Crack and opioids are some of the worst things to hit the streets. These drugs have an effect on people who use them and people that are around them. Some people get attached to them for different reasons. Depression, sometimes peer pressure, and sometimes just to escape life in general. We hear about the overdoses on a daily basis now a days and I think that it is terrible. Not only does it take and effect on the user but also the people that care about the user. It is hard to fight that addiction because once you use it, you get hooked on too it because it makes you feel good. That’s when the addiction starts and they want to keep feeling like the first time they used. The only thing with that is that some want it to last longer than what it does. Then they figure that they’ll just take a little bit more. Not knowing the active ingredients in the drugs, they decide to take more of it. That’s when they start to overdose, sometimes because they used too much or the drug they were taking was laced with something like fentanyl which can be extremely lethal. I was stuck on the mindset that drug abusers should be put away and serve prison time. I looked at it as being a big deal and plus it is against the law. After learning about how the drugs work in the body, I started to change my mind on what should happen to them. After reading some of the articles in these blogs, I came to the conclusion that people hooked on drugs should be treated instead of being locked up. This goes back to the prisons making money instead of helping the people with problems because helping them will cost more than to just keeping them warehoused. The first thing they are going to do when they get out is go get their drug of choice because over time it became a need for them. They will do just about anything to get that poison. I called it poison because it does nothing good for anyone but destroys the body and the mind. That’s when some of them become violent and start committing crimes to get what they want. Even on TV shows about drugs, they tell you some of the things they do to get the money to pay for the drug like prostitution and theft. Without treatment, they aren’t going to be able to get off the drug. They need that professional help to get them through it all. It won’t be easy because they are going to go through withdrawals but it won’t kill them even though they might feel like they are dying. Part of it is the justice system that has to be fixed. Without the treatment, there are more possibilities about overdoses and some of them being fatal. This should have happened many years ago. We have to keep this process going. -Chewbacca789
I agree with you and especially what you said about the different reasons for someone getting addicted to opioids and drugs in general. When we see a drug addict on the streets as an officer, medical personnel, etc. we do not know how they got there in the first place. This person is addicted and is especially a slave to the power of the drug. They may have even tried to quit and have failed several times, a lot of these addicts do not even have a system of encouragement and support which may make it even hard to break the habit. That is why I am glad that the United States is moving toward a more accepting and supporting mindset toward drug users. They no longer see them as an enemy needing to be defeated but a victim needing to be helped. –TheMarshall789
I couldn't agree more with you that crack and opioids are some of the worst drugs to come into existence for people getting addicted. It is so sad that these people get addicted to such harmful drugs. These people do not take these drugs knowing that they will get addict or even trying to get addicted. It just kind of happened and before they know it their lives are revolving around it. I also agree that people should not be locked up for having these problems. That was the mistake they made during the crack epidemic. I think, like you mentioned, they should be treated and hopefully get off these drugs and be productive in society again. - ST789
Drugs are an incredibly dangerous and addictive force that now flow through the street of the Unites States and they have been there for some time. In this article, Mr. Ed Stetzer begins to explain his history with a supposed drug epidemic. Today, we do have a large amount of drugs on the street that some people call an epidemic. Decades ago there was a time when the drug crack, an easier to get and more affordable version of cocaine, hit the States extremely hard and became a front of a nationwide war of drugs. However, personally, I do see it was a war. One that the US has lost and this is because this “war” on drugs is a civil war where no matter who wins, the United States as a whole loses. We are still in that war and the only difference this time is that the front of it has shifted from crack to opioids. This is a different time now and the people of the United States are becoming more companionate towards those addicted. It will not be like the McCarthyism of yesterday but an easier way to combat it as we have taken to the idea of rehabilitation and helping them. Do not get me wrong though. We still lock people up and at a staggering rate as well. We are still shooting ourselves in the leg that way and I believe we will continue that for some time. We are doing better than we were all those years ago and it shows. It may only be a bandage on a large gash but it is a step in the right direction. This article shows Mr. Stetzer’s shift in thinking over the years that I believe is what is essentially going on in the US. He was once an avid supporter of the action of locking up those afflicted by the drug known as crack. Now, he sees the similar epidemic, once again, crawling across the United States. Instead of condemning the users to a long stay behind bars, he rehabilitates and councils those who suffer from addiction. I believe this is happening in the US. This shift in mindset will guarantee, in my mind, that what happened with the fight against crack cocaine will not happen in the fight against opioids. Some time ago in class, I even read an article about how a city in the United States was make a safe zone for those who use drug. There hypothesis was that the drug users probably will not stop anytime soon. Their idea was to get them to use the drugs in a safe, monitored area where emergency and medical personal would be on hand if the user was to have a medical emergency like overdosing or being dangerous and erratic. This is another example of the United States’ mental shift away from a more harsh reaction to drugs and, in turn, it’s users. In all, I do not believe that this epidemic will be the same as the last because of the shift in attitude toward drugs and its users. –TheMarshall789
I agree with you when you say that the war on drugs has simply shifted from crack to opioids. I believe that regardless of what the U.S. government tries to do, drugs are always going to be a problem. The drug that is causing the problem is simply going to change throughout the years. It would be great if our government could find a way to completely rid the nation of all drug problems. However, I sadly do not see any way that this will ever happen. Drugs are going to be a constant problem for a very long time and I would like to see something done to try and just lower the rates of drug use, not completely rid the nation of drugs. -Fozz789
