Maybe now, half a century later, it’s finally time to end the war on drug users—repeal the heavy penalties for possession, pardon the millions of nonviolent offenders, replace mass incarceration with mandatory drug treatment, restore voting rights to convicts and ex-convicts alike, and, above all, purge those persistent stereotypes of the dangerous Black male from our public discourse and private thoughts.If only…
Alfred W. McCoy is the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.