I’ve been working on a video to experiment with some ideas of debates around the use of substances like marijuana and Psilocybin as a natural occurring event that connects humans with the growing world. I have been thinking of this natural growth of these substances in relationship to creative growth of a person after these experiences. The apparent ability of these substances to open your mind and have you reconsider concepts and our function in the world/position in society. However I have also been thinking about the illegality of these substances, how they are represented in society and how they work to perpetuate internalised racism and discrimination through the criminal justice system. Listening to podcasts and reading like The Mile Higher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=859LCNabe1g&t=1890s) I have found it interesting to consider how this really heavy, dark and negative side.
As much as I’ve been focused on hippies and their cool culture it is also important to consider how latinos, black people and hippies were targeted throughout history. The war on drugs was arguably an attempt to target these members of society through the criminal justice system with a massive focus on charging these people with non violent crimes and so focus is deterred from more serious crimes that affect society on large.
https://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon
President Richard Nixon declared the “War on drugs”, a campaign of drug prohibition in 1971. However, ulterior motives were revealed in an article for Harper’s magazine by John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s domestic policy chief at the time, “the Nixon White House had two enemies: black people and the anti-war left… if we could associate heroin with black people and marijuana with the hippies, we could project the police into those communities…and most of all, demonize them night after night on the evening news.”[1] Further evidence of the war on drugs as perpetuating racial prejudice in America can be seen through a report in 2012 from the US Sentencing Commission. It revealed that black Americans aren’t most likely to use or sell drugs but are more likely to be arrested for them and those who are convicted face longer prison sentence for the same crimes.[2] I felt it was important to consider the illegality of drugs when investigating attitudes, perceptions and nostalgia in my project.
[1] https://www.npr.org/2016/03/27/472023148/legalize-all-drugs-the-risks-are-tremendous-without-defining-the-problem?t=1589372368111
President Richard Nixon declared the “War on drugs”, a campaign of drug prohibition in 1971. However, ulterior motives were revealed in an article for Harper’s magazine by John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s domestic policy chief at the time, “the Nixon White House had two enemies: black people and the anti-war left… if we could associate heroin with black people and marijuana with the hippies, we could project the police into those communities…and most of all, demonize them night after night on the evening news.”[1] Further evidence of the war on drugs as perpetuating racial prejudice in America can be seen through a report in 2012 from the US Sentencing Commission. It revealed that black Americans aren’t most likely to use or sell drugs but are more likely to be arrested for them and those who are convicted face longer prison sentence for the same crimes.[2] I felt it was important to consider the illegality of drugs when investigating attitudes, perceptions and nostalgia in my project.
[1] https://www.npr.org/2016/03/27/472023148/legalize-all-drugs-the-risks-are-tremendous-without-defining-the-problem?t=1589372368111
[2] https://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon
Practice-based Research Project 