This article really helped me understand what has been and is currently going on with our country's drug policies and laws. The first thing that stuck out to me was the fact that in the 1908's, America went through an eerily similar period of drug addiction known as the "crack epidemic". During the crack epidemic, America was having all sorts of problems occurring that were associated with drugs. In today's world, America is sadly in a very similar state and needs to find a way to stop these drug problems before they become too out of hand to control and tear the country apart. A second statement that I would like to discuss from the article talked about how during the crack epidemic, we tried to protect our communities, families, and values by creating groups and labels to separate those we saw as "clean" from those we saw as "unclean", which seems to be referring to the separation of blacks and whites. This shows how racism was a big factor in the creation of these drug laws. During the crack epidemic, people assumed that the blacks were the only ones using crack, so they aimed to just separate and punish as many of the blacks as they could. A third statement from the article that was interesting to me talked about how due to the separation of blacks and whites during the crack epidemic, the Controlled Substance Act was created. This act established mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenses. The creation of mandatory minimum sentencing was a horrible idea that needs to be changed as soon as possible. I say this because whether a person convicted of a crime really deserves the amount of jail time stated by the mandatory minimum sentence or not, they are required to serve that time. The judge has no other choice but to sentence that person to the assigned amount of incarceration, regardless of what they think of the sentence time. A final statement I read in this article and would like to discuss stated how "During the crack epidemic, it meant black street crime. Right now, during the opioid epidemic, it means whites need treatment.". This statement speaks the truth perfectly. I say this because like I had stated earlier, these drug laws are created somewhat off of racism. During the crack epidemic, no one wanted to send the blacks on crack to treatment, they just wanted to throw them in jail. Nowadays, all people want to do is get treatment for those being affected by opioids and not lock up any of them for their actions, and their skin color. Racism has a gigantic role in incarceration and rehab. It does not matter what some people say nowadays, racism is sadly still very much alive. People claim that blacks are incarcerated due to their actions, not their skin color. This is not entirely true. If a white man and a black man committed the exact same crime at the same time on the same day at the same place, I guarantee the white man would get less prison time than the black man. It's sad that this is still the way it is, but it is and racism needs to truly be terminated ASAP. -Fozz789
Yes, I also though this kinds of articles really do help you understand what’s happening across the U.S. But, I did not know as well as the drug addiction going on in the 1980’s ,but as I was reading I was learning more and more about the situation and understand why history comes down to the way society is right now. I feel like its not an individual problem, but more of a health problem that needs to be addressed. Solely, CRJ system is treating them like if it were only one individual, but no it’s the subgroups addicted to the drugs. - LILPUMP789
The information that stood out in this passage included the fact that this cased a divided, as Americans we reacted to this out of fear of the unknown for what effect this could have to our country. This was a confusing time for our country as well during the “Drug War” as we faced issues with Vietnam, and also issue with the Soviet Union in the “Cold War”, this in turn redirected our focus on this being a treatment issue as we believe the best way to deal with the problem as a nation was to fight this problem head on like every other current issue facing our country during this time period. But as to what this is this required a more come people-based approach rather than finding over what was deemed to stand out as a political issue during this time. As the pastor stated in this article we saw this as a crime issue because this was the first idea of the family being separated by using drugs. This was also a widespread belief as many individual’s saw this on the news, in the paper, radio, and even among people walking around in the general public this come to change the viewpoints of many of these individual’s as instead of coming up with their own informed thoughts on what this matter had included they blamed anyone who used any glimpse of the drug yet crack and concine during this time period existed in coffee, soda products and many more products and for many of these people they were exposed to many of the new marketing companies that had traces of the drug in their products which started the chain of addiction for many of these people. The issue address also goes back to early history of our nation in terms of belief’s as the idea was we saw African Americans as slaves this was a common drug effecting these individual’s as they just gained many of their legal freedoms that they should have had long ago so many of these people still with having basic rights still had been finical deprived which leads to depression and many of these people turn to a quick cheap drug crack/concian only to have the labeled as a felon. We used this as a nation as a way of getting rid of people rather then fighting through the real challenge which was getting treatment to these people as many people who had been affected by the drug were individual’s that suffered from mental illnesses or having depressing events happen during that time that made them more likely to encounter such an issue. This also left a generation gap as many people grew up without brothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, all because of the criminalization of these drugs this also lead to more violence as gangs had been created entire ideas about carrying weapons for protection in this type of environment which from a compassionate approach would have a different outcome as this sought to try to bring out the best in people. eagle789
Crack Cocaine and Opioids probably have to be one of the top worst drugs in America at the moment. My condolences go to those who have overdosed on either drug. Personally, the criminal justice still does not understand that police punishment is the way to go. If we go ahead and lock those who are addicted to drugs than it is not going to clean up the streets. The crisis on drugs is only going to get worse and there is no going to be no starting point in the correctional system because the CRJ system is kind of jumping all over the place. Law enforcement officials are there to offer people services, but that’s were it can start instead of making incarcerations. Those 59 people who did drugs and others who are currently doing them now, we as individuals don’t know why or what they are going through. Maybe some were raised in a bad family and their mom or dad were using either drug, so they also started to follow. You cannot blame him, but the parents. Another reason, others use the drugs for a get way from the world or who knows what because of the addiction. The point is not to clean up the streets, but to help the individuals by supporting them to change for the common good and get them to stop doing drugs, such as rehabilitation. History does connect with us today, because around the 1980’s the use of drugs was huge. Problems were arising and police enforcement was also another big problem. Also, this started in the urban communities as we spoke in the last article that the Anti-Drug Act when it was established and the lawmakers did nothing to help but to watch communities fall apart. These urban communities were Latino individuals and African Americans. Now, the people who are being sentenced for several years after a low drug violation are being sentences for maximum years and stay there forever. Harsher sentencing’s were being made because of the drugs, but little did they know that was no reason because many individuals were doing the same thing, so it is not only an individual problem but a health problem within those communities addicted to either drug. I don’t understand who Criminal Justice System doesn’t see it, but as students we go through that and we do see that. Maybe the CRJ system does not want to be proved wrong because it will make them look bad. I love learning about this stuff because I recall do find it interesting, but as well as gets you going about arguing why this kind of stuff is happening. - LILPUMP789
I agree that locking people up for drug use will increase the problem as this is shown that people who are using these types of drugs often times have no concept of morals and sometimes their addictions is so overwhelming that they partake in activities they normally wouldn't but their addiction overwhelmed them. The problem is why they are wanting to use the drugs and why this seems to be a good choice for them to rationalize in their mind its not the fact that these people had used the drug. This is also causing much delay in needed laws in the criminal justice system as our approach to drug addiction is jumping all over the place which is causing a missing response as states or even counters may have different viewpoints may have different approach to dealing with individuals with drug addictions. eagle789
