Another nasty bruise for Campbell County

Typically, I no longer use the Cincinnati Enquirer as a source for this blog, but this story is too important to ignore.

It's not enough that Campbell County has what is often considered to be the nation's absolute worst school system. It's not enough that one of the county's leading elected officials wrote fan mail to the dictatorship in Singapore. It's not enough that local health authorities tried to outlaw birth control pills - in the late '90s, no less. It's not enough that the Tea Party filed a lawsuit to try to close down the library - and won. It's not enough that Campbell County has some of America's worst air pollution.

Campbell County has managed to draw an awfully lot of nationwide ridicule for being only a 44% Republican county.

Now a new ACLU report reveals that Campbell County has the country's worst racial disparity for marijuana arrests. You read that right: Out of more than 3,000 counties nationwide, Campbell County is #1 - the very worst. The report - titled "The War On Marijuana In Black And White" - reveals that blacks in Campbell County are 12.2 times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though blacks and whites use marijuana at the same rate.

When people say the failed War on Drugs is racist, it's not hyperbole. People say it because of experience. Why is drug war racism even more extreme locally? Why is it tolerated? How long will it last? It will continue as long as people sit on their hands and let the Tea Party get what it wants. Everybody laughs at the Tea Party - but nobody seems to want to do much about it.

It's up to you.

(Source: http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20130604/NEWS/306040160/Report-Black-arrests-4-times-greater-than-whites-marijuana)