I. The Problem.
Recently in the Black colony of Harlem a 12 year old Black
boy was murdered by an overdose of heroin. Less than two weeks later a
15 year old Black girl met the same tragic fate. During the year 1969
in New York City alone there were over 900 deaths resulting from drug
addiction. Of these 210 were youths ranging in age from 12 to 19. Of
the over 900 dead, the overwhelming majority were Black and Puerto
Rican. It is estimated that there are at least 25,000 youths addicted
to narcotics in New York City - and that is a conservative estimate.
Drug addiction in the colonized ghettos of America has
constituted a major problem for over 15 years. Its use is so widespread
that it can - without fear of exaggeration - be termed a "plague". It
has reached epidemic proportions, and it is still growing. But it has
only been within the last few years that the racist US government has
considered drug addiction "a matter of grave concern". It is
interesting to note that this growing concern on the part of the
government is proportionate to the spread of the plague into the inner
sanctums of the White middle and upper-class communities. As long as
the plague was confined to the ghetto, the government did not see fit
to deem it a problem. But as soon as college professors, demagogic
politicians, money-crazed finance capitalists and industrialists
discovered that their own sons and daughters had fallen victim to the
plague, a virtual "state of national emergency" was declared. This is
significant, for it provides us with a clue to the understanding of the
plague as it relates to Black people.
From the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, to the clergy, to
members of the medical profession, so-called educators, psychologists,
right on down tot the chemically enslaved addicts on the street corner,
the hopes for effectively curbing the spread of the plague are
dishearteningly dim. Despite the stiffer jail sentences being meted out
to those whom the law defines as 'drug profiteers' - a euphemism for
illegal capitalists - there are more dope dealers now that ever before.
Despite the ever increasing number of preventive and rehabilitative
programs the plague proliferates; it threatens to devour and entire
generation of youth.
The basic reason why the plague cannot be stopped by the, drug
prevention and rehabilitation programs is that these programs, with
their archaic, bourgeois Freudian approach and their unrealistic
therapeutic communities, do not deal with the causes of the problem.
These programs deliberately negate or at best deal flippantly with the
socio-economic origin of drug addiction. These programs sanctimoniously
deny the fact that capitalist exploitation and racial oppression are
the main contributing factors to drug addiction in regard to Black
people. These programs were never intended to cure Black addicts. They
can't even cure the White addicts they were designed for.
This fascist government defines the cause of addiction as the
importation of the plague into the country by smugglers. They
themselves even admit that stopping the entry of the plague is
impossible. For every kilo (2.2 lbs.) of heroin they confiscate, at
least 25 kilos get past customs agents. The government is well aware of
the fact that even if they were able to stop the importation of heroin,
dope dealers and addicts would simply find another drug to take its
place. The government is totally incapable of addressing itself to the
true causes of drug addiction, for to do so would necessitate effecting
a radical transformation of this society. The social consciousness of
this society, the values, mores and traditions would have to be
altered. And this would be impossible without totally changing the way
in which the means of producing social wealth is owned and distributed.
Only a revolution can eliminate the plague.
Drug addiction is a monstrous symptom of the malignancy which
is ravaging the social fabric of this capitalist system. Drug addiction
is a social phenomena that grows organically from the social system.
Every social phenomenon that emanates from a social system that is
predicated upon and driven by bitter class antagonisms that result from
class exploitation must 'be been from a class point ,of view.
II. Escapism and Self-Destruction
In regard to Black people, our problems are compounded and
take on appalling dimensions as a result of the racist dehumanization
that we are subjected to. To understand the plague as it relates to
Black people, we must analyze the effects of capitalist economic
exploitation and racist dehumanization.