Before reading this article I already felt that people who are addicted to drugs, whether it be drugs, opioids or even alcohol, need to be in rehabilitation versus just being thrown in jail without the proper help that they need. Without the proper help for them they can kill themselves or worse other people.I do believe that the opioid crisis in the United States is public health emergency but I think it always has been and not just a recent one. According to the article opioids caused 59,000 deaths in 2016. I thought it would of been more, sorry to say. The questions that were asked in the beginning of the article had me thinking. I have came face to face with people having a drug addiction and a pain killer addiction in my family. They were addicted to drugs when I wa younger and I did not really understand at the point in time what was going on with them. I remember seeing my family member going through our medicine cabinet and taking my moms predictions. Then later in the night when my mom would be looking for her medicine because her back was hurting and she could not find them where they were kept. We no longer talk to that family member. Just a few years ago we had family friend living with us. He started getting addict to drugs and starting stealing my families things so he could have enough money to pay for the things he was using. My parents found out and he was in and out of jail because of it and then finally he checked himself into rehab and got the help he need. Going back to the article i agree when they say that people need a heartfelt compassion instead of just being put into jail. I think that people put in jail should go to rehab but I do understand that some people feel like there is nothing wrong with them. However.there are people out there that know what they are doing is not good and they want help but they do not know how to overcome it and get the help that is needed. Going back to the article it is interesting how they go back through the years and show the opioid issues as time goes on. Throughout the years the United States always wanted to stomp out all the drug issues. Unfortunately when drugs are “stomped out” the United States loses people to overdose and other things like that. Also when the article says that people separate themselves from thoses who do the drugs, I agree that people do that. Many families do not want to be associated with people who are addicted to drugs but it also has to deal with the social class and the background of each individual person. Overall I found this article to be very informative. -jw789
I to have experienced drug addiction first had. Not in the same manner as you stated with family members, but I have lost a few close friends over the years to overdoses, and have seen others go in and out of the prison system. I agree with you that those involved need some form of rehabilitation; it’s just a matter of what kind of habitation they have come from. if the background they grew up in was drug related or very poor in nature, as were many of my friends, I can see how it would be difficult for those getting rehab to understand what is being taught and how to act. Some of the people I know that just got out are like lepers to their family members and have told me as much, so I agree that many people do distance themselves from addicts or former addicts.-pj789
When I started to read this article I was for sure it was going to be about the similarities between the crack and opioid epidemic. That took a slight turn towards the middle of the article. This is a very interesting read and I have to say after thinking about it I find some of what he has to say as true. I say some because I am still becoming more and more familiar with the 1980s war on drugs and what it all entailed, so I am going to avoid absolutes when it comes to correlations I have learned about thus far. The opioid epidemic is regarded as a public health emergency according to many, including our President. This is a first for any drug related problem I can remember growing up. I remember DARE class and the “say no to drugs” mentality. During which time the majority of what we were told was about the drug itself and how those people who take drugs are pretty much losers and looked down upon; race hadn’t played a card at this point, or rather it wasn’t made apparent to me. This was in the mid-90s so the crack epidemic and war on drugs was still on people’s minds. Moving forward to today’s day and age there is a difference in how we treat drugs and drug addiction, like the author of this article Ed Stetzer, points out. I had no clue that this opioid crisis had taken that many people’s lives in 2016; 59,000 is a lot of people. Knowing this and thinking back to my own childhood and what Mr. Stetzer had said, there is a serious change in how we as a society think about addiction and drugs. There does seem to be a factor of race that plays a hand in this instance. Crack was a drug that plagued many inner city people of color, while opioids are ending up in rural areas and involving white people. This very well could be the difference that’s changing people’s minds about addiction and drugs. Another factor that I would like to point out is money and the people involved. The addict may not be wealthy, but there family is when it comes to more rural areas, which has a higher cost of living. So if more wealthy people are involved, their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters etc., this could also be a factor involved because it’s not a secret that money matters when it comes to the treatment of people and fairness of sentences put on them. Today we are trying to save the addicts, while during the 1980s and early 90s we were trying to throw away the people who were addicted like the drug they were taking. The Controlled Substance Act put mandatory minimums on non-violent drug offenders, and aided in the further rising of our prison population. I am glad we are seeing this as a public health crisis, but I am hopeful that we do see, as Mr. Stetzer did, the folly of our ways in the past so we can aid ourselves in a better future for all.-pj789
I as well thought this was going to be the differences between opioids and crack but, it was much more about how we viewed this two epidemics which was interesting. I also took part in DARE class and remember it well. I agree in the fact that it only talked about the difference in drugs and how you will never obtain to anything by doing them. I as well never was aware of race being a factor in it. I as very shocked to hear the numbers about how many lives opioids took and I agree with you that there is a very big change in how we view drugs today. Hollywood789
Opioids have caused a big epidemic over the years. It's not only causing a rise of people to lose their lives it's causing a rise from people that are fearful of the drug and how its hitting the streets. It is causing people to become very angry. There is multiple reasons why people start but there is only one reason that people stay hooked and that is from the addictive qualities instilled in it. America sadly has gone through these drug epidemics for many years. As the article said it all started in the 1980’s when they first witnessed the “crack epidemic”. This also sadly caused a rise in violence based on the desperation for the drug. The thing that shocked me was that the United States viewed it more as a threat on our country. We spent most of our time trying to change our country by posting anti-drug campaigns instead of trying to rehabilitate the people who were part of it. Us americans set our site on trying to get rid of these people instead of trying to minimize the drug itself. The thing that made me angry was that racism was a huge factor in all of this. We perceived whites as the clean ones and blacks as the unclean ones. We tried to distance yourself from the “unclean” ones to make sure our own ones where safe. This took a big hit on racism because we were only hitting on blacks being the issue instead of looking at ourselves also as a problem. By this large crack epidemic hitting it created one of the most destructive things in my eyes. The mandatory minimum sentencing laws based for nonviolent drug offenders. This was a big problem for the U.S because you are taking basic rights away from judges that they are not allowed to do there job. Growing up I have changes my views on what to do with drug offenders but, what I have stuck with for the majority of time was that I thought rehabilitation and treatment was always the best idea. Now my thought would have been shot down in the 1980’s but nowadays we are seeing this opioid epidemic more as “Whites need treatment”. This shows how the difference in ideas of color have change. Opioids have the same amount of addictive qualities as crack but the color of people being treated is different. It is sad how we see a black man treated differently about drugs then a white man but the time differences are very large. The only fact of the matter is that putting people away for petty offenses like drugs is becoming to be very useless. We are only creating problems for ourselves such as overcrowding in prisons and more taxes being taken away also. We need to stop and sit down and realize how big of a mess we are creating. These drug offenders are not violent and don't intend on being violent they just wanted a way to feel good. We need to start helping one another out by rehabilitating them instead of throwing them away. Hollywood789
