Lawrence O’Donnell Explores Obama’s ‘Hypocrisy’ On The War On Drugs

This week marked the 40-year anniversary of the “War on Drugs” launched by President Richard Nixon, and Lawrence O’Donnell “celebrated” by highlighting the alarming statistics on inmates in the past four decades and the racial disparity in legal arrests.

Opening his segment with a “Just Say No” 1987 PSA, O’Donnell noted the history of the War on Drugs before highlighting its impact: an increase from 500,000 to 2.3 million inmates between 1980 and 2009. Guest Michelle Alexander expanded more on those numbers, calling the war on drugs an “engine of mass incarceration” but noting that drug arrests affect minorities disproportionately despite the fact that “people of color are no more likely to use or sell drugs.”

O’Donnell noted the commentary from many within the Obama administration, which led Alexander to highlight a certain “hypocrisy” within the administration. “Obama himself has admitted to using marijuana and cocaine,” she noted, arguing, “if he had been raised in the hood, the odds are high that he would’ve been frisked, searched, arrested” in a way that would have prevented him from viably running for office. This, she noted, was significantly higher for him because of his race, statistically, though the odds were lessened by him going to good schools and being in atmospheres were drug arrests are less common.

The segment via MSNBC below:

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