The heinous and sadistic program of annihilating the humanity
of Black people that was initiated over 400 years ago by money-mad
slave masters and that has continued unabated until this very day is
deliberate and systematic. It is done for the purpose of justifying and
facilitating our exploitation. Since the reality of our objective
existence seemed to confirm the racist doctrines of White superiority
and its antithesis, Black inferiority, and since we lacked an
understanding of our condition, we internalized the racist propaganda
of our oppressors. We began to believe that we were inherently inferior
to Whites. These feelings of inferiority gave birth to a sense of
self-hatred which finds expression in self-destructive behavior
patterns. The wretchedness of our plight, our sense of powerlessness
and despair created within our minds a predisposition toward the use of
any substance which produces euphoric illusions. We are inclined to use
anything that enables us to suffer peacefully. We have developed an
escapist complex. This escapist complex is self-destructive.
The depraved capitalist-racist oppressor exploits these
psychological and emotional deficiencies for all they are worth. The
oppressor encourages our participation in any activity that is
self-destructive. Our self-destructive behavior patterns and our
escapist tendencies constitute a source of profits for the capitalists.
They also, by weakening, dividing and destroying us, reinforce the
strength of the oppressor enabling him to: Perpetuate his domination
over us.
Fratricidal street-gang fighting is a direct manifestation of
a self-destructive behavior pattern. It is also a form of escapism by
which Black youths vent their rage, frustrations and despair on each
other rather than dealing with the true enemy. Pathological religionism
or the fanatical indulgence in religion is essentially escapist because
it encourages the victim to concentrate his attention, energy and hope
for salvation and freedom upon a dubious, mystical force. It
discourages confronting the actual causes of our misery and
deprivation. It encourages the focusing of attention upon pie in the
sky, rather than the securing of more lamb chops right here on planet
earth. It also serves as a source of profits for those religious
charlatans, preachers and ministers who exploit it.
Alcoholism is both self-destructive and escapist. It is also a
source of tremendous profits for the capitalists. The amazingly high
number of bars and liquor stores in the Black communities testify to
this tragic fact. The capitalist liquor industry could prosper just on
the business it does in the Black ghetto alone.
III. The Heroin Addict
The most escapist and self-destructive activity for us and one
of the most profitable for the capitalist, and therefore the most
encouraged by him, is drug addiction, specifically heroin addiction.
About 1898 a German chemist discovered diacetylmorphine,
heroin. It was hailed as the perfect drug for curing morphine addicts.
But soon it became apparent that it was more addictive than morphine.
By the 1920's there were addicts who were injecting heroin directly
into their veins. Heroin production in the United States was
discontinued 'and the drug was no longer used as an antidote for
morphine addiction and as a pain killer.
Heroin addiction, the plague, the scourge of the Black
colonies of Babylon. The plague, whose spiritual, moral, psychological,
physical and social destructive powers greatly exceed that of any
disease hitherto known to humanity. The plague, opium from Turkey,
shipped to Marseilles, converted into morphine base, then processed
into heroin, smuggled into America, cut, diluted, then placed into the
Black ghetto. The plague, poisonous, lethal, white powdery substance,
sold by depraved, money-crazed beasts to Black youths who are
desperately seeking a kick, a high, a means, anything that will help to
make them oblivious to the squalor, to the abject poverty, disease and
degradation that engulfs them in their daily existence.
Initially the plague does just that. Under its sinister
influence, the oppressive, nauseous, ghetto prison is transformed into
a virtual Black Valhalla. One becomes impervious to the rancid stench
of urine-soaked tenement dungeons, unaffected by the piercing cries of
anguish of Black folks driven to the brink of insanity by a sadistic,
social system. Unaffected by the deafening wail of pig-police car
sirens as they tear through the streets of the Black Hell en route to
answer a 1013 call from some other pig-police who is in a state of
well-deserved distress. Unaffected by the trash cans whose decayed,
disease carrying, garbage has overflowed to fill the ghetto streets.
Yes, under its ecstatic influence one is made oblivious to
ugly realities. But there is a trick, a cruel monstrous trick, a deadly
flimflam awaiting its naive, youthful victim, for, as the illusionary
beauty of the heroin-induced high begins to vanish, correspondingly,
the temporary immunity from reality attained under its chemical trance
vanishes. The reality that the pathetic victim sought so desperately to
escape, once again descends upon and re-engulfs him. The rancid stench
of urine-soaked tenement dungeons begins to assail his nostrils. Those
Black cries of anguish seem to blend with the wailing sirens of
pig-police cars. He hears them now, very loud, and very clear--in
stereophonic sound. And that garbage that flows over onto the streets
from uncollected trash cans is felt underfoot.