The article stated by saying that some commonly prescribed painkillers have claimed the lives of about 59,000 people in 2016. This number is quite a bit for prescription drugs. To start off, the sad truth that drugs that have been prescribed by professionals have taken the lives of people is just sad. It is a great thing that President Trump has declared the opioid crisis as a public health emergency. This is definitely something that needed to be done. The sad thing is that the people in our past did not get this same treatment. Back in the 19080’s, crack cocaine took over the communities in America. The article stated that people were overwhelmed with fear. They did not want it in their communities so therefore they just put these people away and locked them up. The sad thing is they did not realize that it did not help anything whatsoever. Now these people have records for the rest of their lives for things that should have been treated as a medical problem and not so much a criminal problem. The article mentioned that America was almost so in awe and fear of these drug problems that were going on that they forgot about the truth of the very real people that were behind these problems. These people needed help and medical attention for this issue and instead were shut down and shunned for having these problems and addictions. The quote from this article, “instead of getting rid of a drug, we tried to get rid of people”. This really made me think. It saddens me that we, as a country, could not see through the fog of the “issue” and get to the real issue of these people needing help. I mean people who were poor and needed to make quick money to survive, or even people who became poor due to doctors prescribing them meds and then stopping the prescriptions cold turkey. Which honestly is terrible since they doctors were partially prescribing so many meds out of greed for self benefit, only to benefit themselves. So it is weird to think that it started out as a medical problem and then changed into a criminal issue for them. Many people think the difference for the “lock em up” agenda and now switching to the medical issue side is the color of the skin involved in these issues. With the crack epidemic, the majority of people involved were black communities, where as in the opioid epidemic, it is whites. People can look at this very different ways and to be honest i'm not exactly sure how I feel on that point. It is very possible that it has everything to due with the color of the skin, but i'm hoping that it just has to due with the American people learning from the mistakes they made in the past and moving forward in a positive way rather, than reverting to the sad and awful way we treated the crack problem. - ST789
I could not agree with you more about your opinions on why the opioid epidemic is being treated as a medical issue versus in the past when the crack issue was treated as a criminal act. I certainly hope as a nation we have grown enough to realize past mistakes, and would not like to make them again. Even if the there was a form of racism behind the scenes during the crack epidemic, and people were arrested instead of giving them medical attention; I believe the United States has overcome that primitive way of thinking, and is trying to correct past offenses. -Rudedogg789
I think that the comparison of the crack epidemic of the 1980s and the opioid epidemic of today is very interesting. I think that the key difference is that crack was introduced to primarily black populations by central American cartels and opioids are initially introduced by legal prescriptions to populations of all races. It seems to me as if many people, like the author, were more afraid of black crack addicts and more concerned for opioid addicts. Likely due to my tendency not to assume hatred when an action can be sufficiently explained by hatred, I think that the reason for this difference stems more from people seeing their friends with whom they associate become addicted rather than hearing about addictions in communities with which they have little or no association. While the opioid epidemic is by no means a good thing, I think that this sympathy for those suffering from addiction is a positive outcome and I hope it extends to more secluded addictions that will likely occur in the future. I also think that the reason the response to these problems were so different is due in part to both the nature of the highs provided by cocaine and narcotics and the media portrayal of crack users and opioid users. Cocaine gives users energy and causes them to be more uninhibited in their actions while opioids cause people to neglect their responsibilities more than anything else. According to this article by Vice (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43ypep/americas-latest-drug-epidemic-is-weirdly-non-violent), the current epidemic is far less violence than many that have come before it. That said, I think that compassion and fear would have been a far more appropriate and effective response to the 80s crack epidemic than fear. However, I am unsure what the public’s opinion of distributors of these substances should be. I understand that these people are usually very desperate for money and selling drugs is the most lucrative career within their grasp. At the same time, this does not excuse their actions as these people know that they are nurturing substance dependence and furthering the epidemics. Be that as it may, the people who cause the addictions in the first place should be held more responsible than they currently are. In the 1980s, the government allowed crack to be introduced into american neighborhoods because it improved central american governments and made these countries far less likely to become communist, which was a very big threat at the time. While I am sympathetic to this cause, the action is still very condemnable and should have never been taken. America needs to put the needs of its people first before interfering with the ideological strongholds of foreign powers. Likewise, doctors today are largely responsible for starting opioid addictions instead of fully investigation patient’s problems. I think that opiate prescriptions should be given far less frequently and people being prescribed opiates should be screened for mental illness before the prescriptions go through. This is because people who start using for physical pain become dependant because the opiates also negate some of the symptoms of things like depression and anxiety. I also think that it would be more responsible for doctors to prescribe cannabis instead of opioids as the risk of overdose and chemical addiction is almost nonexistent. In the end however, I am glad that the author has realized the error of his ways, and I hope more people do so in the future. I think that the addicted are far better off if they have support systems and are likely to become more isolated from society when they are feared and shunned. -Rudedogg789
