An African American professor at Columbia University says the United States is a "white-controlled world" where the killing of black people by the police "has been on a regular schedule."
"Drug effects . . . are predictable; police interactions with black people are not. In encounters with police, too often the black person ends up dead," psychology professor Carl Hart writes in a The Washington Post opinion piece.
"That is why I would much rather my own children interact with drugs than with the police."
Hart, who teaches a course at the Ivy League school called "Drugs and Behavior," adds:
"I am certain that my white colleagues, when faced with an emergency situation, wouldn’t think twice about calling the police. This, however, may not be the case for their black and Latino students.
"These students may be faced with the dilemma of not calling for police assistance even when they are in need of help for fear that the police will make the situation worse, and may even kill them or their loved one."
Hart is author the book, "High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society," published by Harper Perennial.