The young victim is not long in discovering that only by
taking another dosage will he be able to attain sanctuary from his
hideous reality. Each shot of the plague that he injects into his blood
system brings him that much closer to the grave. Soon he is strung-out,
hooked. He is physiologically and psychologically dependent on the
plague. Both his body and mind have become addicted to heroin. He has
now become a full-time, chartered member of the Cloud 9 Society. His
physical body begins to take on a decimated appearance. A shameless
disregard is displayed toward his clothes. That his shirt is filthy and
his shoes are soleless, leaving him to walk virtually on his naked
feet, does not matter. That his unwashed body now emits a most foul
odor disturbs him but little. That his non-addicted friends now shun
him and look upon him with contempt matters not, for the feelings are
mutual. They no longer have anything in common. Everything ceases to
matter. Everything except heroin, the plague.
As he continues, his body begins to build up an immunity to
the drug. Now, in order to attain his euphoric high he must increase
his dosage. This means that he must obtain more money. So enslaved has
he now become that he will do anything for a bag, for a "shot". To lie,
to steal, to cheat, to rob is nothing to him. Whatever he must do for a
"shot" he will do, he must do, for he is a slave to the plague.
The vicious cycle grinds into motion. He violates what the
ruling class defines as being the law in order to secure money to feed
his sickness. Inevitably he gets flagged-off, busted. He goes to jail,
and after he has served out his sentence he is released. The first
thing he wants is a shot. The cycle continues. And he plunges deeper
and deeper into the abysmal pit of degradation. And there, always there
and ever willing, for a price of course, to meet the addict's demand
for dope is the cop-man, the dealer, purveyor of poison, distributor of
death, merciless, murdering scum, of the planet, vile capitalists,
salesmen of death on the installment plan, the dope pusher, the
plague-man.
IV. Capitalism and Crime
Dope selling is beyond a doubt one of the most profitable
capitalist undertakings. The profits from it soar into billions.
Internationally and domestically the trade and distribution of heroin
is ultimately controlled by the Cosa Nostra, the Mafia.
Much of the profits amassed from the drug business is used to
finance so-called legitimate businesses. These legitimate businesses
that are controlled by the Mafia are also used to facilitate their
drug-smuggling activities. Given the fact that organized crime is a
business and an ever-expanding one at that, it is constantly seeking
new areas of investment to increase profits. Hence, more and more
illegal profits are being channeled into legitimate businesses.
Partnerships between the Mafia and "reputable businessmen" are the
order of the day. There is a direct relationship between legitimate and
illegitimate capitalists.
Over the years a number of politicians and foreign ambassadors
and wealthy businessmen have been arrested in this country for drug
activities. Others, because of their wealth and influence, were able to
avoid arrest. In the fall of 1969 it was discovered that a group of
prominent New York financiers was financing an international drug
smuggling operation. No indictments were handed down. Shortly after
that a group of wealthy South American businessmen were arrested in a
plush New York City hotel with over $10 million worth of drugs.
Given the predatory and voracious nature of the capitalist, it
should come as no surprise that so-called legitimate businessmen are
deeply involved in the drug trade. Capitalists are motivated by an
insatiable lust for profits. They will do anything for money. The
activities of organized crime and the "legitimate capitalists" are so
inextricably tied up, so thoroughly interwoven, that from our vantage
point any distinction made between them is purely academic.
The legitimization of the Mafia, their increased emphasis upon
investing in, and establishing corporations, has been accelerated by
the stiffer prison sentences that are being meted out to drug
profiteers. In New York this has resulted in the gradual withdrawal of
the Mafia from their position of actual leadership of the New York drug
trade. The New York drug trade is now dominated by Cuban exiles, many
of whom were military officers and police agents in the
pre-revolutionary, repressive Batista regime. They equal the Mafia in
ruthlessness and greed.
