Dr. Boyce: Crack Disparity Law Should Have Been Changed More Effectively

Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University

 

When I was a teenager, a police officer explained to me how the "War on Drugs" took place in his hometown. The officer candidly described how every policeman in the city knew what boats contained drugs and when those boats would arrive in the city's major port. But he also knew that officers were not expected to show up on these boats to make arrests, and that they were not to deter the progress of the product when it hit the port. Instead, they were instructed to allow the drugs to get to the inner city, where they were given authorization to make as many arrests as necessary. In other words, his job was to arrest the small fish, not the big ones.

The misleading, ill-conceived and terribly racist set of drug policies which defined the Reagan era has been absolutely devastating for the African-American community. The existence of gang warfare in South Central Los Angeles has left hundreds of thousands of youth with post-traumatic stress disorder, as the CIA was oblivious to the fact that drugs and guns were being openly delivered to a community that no one cares about. The Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986 was the product of America's broad-stroke reaction to increased drug use of the 1980s. The law gave a sentence 100 times greater for possession of crack cocaine (more likely to be possessed by blacks) than the one given for powder cocaine (possessed in greater proportion by whites), creating a black incarceration rate of holocaust proportions.

After sitting on the books for decades, the law was finally modified this year. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Jeff Sessions did black people the "favor" of agreeing to reduce the sentencing disparity from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. So, instead of getting a prison sentence that is 100 times longer for the same crime, we only get one that is 18 times longer. Gee thanks. I'm supposed to be happy about that one, huh? So, we're not good enough to demand true equality, and are instead forced to accept dysfunctional compromises with Republicans from Alabama? While some might call this political pragmatism, others might describe this outcome as the modern-day version of the Three-Fifths Compromise.

 

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Wilmer Leon Discusses the Health Care Crisis

 

In this interview Wilmer Leon speaks with Dr. Brenda Griton-Mitchell and Anastassia Zinke about the health care issue in the United States.  They discuss the problems with the health care system and what can be done to improve it.  Click the above image to hear the interview.

Health Benefits Of Sex

 

If you thought that making love was just a gesture of love or for pleasure, think again. Sex has much more to it than most of us think and know. Did you know that sex is a form of physical exercise? Sex three times a week burns lots of calories, and if maintained throughout the year, is equivalent to jogging 75 miles. To make it simpler, a vigorous bout burns around 200 calories, about the same as running 15 minutes on a treadmill.

 

Regular sex is regular exercise and has similar benefits, including improved cholesterol levels and increased circulation Apart from giving you a good work out, sex once or twice a week improves the immune system as well.
Research has shown that an active sex life helps us live longer. Organs and systems in the body perform better and remain healthy because sex increases the supply of oxygen to the cells and stimulates the activity of various organs and systems within the body. People with complaints of cholesterol, take heart! You have a good medicine, which you would not refuse. Where sex balances out the good cholesterol to bad cholesterol ratio, it also simultaneously reduces the overall cholesterol count in the body. So there you go, you can now control your bad cholesterol with pleasure. By having sex three or more times a week, men reduce their risk of heart attack or stroke by half.

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Your Black Health: Black Men & Prostate Cancer From 4-Men.org

(Article From 4-Men.org)

African American men are 60 percent more likely to get prostate cancer than whites. They're also twice as likely to die from it than any other group. For years those numbers puzzled researchers, but scientists have made a discovery that may help explain why the risks are so high.

After being diagnosed with prostate cancer, Percy Smith knew he wanted to volunteer for the hospital where he was treated. He says he's alive today partly because of the treatment he received at the hospital and partly because of his wife. Knowing African Americans are at a greater risk for prostate cancer, she insisted he get checked.

"She never understood it, I never understood it. I asked doctors and they say they didn't know why,” said Percy.

But now, for the first time they just might ...

Doctor Jim Mohler of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo has discovered a crucial difference in the prostates of African Americans.

All men have what are known as androgen receptor proteins - they are the receptors for the hormones that regulate male traits like facial hair and baldness. But Doctor Mohler has found that the levels of those proteins are 22 percent higher in the prostates of African Americans than in whites. And even more striking, they are 81 percent higher in the prostate cancers of African Americans.

"So what this suggests is that the prostate of an African American can be thought of to be in a 'revved-up' state where it's being stimulated to grow and perhaps develop cancer because of greater stimulation,” said Doctor Mohler.

But the over-expression of that protein could lead to more than just cancer - Doctor Michael Wong says it could also lead to the development of new treatments if doctors can pinpoint when the protein becomes active and why.

"Knowing that, we can use that and exploit that to have better therapies, better treatments. We can use that to help us find the cancers for earlier diagnosis,” said Doctor Wong.

If prostate cancer is caught early, it can often be treated successfully. It worked for Percy, which is why he is now committed to working for the hospital that played a part in saving his life.

Most men are encouraged to start having prostate screenings around age 50. However, experts recommend African American men begin testing at age 45.