Tahira Rehmatullah on Waiting to Inhale

Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

From the start, the War on Drugs targeted Black, Brown, and Indigenous Americans already disadvantaged by a system stacked against them. Even now, as white Americans who largely escaped the fire capitalize on the legalization movement and a booming cannabis industry, their less fortunate peers continue to suffer the consequences of the systemic racism in policing and failed drug policy that fueled the original crisis. Waiting to Inhale illuminates the stories of those on the front lines of the War on Drugs—the individuals and communities disproportionately harmed, sometimes seemingly beyond repair; the official and social forces ranged against them; and the victims, legal and political activists, and cannabis entrepreneurs who are fighting back. Join us when Tahira Rehmatullah co-author of In Waiting to Inhale, discuss a racial reckoning and provide a roadmap to redress this deep and abiding injustice.