Alva James-Johnson: We're losing the war on drugs

Hanging out at correctional facilities isn't really my favorite pastime, but I visited two in one week.

First, I stopped by the Muscogee County Prison on Oct. 14 to interview Warden Dwight Hamrick for the Sunday Interview. The next day, I went to the Muscogee County Jail to interview a couple of inmates for a series about heroin.

There was the usual high-security atmosphere, of course, with guards everywhere and inmates under lock and key.

Still, I had a gnawing feeling that there was something wrong with the picture. Too many people were locked up for drugs and other related offenses.

So, in separate interviews, I asked the prison warden and one of the jail inmates how they felt about the War on Drugs, and I found their answers very interesting. "The War on Drugs is fine. I think to lock everybody up for it is not," the warden said. "It's not rectifying the problem."

The next day, an inmate said, "The people that started the War on Drugs are the people who allow drugs in our country. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I'm a fairly intelligent individual and I've seen the same people that preach against it allow it."

The inmate, who didn't want to be identified, had been selling drugs in Columbus before landing in jail a few weeks ago. He's awaiting a bond hearing for two drug cases and says he's ready to quit the business.

I found it revealing that he and the warden both saw a problem with the current fight against drugs, considering that they're on opposite sides of the criminal justice system.

The War on Drugs began in 1971 when President Richard Nixon declared "drug abuse" to be "Public Enemy Number One." He launched the campaign in response to a congressional report, which revealed that a growing number of U.S. servicemen in Vietnam were addicted to heroin.

Now, 44 years later, we're still fighting the war that never ends. Not only do we have crack, powder cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription drugs to contend with, but now heroin is also making a comeback in Columbus and communities across the nation.

And what has been the government's response over the years? Prisons, which are now as ubiquitous as the narcotics.

"The United States now accounts for less than 5 percent of the world's inhabitants -- and about 25 percent of its incarcerated inhabitants," according to a recent article published by The Atlantic. "In 2000, 1 in 10 black males between the ages of 20 and 40 was incarcerated -- 10 times the rate of their white peers."

We should all be concerned about such statistics -- whether warden or inmate, incarcerated or free.

Let's face it, the War on Drugs has failed -- miserably.

Alva James-Johnson, 706-571-8521. Reach her on Facebook at AlvaJamesJohnsonLedger.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 10:32 PM with the headline "Alva James-Johnson: We're losing the war on drugs ."