The crake and opioid are the worst drugs that have ever hit the streets in america. People get hocked on these drugs for different reason and people will do anything to get these drugs. I personally know people that will go and sell stuff that means the world to them they will sell it because they need to crack and the drug that they are on and its the worse thing to watch. I Feel sorry for people that have to go through this or the family that has to go through this and watch there love ones not make it out of it. This a serious thing that is going on in our world today and nobody is doing anything about and we think that it will just blow over but people are dying from this and we are just letting them rather than getting them the help that they really need to get over the addiction. After reading all these peoples things i really think these people need serious help rather than saying you are going to prison for this and will have to think about it for 2 years thats not right. These people will learn more ways to do with being in there so they are not getting the right treatment. These people will come out of prison and be worse than when they went in. We need to get to the bottom of this crisis and tell people that we are there for them because thats all they need is to know that there is people to help them. We do not need to make these people suffer and get them the rehab that they actually need so they can get back with there family so they dont have to bury them because they overdosed. Gator789
Crack and opioids are some of the worst things to hit the streets. These drugs have an effect on people who use them and people that are around them. Some people get attached to them for different reasons. Depression, sometimes peer pressure, and sometimes just to escape life in general. We hear about the overdoses on a daily basis now a days and I think that it is terrible. Not only does it take and effect on the user but also the people that care about the user. It is hard to fight that addiction because once you use it, you get hooked on too it because it makes you feel good. That’s when the addiction starts and they want to keep feeling like the first time they used. The only thing with that is that some want it to last longer than what it does. Then they figure that they’ll just take a little bit more. Not knowing the active ingredients in the drugs, they decide to take more of it. That’s when they start to overdose, sometimes because they used too much or the drug they were taking was laced with something like fentanyl which can be extremely lethal. I was stuck on the mindset that drug abusers should be put away and serve prison time. I looked at it as being a big deal and plus it is against the law. After learning about how the drugs work in the body, I started to change my mind on what should happen to them. After reading some of the articles in these blogs, I came to the conclusion that people hooked on drugs should be treated instead of being locked up. This goes back to the prisons making money instead of helping the people with problems because helping them will cost more than to just keeping them warehoused. The first thing they are going to do when they get out is go get their drug of choice because over time it became a need for them. They will do just about anything to get that poison. I called it poison because it does nothing good for anyone but destroys the body and the mind. That’s when some of them become violent and start committing crimes to get what they want. Even on TV shows about drugs, they tell you some of the things they do to get the money to pay for the drug like prostitution and theft. Without treatment, they aren’t going to be able to get off the drug. They need that professional help to get them through it all. It won’t be easy because they are going to go through withdrawals but it won’t kill them even though they might feel like they are dying. Part of it is the justice system that has to be fixed. Without the treatment, there are more possibilities about overdoses and some of them being fatal. This should have happened many years ago. We have to keep this process going.
ReplyDelete-Chewbacca789
I agree with you and especially what you said about the different reasons for someone getting addicted to opioids and drugs in general. When we see a drug addict on the streets as an officer, medical personnel, etc. we do not know how they got there in the first place. This person is addicted and is especially a slave to the power of the drug. They may have even tried to quit and have failed several times, a lot of these addicts do not even have a system of encouragement and support which may make it even hard to break the habit. That is why I am glad that the United States is moving toward a more accepting and supporting mindset toward drug users. They no longer see them as an enemy needing to be defeated but a victim needing to be helped. –TheMarshall789
DeleteI couldn't agree more with you that crack and opioids are some of the worst drugs to come into existence for people getting addicted. It is so sad that these people get addicted to such harmful drugs. These people do not take these drugs knowing that they will get addict or even trying to get addicted. It just kind of happened and before they know it their lives are revolving around it. I also agree that people should not be locked up for having these problems. That was the mistake they made during the crack epidemic. I think, like you mentioned, they should be treated and hopefully get off these drugs and be productive in society again.
Delete- ST789
Drugs are an incredibly dangerous and addictive force that now flow through the street of the Unites States and they have been there for some time. In this article, Mr. Ed Stetzer begins to explain his history with a supposed drug epidemic. Today, we do have a large amount of drugs on the street that some people call an epidemic. Decades ago there was a time when the drug crack, an easier to get and more affordable version of cocaine, hit the States extremely hard and became a front of a nationwide war of drugs. However, personally, I do see it was a war. One that the US has lost and this is because this “war” on drugs is a civil war where no matter who wins, the United States as a whole loses. We are still in that war and the only difference this time is that the front of it has shifted from crack to opioids. This is a different time now and the people of the United States are becoming more companionate towards those addicted. It will not be like the McCarthyism of yesterday but an easier way to combat it as we have taken to the idea of rehabilitation and helping them. Do not get me wrong though. We still lock people up and at a staggering rate as well. We are still shooting ourselves in the leg that way and I believe we will continue that for some time. We are doing better than we were all those years ago and it shows. It may only be a bandage on a large gash but it is a step in the right direction. This article shows Mr. Stetzer’s shift in thinking over the years that I believe is what is essentially going on in the US. He was once an avid supporter of the action of locking up those afflicted by the drug known as crack. Now, he sees the similar epidemic, once again, crawling across the United States. Instead of condemning the users to a long stay behind bars, he rehabilitates and councils those who suffer from addiction. I believe this is happening in the US. This shift in mindset will guarantee, in my mind, that what happened with the fight against crack cocaine will not happen in the fight against opioids. Some time ago in class, I even read an article about how a city in the United States was make a safe zone for those who use drug. There hypothesis was that the drug users probably will not stop anytime soon. Their idea was to get them to use the drugs in a safe, monitored area where emergency and medical personal would be on hand if the user was to have a medical emergency like overdosing or being dangerous and erratic. This is another example of the United States’ mental shift away from a more harsh reaction to drugs and, in turn, it’s users. In all, I do not believe that this epidemic will be the same as the last because of the shift in attitude toward drugs and its users. –TheMarshall789
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that the war on drugs has simply shifted from crack to opioids. I believe that regardless of what the U.S. government tries to do, drugs are always going to be a problem. The drug that is causing the problem is simply going to change throughout the years. It would be great if our government could find a way to completely rid the nation of all drug problems. However, I sadly do not see any way that this will ever happen. Drugs are going to be a constant problem for a very long time and I would like to see something done to try and just lower the rates of drug use, not completely rid the nation of drugs.
