Gravel Tells The Truth About the Drug War In Debate

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel said the issue in America that “enrages me the most” is the war on drugs, which he vowed to end if elected to the White House. Gravel was speaking Thursday night at a Democratic debate at Howard University in Washington. Addressing a question on racial inequality, Gravel said the war on drugs had a particularly devastating effect on minority communities, noting that 70 percent of the more than 2 million people incarcerated in this country are black.

“If I’m president, I’ll do away with the war on drugs, which does nothing but savage our inner cities and endanger our children,” Gravel said.

The Raw Story | Gravel says he’d end war on drugs, ‘savage’ of inner cities, children

This really is a huge issue. As Gravel mentioned at the debate, in 1972 there were a little over 100,000 people in prison in the U.S. and today there are over 2,000,000. Think about that for minute.

Here’s Gravel a few weeks ago talking about the drug war. (Personal note, Gravel and I both grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts so I note his use in this video of the phrase ‘package store’ in referring to what most of the rest of the country calls a liquor store.)