The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 4 439 as Unger (2012) previously emphasized. So, it is not that Black youth use cannabis more than White youth, but rather that Black youth, particularly in low-SES communities, may experience more risk factors that better account for or motivate cannabis use than their race. Black Youth, the War on Drugs, and Cannabis Use The American JJS is characterized by an overrepresentation of Black youth, including Black children at young ages (e.g., Abrams et al., 2021; Puzzanchera, 2021; Puzzanchera et al., 2022). Although Black Americans make up only 15% of all youth, 41% of youth in custody in the United States are Black (Puzzanchera, 2021). Furthermore, according to the Sentencing Project, Black youth are more likely to be in custody than White youth in every state but Hawaii (Rovner, 2023). In 2017, the Sentencing Project reported that Black youth in the United States disproportionately enter the JJS at significantly higher rates than their White peers. Black youth are more than four times as likely to be detained or committed to juvenile facilities as their White peers (Rovner, 2023). This influx of Black youth in the criminal justice system has been called the school-to-prison pipeline, a phenomenon wherein students are pushed out of public schools and into the JJS, often causing irreparable harm (Hemez et al., 2020). The school-to-prison pipeline often includes policies such as zero-tolerance discipline, school-based arrests, disciplinary alternative schools, and secured detention (Hemez et al., 2020; Welsh & Little, 2018). Black students are often subject to harsher disciplinary actions at school than White students are, and those punishments can damage students’ perceptions of their school and negatively affect their academic success years later (Del Toro & Wang, 2023). Although Black students make up 16% of public school enrollment, they account for 42% of all students who have been suspended multiple times. Black males have led the country in suspensions, expulsions, and school arrests (Green et al., 2020), while Black students with disabilities are the most likely to receive out-of-school suspensions (Harper, 2021). The JJS is ill equipped to provide support for Black youth who use cannabis for coping. Research indicates that youth in the JJS are grossly under-assessed for SUDs, and many are never referred for SUD treatment, even when current substance use and associated problems are reported (M. E. Johnson et al., 2022). Black youth are sometimes assessed as having behavioral problems rather than having a mental health or substance use issue (AACAP, 2022). Black youth who do receive diagnoses are often misdiagnosed or are over-diagnosed, including with very severe disorders that exaggerate legitimate mental health symptoms (Rutgers University, 2019; Schwartz & Blankenship, 2014). Given this complexity of their ecological developmental context, it is incumbent upon counselors who work with Black youth, especially in collaboration with or within the JJS, to engage with them ethically, competently, and empathetically instead of becoming complicit with systems that perpetuate racialized systematic barriers that can lead to disastrous outcomes for Black youth. Having a correct understanding of the origin and intent of drug laws in America can help counselors dismantle their prejudices, biases, and assumptions against Black youth. As mentioned in the anecdote, although I am a Black man, I did not grow up in the United States and therefore lacked significant understanding of certain aspects of U.S. history, which impacted my working with Diondre. For instance, I was aware of slavery, Jim Crow, and racism toward Black people, but was very much ignorant of the composite of laws embodied in the war on drugs and how
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