Delete-Fozz789
This article really helped me understand what has been and is currently going on with our country's drug policies and laws. The first thing that stuck out to me was the fact that in the 1908's, America went through an eerily similar period of drug addiction known as the "crack epidemic". During the crack epidemic, America was having all sorts of problems occurring that were associated with drugs. In today's world, America is sadly in a very similar state and needs to find a way to stop these drug problems before they become too out of hand to control and tear the country apart. A second statement that I would like to discuss from the article talked about how during the crack epidemic, we tried to protect our communities, families, and values by creating groups and labels to separate those we saw as "clean" from those we saw as "unclean", which seems to be referring to the separation of blacks and whites. This shows how racism was a big factor in the creation of these drug laws. During the crack epidemic, people assumed that the blacks were the only ones using crack, so they aimed to just separate and punish as many of the blacks as they could. A third statement from the article that was interesting to me talked about how due to the separation of blacks and whites during the crack epidemic, the Controlled Substance Act was created. This act established mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenses. The creation of mandatory minimum sentencing was a horrible idea that needs to be changed as soon as possible. I say this because whether a person convicted of a crime really deserves the amount of jail time stated by the mandatory minimum sentence or not, they are required to serve that time. The judge has no other choice but to sentence that person to the assigned amount of incarceration, regardless of what they think of the sentence time. A final statement I read in this article and would like to discuss stated how "During the crack epidemic, it meant black street crime. Right now, during the opioid epidemic, it means whites need treatment.". This statement speaks the truth perfectly. I say this because like I had stated earlier, these drug laws are created somewhat off of racism. During the crack epidemic, no one wanted to send the blacks on crack to treatment, they just wanted to throw them in jail. Nowadays, all people want to do is get treatment for those being affected by opioids and not lock up any of them for their actions, and their skin color. Racism has a gigantic role in incarceration and rehab. It does not matter what some people say nowadays, racism is sadly still very much alive. People claim that blacks are incarcerated due to their actions, not their skin color. This is not entirely true. If a white man and a black man committed the exact same crime at the same time on the same day at the same place, I guarantee the white man would get less prison time than the black man. It's sad that this is still the way it is, but it is and racism needs to truly be terminated ASAP.
ReplyDelete-Fozz789
Yes, I also though this kinds of articles really do help you understand what’s happening across the U.S. But, I did not know as well as the drug addiction going on in the 1980’s ,but as I was reading I was learning more and more about the situation and understand why history comes down to the way society is right now. I feel like its not an individual problem, but more of a health problem that needs to be addressed. Solely, CRJ system is treating them like if it were only one individual, but no it’s the subgroups addicted to the drugs. - LILPUMP789
DeleteThe information that stood out in this passage included the fact that this cased a divided, as Americans we reacted to this out of fear of the unknown for what effect this could have to our country. This was a confusing time for our country as well during the “Drug War” as we faced issues with Vietnam, and also issue with the Soviet Union in the “Cold War”, this in turn redirected our focus on this being a treatment issue as we believe the best way to deal with the problem as a nation was to fight this problem head on like every other current issue facing our country during this time period. But as to what this is this required a more come people-based approach rather than finding over what was deemed to stand out as a political issue during this time. As the pastor stated in this article we saw this as a crime issue because this was the first idea of the family being separated by using drugs. This was also a widespread belief as many individual’s saw this on the news, in the paper, radio, and even among people walking around in the general public this come to change the viewpoints of many of these individual’s as instead of coming up with their own informed thoughts on what this matter had included they blamed anyone who used any glimpse of the drug yet crack and concine during this time period existed in coffee, soda products and many more products and for many of these people they were exposed to many of the new marketing companies that had traces of the drug in their products which started the chain of addiction for many of these people. The issue address also goes back to early history of our nation in terms of belief’s as the idea was we saw African Americans as slaves this was a common drug effecting these individual’s as they just gained many of their legal freedoms that they should have had long ago so many of these people still with having basic rights still had been finical deprived which leads to depression and many of these people turn to a quick cheap drug crack/concian only to have the labeled as a felon. We used this as a nation as a way of getting rid of people rather then fighting through the real challenge which was getting treatment to these people as many people who had been affected by the drug were individual’s that suffered from mental illnesses or having depressing events happen during that time that made them more likely to encounter such an issue. This also left a generation gap as many people grew up without brothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, all because of the criminalization of these drugs this also lead to more violence as gangs had been created entire ideas about carrying weapons for protection in this type of environment which from a compassionate approach would have a different outcome as this sought to try to bring out the best in people. eagle789
ReplyDeleteCrack Cocaine and Opioids probably have to be one of the top worst drugs in America at the moment. My condolences go to those who have overdosed on either drug. Personally, the criminal justice still does not understand that police punishment is the way to go. If we go ahead and lock those who are addicted to drugs than it is not going to clean up the streets. The crisis on drugs is only going to get worse and there is no going to be no starting point in the correctional system because the CRJ system is kind of jumping all over the place. Law enforcement officials are there to offer people services, but that’s were it can start instead of making incarcerations. Those 59 people who did drugs and others who are currently doing them now, we as individuals don’t know why or what they are going through. Maybe some were raised in a bad family and their mom or dad were using either drug, so they also started to follow. You cannot blame him, but the parents. Another reason, others use the drugs for a get way from the world or who knows what because of the addiction. The point is not to clean up the streets, but to help the individuals by supporting them to change for the common good and get them to stop doing drugs, such as rehabilitation. History does connect with us today, because around the 1980’s the use of drugs was huge. Problems were arising and police enforcement was also another big problem. Also, this started in the urban communities as we spoke in the last article that the Anti-Drug Act when it was established and the lawmakers did nothing to help but to watch communities fall apart. These urban communities were Latino individuals and African Americans. Now, the people who are being sentenced for several years after a low drug violation are being sentences for maximum years and stay there forever. Harsher sentencing’s were being made because of the drugs, but little did they know that was no reason because many individuals were doing the same thing, so it is not only an individual problem but a health problem within those communities addicted to either drug. I don’t understand who Criminal Justice System doesn’t see it, but as students we go through that and we do see that. Maybe the CRJ system does not want to be proved wrong because it will make them look bad. I love learning about this stuff because I recall do find it interesting, but as well as gets you going about arguing why this kind of stuff is happening. - LILPUMP789