These new local dope kingpins have established a broad network
of international smuggling operations. They utilize the traditional
trade routes and create new ones, as indicated by the increased number
of Narcotics Bureau seizures of dope coming from South America.
The concept of Black Power has influenced the thinking of
every segment of the Black community. It has come to mean Black control
of the institutions and activities that are centered in the Black
community. Black teachers demand Black community control of the ghetto
schools. Black businessmen and merchants advocate the expulsion of
White businessmen from the ghetto so that they can maximize their
profits. Black numbers-game operators are demanding total control of
the ghetto numbers operations. And Black dope dealers are demanding
community control of heroin. It is a tragedy that in New York the
greatest gains made in the realm of Black community control have been
made by Black racketeers, numbers-game bankers and dope dealers, by the
Black illegal capitalists. Prior to 1967 it was a rarity to find a
Black dope dealer who handled more than 3 kilos (1 kilo equals 2.2
lbs.) of heroin at any given time. Independent Black importers were
unheard of. Now, there is an entire class of Blacks who have become
importers, using Mafia supplied lists of European connections.
The extent and instant rate of profits reaped from the dope
industry could arouse the envy of U.S. Steel, General Motors and
Standard Oil. From the highest level to the lowest, the profits are
enormous. If the individual is sufficiently ambitious, cunning,
ruthless and vicious, he may graduate from the status of street peddler
to big-time wholesaler and distributor in a short span of time.
A characteristic feature of class and racial oppression is the
ruling class policy of brainwashing the oppressed into accepting their
oppression. Initially, this program is carried out by viciously
implanting fear into the minds and sowing the seeds of inferiority in
the souls of the oppressed. But as the objective conditions and the
balance of forces become more favorable for the oppressed and more
adverse to the oppressor, it becomes necessary for the oppressor to
modify his program and adopt more subtle and devious methods to
maintain his rule. The oppressor attempts to throw the oppressed
psychologically off-balance by combining a policy of vicious repression
with spectacular gestures of good-will and service.
Given the fact that Black people have abandoned the
non-functional and ineffective tactics of the "Civil Rights" era and
have now resolved to attain their long overdue liberation by any means
necessary, it has become necessary for the oppressor to deploy more
occupation forces into the Black colony. The oppressor, particularly in
New York, realizes that this cannot be done overtly without
intensifying the revolutionary fervor of the Black people in the
colony. Therefore, a pretext is needed for placing more pigs in the
ghetto.
And what is the pretext? It goes like this: Responsible negro
community leaders have informed us, and their reports concur with
police findings, that the negro community is ravaged by crime,
muggings, burglaries, murders and mayhem. The streets are unsafe,
business establishments are infested by armed robbers, commerce cannot
function. City Hall agrees with negro residents that the main cause for
this horrible situation is the dope addicts who prey on innocent
people. Yes, the dope addicts are to blame for the ever-increasing
crime rate. And City Hall will answer the desperate cry of negro
residents for greater protection--send in more police!
That victims of the plague are responsible for most of the
crimes in the Black ghettos is a fact. That Black drug addicts
perpetrate most of their robberies, burglaries and thefts in the Black
community against Black people cannot be denied. But before, out of
desperation, we jump up and scream for more police protection, we
better remember who put the plague in Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant and
the other Black communities. We better remember who ultimately profits
from the drug addiction of Black people. We better remember that the
police are alien hostile troops sent into the Black colonies by the
ruling class, not to protect the lives of Black people, but rather to
protect the economic interests and the private property of the
capitalists and to make certain that Black people don't get out of
place. Rockefeller and Lindsay could care less about the lives of Black
people. And if we don't know by now how the police feel about us, then
we are really in bad shape.
V. The Police
The plague could never flourish in the Black colonies if it
were not for the active support of the occupation forces, the police.
That narcotics arrests have increased in no way mitigates the fact that
the police give dope peddlers immunity from arrest in exchange for
money pay-offs.
