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

within the context of a critique of the reproduction of slave narratives, which often presents graphic
violence done to enslaved Africans in the name of educating the audiences. This creates suffering
as a spectacle which demands cathartic recognition. Obscuring the direct need for material change
and ignoring the uncomfortable dynamic of voyeurism and racial sadism that accompanies these
representations (ibid). Drug policy is an especially apt space for this critique, as no matter how
graphic the suffering of addicts is presented, it will lead many to argue this suffering was necessary
for the individual to “hit their bottom.” With a twelve-step ideology as a particularly powerful
frame to justify structural violence as necessary for the moral and spiritual awakenings which some
argue are prerequisites for sobriety. As such, researchers should not assume that graphic depictions
of suffering are politically productive for the communities they are attempting to advocate for.
Instead, they should focus extensively on an analysis of the institutions engaged with the issues of
drug decriminalization, the interactions between them, how the status quo exacerbates the
deracination of institutional capacity of communities to solve their problems, and how drug
decriminalization can be one tool to add capacity for the ability of communities to self determine
their futures. Not only does this express the ability of an African-centered research paradigm to
shift the frame of analysis from the individual to the collective, but it also expresses what Schiele
calls the “universalist” impulse of African-centered research, as this collective institutional
analysis must be equally applied to white and Latinx communities as it is for Black communities.
For example, calls for decriminalization must account for the reality that hyper incarceration, in
addition to being a racialized social control program for Black populations, is also a jobs program
for rural and suburban communities (Pfaff, 2018). Policing and prisons are some of the few sources
of jobs that provide middle-class salaries and benefits with no need to obtain a college degree
Creating a powerful incentive for these institutions to hold onto their power and a deep conception
in many communities that these institutions are economic pillars of their communities.
Decriminalization research has often presented alternative visions of policy formation around the
sanctions of drug possession. They have not presented an alternative vision for social
organizations that could undermine the institutions that benefit from the current arrangement, a
reality the African-centered vision of heuristic research sees as an oversight.
African-centered research also presents recommendations for the institutions that focus
their efforts on analyzing drug decriminalization.. First, policing must be seen comprehensively as
an institution, accounting for the heterogeneity among distinct policing entities and even the
diversity within policing institutions. There is no singular Maryland drug prohibition entity but a
variety of them that overlap and influence each other in often chaotic ways. State troopers enter a
variety of jurisdictions and may have distinct enforcement patterns than local police. Within local
police departments, different formations may be pursuing different strategies related to the
enforcement of drug prohibition. All of these institutions interact with federal law enforcement
entities, which, in addition to typical incentives and influences as Byrn illustrates, also engage with
federal institutions like fusion centers which can help shape local enforcement patterns and
practices. The recent data dump from “Blue Leaks” presents extensive data on the role fusion
centers play in engaging local policing and creating a culture within police departments that are
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