ReplyDeleteI agree that locking people up for drug use will increase the problem as this is shown that people who are using these types of drugs often times have no concept of morals and sometimes their addictions is so overwhelming that they partake in activities they normally wouldn't but their addiction overwhelmed them. The problem is why they are wanting to use the drugs and why this seems to be a good choice for them to rationalize in their mind its not the fact that these people had used the drug. This is also causing much delay in needed laws in the criminal justice system as our approach to drug addiction is jumping all over the place which is causing a missing response as states or even counters may have different viewpoints may have different approach to dealing with individuals with drug addictions. eagle789
DeleteBefore reading this article I already felt that people who are addicted to drugs, whether it be drugs, opioids or even alcohol, need to be in rehabilitation versus just being thrown in jail without the proper help that they need. Without the proper help for them they can kill themselves or worse other people.I do believe that the opioid crisis in the United States is public health emergency but I think it always has been and not just a recent one. According to the article opioids caused 59,000 deaths in 2016. I thought it would of been more, sorry to say. The questions that were asked in the beginning of the article had me thinking. I have came face to face with people having a drug addiction and a pain killer addiction in my family. They were addicted to drugs when I wa younger and I did not really understand at the point in time what was going on with them. I remember seeing my family member going through our medicine cabinet and taking my moms predictions. Then later in the night when my mom would be looking for her medicine because her back was hurting and she could not find them where they were kept. We no longer talk to that family member. Just a few years ago we had family friend living with us. He started getting addict to drugs and starting stealing my families things so he could have enough money to pay for the things he was using. My parents found out and he was in and out of jail because of it and then finally he checked himself into rehab and got the help he need. Going back to the article i agree when they say that people need a heartfelt compassion instead of just being put into jail. I think that people put in jail should go to rehab but I do understand that some people feel like there is nothing wrong with them. However.there are people out there that know what they are doing is not good and they want help but they do not know how to overcome it and get the help that is needed. Going back to the article it is interesting how they go back through the years and show the opioid issues as time goes on. Throughout the years the United States always wanted to stomp out all the drug issues. Unfortunately when drugs are “stomped out” the United States loses people to overdose and other things like that. Also when the article says that people separate themselves from thoses who do the drugs, I agree that people do that. Many families do not want to be associated with people who are addicted to drugs but it also has to deal with the social class and the background of each individual person. Overall I found this article to be very informative. -jw789
ReplyDeleteI to have experienced drug addiction first had. Not in the same manner as you stated with family members, but I have lost a few close friends over the years to overdoses, and have seen others go in and out of the prison system. I agree with you that those involved need some form of rehabilitation; it’s just a matter of what kind of habitation they have come from. if the background they grew up in was drug related or very poor in nature, as were many of my friends, I can see how it would be difficult for those getting rehab to understand what is being taught and how to act. Some of the people I know that just got out are like lepers to their family members and have told me as much, so I agree that many people do distance themselves from addicts or former addicts.-pj789
DeleteWhen I started to read this article I was for sure it was going to be about the similarities between the crack and opioid epidemic. That took a slight turn towards the middle of the article. This is a very interesting read and I have to say after thinking about it I find some of what he has to say as true. I say some because I am still becoming more and more familiar with the 1980s war on drugs and what it all entailed, so I am going to avoid absolutes when it comes to correlations I have learned about thus far. The opioid epidemic is regarded as a public health emergency according to many, including our President. This is a first for any drug related problem I can remember growing up. I remember DARE class and the “say no to drugs” mentality. During which time the majority of what we were told was about the drug itself and how those people who take drugs are pretty much losers and looked down upon; race hadn’t played a card at this point, or rather it wasn’t made apparent to me. This was in the mid-90s so the crack epidemic and war on drugs was still on people’s minds. Moving forward to today’s day and age there is a difference in how we treat drugs and drug addiction, like the author of this article Ed Stetzer, points out. I had no clue that this opioid crisis had taken that many people’s lives in 2016; 59,000 is a lot of people. Knowing this and thinking back to my own childhood and what Mr. Stetzer had said, there is a serious change in how we as a society think about addiction and drugs. There does seem to be a factor of race that plays a hand in this instance. Crack was a drug that plagued many inner city people of color, while opioids are ending up in rural areas and involving white people. This very well could be the difference that’s changing people’s minds about addiction and drugs. Another factor that I would like to point out is money and the people involved. The addict may not be wealthy, but there family is when it comes to more rural areas, which has a higher cost of living. So if more wealthy people are involved, their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters etc., this could also be a factor involved because it’s not a secret that money matters when it comes to the treatment of people and fairness of sentences put on them. Today we are trying to save the addicts, while during the 1980s and early 90s we were trying to throw away the people who were addicted like the drug they were taking. The Controlled Substance Act put mandatory minimums on non-violent drug offenders, and aided in the further rising of our prison population. I am glad we are seeing this as a public health crisis, but I am hopeful that we do see, as Mr. Stetzer did, the folly of our ways in the past so we can aid ourselves in a better future for all.-pj789
ReplyDeleteI as well thought this was going to be the differences between opioids and crack but, it was much more about how we viewed this two epidemics which was interesting. I also took part in DARE class and remember it well. I agree in the fact that it only talked about the difference in drugs and how you will never obtain to anything by doing them. I as well never was aware of race being a factor in it. I as very shocked to hear the numbers about how many lives opioids took and I agree with you that there is a very big change in how we view drugs today.
