today, after we invaded the country and ran the Taliban out, Afghanistan now exports over 80 percent of the world’s opium supply.
It becomes quite clear, doesn’t it? Who is getting the big profits? Let me say this: Most of the big bucks are being laundered on Wall Street.
The other apparatus is the ever-growing prison industrial complex. The sick practice of importing drugs into Black communities and then arresting and prosecuting its population has become seriously big — in profits and damage. Today, half of all imprisoned people (nearly 1.5 million, most of them Black) are there for involvement in nonviolent drug activity. The “Geo Politic” brings it in through military and intelligence agencies and then punishes those who were targeted for its use and damage. This judicial system, which slants punishment toward Blacks, sets up slave labor through prison industries, cripples the economy of these targeted communities, and lessens their liberties through criminal records and job opportunity reduction is one big control mechanism using politics, drugs, and race as its modi operandi.
How do we fight this? It can be simple, if we can leverage what political clout we have. Legalize drugs!! That would take the profit and vast revenue out of it. That would also bring transparency into the game.
The Netherlands has legalized drugs and to everyone’s surprise, its drug-addiction rate is 60 percent less than that of the United States — and no one is in prison. Let’s legalize drugs and upset this wicked game.
Alford is the co-founder, president, and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. His Web site is www.nbcc.com.
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