Jay Z On America's Racist War On Drugs: It's A Failure, An Epic Failure

Over the years, Jay Z has become much more than a rapper, more than his career as a producer, entrepreneur or even investor. He has become a voice of public opinion, a spokesperson for the masses.

Early Thursday, the New York Times published a video featuring Jay Z talking about America’s racist, “epic fail” of a war on drugs. The cocaine-dealer-turned-superstar was joined by artist Molly Crabapple to share a look into the history of the United States' fight against illegal drugs, from the Nixon administration and the Rockefeller drug laws in the early '70s to today’s legal marijuana business and the lingering racial profiling practices among law enforcement officers.

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The video’s story opens in 1986, when Reagan’s harshening of drug laws (and conceptions) from the '70s made demons out of young hustlers — especially African-Americans. African-Americans make up for roughly 13 percent of the country’s population, but represent more than 30 percent of the people arrested for violating drug laws, even though their consumption and sale rates are similar to those of white Americans, the rapper explicated.

“Even though white people used and sold crack [cocaine] more than black people, somehow it was black people who went to prison. The media ignores actual data to this day; crack is still talked about as a black problem,” he stated. “The NYPD raided our Brooklyn neighborhoods while Manhattan white bankers openly used coke with impunity.”

“Why are white men poised to get rich doing the same thing African-Americans have been going to prison for?” he asked, as he tried elucidate why the United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world — including China, Russia, Iran and Cuba.

A Persisting Problem

Even though an increasing number of U.S. states are legalizing marijuana, not only for medicinal purposes, but also for recreational use, the war on drugs is far from over. However, crack is not the main issue any more.

In 2014, there were more than 1.5 million drug-related arrests, with 80 percent of them being for possession only and almost half for marijuana. And, while people started talking more compassionately about treating addicts, there was no mercy for drug dealers in their words, Jay Z continued.

Of course, sentences are still disproportionate, with blacks and Latinos getting the shorter end of the stick. Furthermore, the barriers to entry in the legal marijuana industry are also much higher for these ethnic groups.

Drug use rates stand at the same level they stood at when this so-called war started with Nixon, back in 1971, Jay Z concluded. “45 years later, it’s time to rethink our policies and laws. The war on drugs is an epic fail.”

Take a look at the impacting video below.

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Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned above.