Drug Decriminalization in Maryland Through an African Centered Research Paradigm- Analysis and Recommendations

litureates seems to advocate for, this assortment of punitive tools becomes even more worrisome.
While a comprehensive analysis may be beyond the scope of this report, it is safe to say that every
punishment offered at the Deferral Commission risks having serious disproportionate implications
for Black communities in America. Black communities are already subject to higher level of
racialized surveillance while driving, taking away their licenses would merely make these
instances of “driving while black” a more effective feeder for racial inequity in the criminal justice
system. Black communities are already deemed inherently criminal and dangerous, eliminating
pathways to legal gun ownership raises the specter of Black residents being convicted of illegal
gun possession, a crime which comes with substantial jail time. Moreover, within the racialized
public conception of addiction this raises the possibility that the american legal system might argue
that since poor Black communities have disproportionate addiction issues, they have essentially
forfeited their 2nd amendment rights to self defense, a reality which is especially unacceptable
given the rise of racialized violence in the country. Much has been written about the political nature
of social work, with state officials often applying racist conceptions of the inherent deviance of
Black family life to justify breaking up Black families and criminalizing Black behavior (Martin
and Martin, 1995, Chapman and Withers, 2018)). Moreover, while the literature says individuals
are typically given alternatives to mandated treatment, mandated treatment does not seem to be
beyond the scope of the deferral commissions authority, and while this option may be rarely used
in Portugal, Karam’s analysis of racialized drug user as a threat to the very fabric of society makes
it unlikely that this option would be the same sort of “last resort’ here in America. Many who have
studied the treatment system of in america have noted that it, like social work, is festooned with
racist logic, specifically around racialized applications of 12 step ideology around viewing Black
addicts as excessively “willful” and needing to embrace powerlessness and submission as a
precondition for being render productive “biocitizens” (Mckim, 2018). With mandated treatment
creating the threat of incarceration of a patient is deemed “noncompliant”, addiction counselors
end up wielding vicarious carceral authority, which they can use to coerce racialized performances
of acquiescence in the name of sobriety (ibid). One wonders is, in the American context, a system
capable of calling on these levels of violence deserves to be called “decriminalization” at all.
The term “decriminalization” might be misleading as an adjective for the Protugese model,
as it does incorporate enhanced policing into parts of the model. Specifically, Portugal increased
police presence in schools as part of what it calls its “Safe school” program, with the intention of
creating a deterrent to drug dealing near youth (Domoslawski, 2010). Given not only the history
of “drug free school zones” in America increasing racially unequal level of incarceration, but the
nationwide concern over police brutality, specifically the notion of police engaging in violent
interactions with students and discussion around the so called “school to prison pipeline”, this
provision seems especially likely to expose Black citizens to enhanced level of risk of criminal
justice involvement, going counter to the very notion of “decriminalization”.
Finally, there is one more potential punishment the Portugauese deferral commissions have
access to which, from the perspective of a research using an African Centered Research Paradigm,
might be the most concerning. Alex Kreitt relays the under reported fact that the deferral
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