Drug Laws and Institutional Racism : The Story Told by the Congressional Record

Chambers's hypothesis is that an historical analysis of the Congressional discussions surrounding the opium laws in the late 1800's and early 1900's, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 will illustrate that competition and threat, economic and/or political, were present prior to the enactment of the laws. Analyses indicate that while economic and to a limited extent political competition between Chinese immigrants and white Americans affected the passage of the opium laws, economic and political competition had little effect on the Marihuana Tax Act or the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. While anti-minority sentiment during the opium legislation was clear and recognizable, it was almost non-existent during the marijuana legislation, and present in only nuances in the 1980's. Thus, while racism was overtly embedded in three of the four opium laws it was more subtly embedded in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act.