It is, also the practice of pig-police, especially narcotics
agents, to seize a quantity of drugs from one dealer, arrest him, but
only turn in a portion of the confiscated drugs for evidence. The rest
is given to another dealer who sells it and gives a percentage of the
profits to the narcotics agents. The pig-police also utilize informers
who are dealers. In return for information, they receive immunity from
arrest. The police cannot solve the problem, for they are a part of the
problem.
When you consider that a kilo of heroin purchased by an
importer for $6,000, when cut and bagged and distributed will bring
back a profit of$300,000in a week's time, it becomes easier to
understand that even if the death penalty were imposed on drug
profiteers, it would not deter the trade.
The lying devious puppets of the bourgeois ruling class, the
demagogic politicians of Capitol Hill have now passed a law which gives
narcotics agents the right to crash into a person's home without
knocking, on the pretext of looking for narcotics and "other evidence".
This law was ostensibly passed to prevent dope dealers from destroying
the dope and "other evidence." Now, anyone who thinks that this law
will be confined to just suspected drug dealers is laboring under a
tragic and possibly suicidal delusion. To assume that only suspected
drug dealers will be affected by this law is to negate the reality of
present-day America. To allow yourself to think for one moment that
this law only applies to suspected drug dealers is to deny that the
laws being passed, the policies being implemented, and the methods and
tactics of the police have become blatantly and shamelessly fascist.
It should come as no surprise when the homes of
revolutionaries and other progressive and true freedom-loving people
are invaded by the police on the pretext of searching for drugs and
"other evidence". A number of revolutionaries have already been
imprisoned on framed-up narcotics charges. Lee Otis was given 30 years
and Martin Sostre was sentenced to 41 years on trumped-up narcotics
charges. Rest assured this policy will be intensified. It would do us
well to consider what kicking in .a person's door in search of drugs
and "other evidence" actually means. What is "other evidence"? The
bourgeois, fascist law-makers have not specified what constitutes
"other evidence". The No-Knock Law !s an integral part of the fascist
trip that this country has embarked upon.
Before, when the home of a Black person was burglarized by a
drug addict, or a sister had her purse snatched, the police took all
night to respond to the call, or didn't respond at all. The burglar or
purse-matcher was hardly ever caught. In most instances, when someone
was arrested, it was the wrong person. But when an exploiting
capitalist business establishment in that very same ghetto, especially
a White one, gets ripped-off, there are immediately 15 siren-wailing
police cars on the set, and three dozen pigs are running up and down
the street, waving guns in everybody's face. And you can lay 5 to 1
odds that somebody is going to jail for it. Whether or not the arrested
person perpetrated the act is irrelevant from the pigs' standpoint. The
racist pig-police use Blacks as an outlet for their sadistic impulses,
inadequacies and frustrations. Now that more police have been sent in,
the situation has gone from bad to worse.
VI. Revolution
The racist pig-police, the demagogic politicians .and the
avaricious big businessmen who control the politicians are delighted
that Black youths have fallen victim to the plague. They are delighted
for two reasons: one, it is economically profitable, and two, they
realize that as long as they can keep our Black youths standing on the
street corners "nodding" from a "shot" of heroin, they won't have to
worry about us waging an effective struggle for liberation. As long as
our young Black brothers and sisters are chasing the bag, as long as
they are trying to cop a fix, the rule of our oppressors is secure and
our hopes for freedom are dead. It is the youth who make the revolution
and it is the youth who carry it out. Without our young, we will never
be able to forge a revolutionary force.
We are the only ones capable of eradicating the plague from
our communities. It will not be an easy task. It will require
tremendous effort. It will have to be a revolutionary program, a
people's program.
The Black Panther Party is presently in the process of
formulating a program to combat the plague. It will be controlled
totally by the people. We, the people, must stamp out the plague, and
we will. Dope is a form of genocide in which the victim pays to be
killed.
SEIZE
THE TIME!
INTENSIFY
THE STRUGGLE!
DESTROY
THE PLAGUE!
ALL
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Michael "Cetewayo" Tabor (REST IN POWER)
N. Y. Panther 21, Political Prisoner
