Re:Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Ther...
by Reelin on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @09:22PM
(#21644757)
Possibly controversial view, but I think that these differences are largely socioeconomic in nature. The US justice system does not treat poor people kindly, regardless of their skin color or ethnicity. "Justice for all who can afford it" and whatnot.
(Of course there's also the odd case of a racist judge, but my impression is that it's by far the exception.)
Edit: The paper you linked does raise some very interesting questions about the motivations behind various government policies, however.
Re:Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Ther...
by alwillis on Thursday November 28, 2019 @12:06AM
(#21654728)
>The US justice system does not treat poor people kindly, regardless of their skin color or ethnicity. "Justice for all who can afford it" and whatnot.
Yes, income is a factor, but that still doesn't explain why blacks are 13% of the population but the prison population is nearly 40% black.
Nobody seriously disputes the clear racial bias in the criminal justice system.
The criminal justice system treats people very differently, depending on who you are.
In my lived experience, for middle class white kids, using cocaine, heroin, LSD, etc. was just a right of passage, that for the most part, didn’t effect their future prospects for college or a career.
Meanwhile, black and brown kids caught with a dime bag ended up going to jail.
In the US, white and black people use drugs at about the same rate, but black people are convicted at much higher rates and with longer sentences: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5614457/