DeleteHollywood789
Opioids have caused a big epidemic over the years. It's not only causing a rise of people to lose their lives it's causing a rise from people that are fearful of the drug and how its hitting the streets. It is causing people to become very angry. There is multiple reasons why people start but there is only one reason that people stay hooked and that is from the addictive qualities instilled in it. America sadly has gone through these drug epidemics for many years. As the article said it all started in the 1980’s when they first witnessed the “crack epidemic”. This also sadly caused a rise in violence based on the desperation for the drug. The thing that shocked me was that the United States viewed it more as a threat on our country. We spent most of our time trying to change our country by posting anti-drug campaigns instead of trying to rehabilitate the people who were part of it. Us americans set our site on trying to get rid of these people instead of trying to minimize the drug itself. The thing that made me angry was that racism was a huge factor in all of this. We perceived whites as the clean ones and blacks as the unclean ones. We tried to distance yourself from the “unclean” ones to make sure our own ones where safe. This took a big hit on racism because we were only hitting on blacks being the issue instead of looking at ourselves also as a problem. By this large crack epidemic hitting it created one of the most destructive things in my eyes. The mandatory minimum sentencing laws based for nonviolent drug offenders. This was a big problem for the U.S because you are taking basic rights away from judges that they are not allowed to do there job. Growing up I have changes my views on what to do with drug offenders but, what I have stuck with for the majority of time was that I thought rehabilitation and treatment was always the best idea. Now my thought would have been shot down in the 1980’s but nowadays we are seeing this opioid epidemic more as “Whites need treatment”. This shows how the difference in ideas of color have change. Opioids have the same amount of addictive qualities as crack but the color of people being treated is different. It is sad how we see a black man treated differently about drugs then a white man but the time differences are very large. The only fact of the matter is that putting people away for petty offenses like drugs is becoming to be very useless. We are only creating problems for ourselves such as overcrowding in prisons and more taxes being taken away also. We need to stop and sit down and realize how big of a mess we are creating. These drug offenders are not violent and don't intend on being violent they just wanted a way to feel good. We need to start helping one another out by rehabilitating them instead of throwing them away.
ReplyDeleteHollywood789
The article stated by saying that some commonly prescribed painkillers have claimed the lives of about 59,000 people in 2016. This number is quite a bit for prescription drugs. To start off, the sad truth that drugs that have been prescribed by professionals have taken the lives of people is just sad. It is a great thing that President Trump has declared the opioid crisis as a public health emergency. This is definitely something that needed to be done. The sad thing is that the people in our past did not get this same treatment. Back in the 19080’s, crack cocaine took over the communities in America. The article stated that people were overwhelmed with fear. They did not want it in their communities so therefore they just put these people away and locked them up. The sad thing is they did not realize that it did not help anything whatsoever. Now these people have records for the rest of their lives for things that should have been treated as a medical problem and not so much a criminal problem. The article mentioned that America was almost so in awe and fear of these drug problems that were going on that they forgot about the truth of the very real people that were behind these problems. These people needed help and medical attention for this issue and instead were shut down and shunned for having these problems and addictions. The quote from this article, “instead of getting rid of a drug, we tried to get rid of people”. This really made me think. It saddens me that we, as a country, could not see through the fog of the “issue” and get to the real issue of these people needing help. I mean people who were poor and needed to make quick money to survive, or even people who became poor due to doctors prescribing them meds and then stopping the prescriptions cold turkey. Which honestly is terrible since they doctors were partially prescribing so many meds out of greed for self benefit, only to benefit themselves. So it is weird to think that it started out as a medical problem and then changed into a criminal issue for them. Many people think the difference for the “lock em up” agenda and now switching to the medical issue side is the color of the skin involved in these issues. With the crack epidemic, the majority of people involved were black communities, where as in the opioid epidemic, it is whites. People can look at this very different ways and to be honest i'm not exactly sure how I feel on that point. It is very possible that it has everything to due with the color of the skin, but i'm hoping that it just has to due with the American people learning from the mistakes they made in the past and moving forward in a positive way rather, than reverting to the sad and awful way we treated the crack problem.
ReplyDelete- ST789
I could not agree with you more about your opinions on why the opioid epidemic is being treated as a medical issue versus in the past when the crack issue was treated as a criminal act. I certainly hope as a nation we have grown enough to realize past mistakes, and would not like to make them again. Even if the there was a form of racism behind the scenes during the crack epidemic, and people were arrested instead of giving them medical attention; I believe the United States has overcome that primitive way of thinking, and is trying to correct past offenses. -Rudedogg789
DeleteI think that the comparison of the crack epidemic of the 1980s and the opioid epidemic of today is very interesting. I think that the key difference is that crack was introduced to primarily black populations by central American cartels and opioids are initially introduced by legal prescriptions to populations of all races. It seems to me as if many people, like the author, were more afraid of black crack addicts and more concerned for opioid addicts. Likely due to my tendency not to assume hatred when an action can be sufficiently explained by hatred, I think that the reason for this difference stems more from people seeing their friends with whom they associate become addicted rather than hearing about addictions in communities with which they have little or no association. While the opioid epidemic is by no means a good thing, I think that this sympathy for those suffering from addiction is a positive outcome and I hope it extends to more secluded addictions that will likely occur in the future. I also think that the reason the response to these problems were so different is due in part to both the nature of the highs provided by cocaine and narcotics and the media portrayal of crack users and opioid users. Cocaine gives users energy and causes them to be more uninhibited in their actions while opioids cause people to neglect their responsibilities more than anything else. According to this article by Vice (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43ypep/americas-latest-drug-epidemic-is-weirdly-non-violent), the current epidemic is far less violence than many that have come before it. That said, I think that compassion and fear would have been a far more appropriate and effective response to the 80s crack epidemic than fear. However, I am unsure what the public’s opinion of distributors of these substances should be. I understand that these people are usually very desperate for money and selling drugs is the most lucrative career within their grasp. At the same time, this does not excuse their actions as these people know that they are nurturing substance dependence and furthering the epidemics. Be that as it may, the people who cause the addictions in the first place should be held more responsible than they currently are. In the 1980s, the government allowed crack to be introduced into american neighborhoods because it improved central american governments and made these countries far less likely to become communist, which was a very big threat at the time. While I am sympathetic to this cause, the action is still very condemnable and should have never been taken. America needs to put the needs of its people first before interfering with the ideological strongholds of foreign powers. Likewise, doctors today are largely responsible for starting opioid addictions instead of fully investigation patient’s problems. I think that opiate prescriptions should be given far less frequently and people being prescribed opiates should be screened for mental illness before the prescriptions go through. This is because people who start using for physical pain become dependant because the opiates also negate some of the symptoms of things like depression and anxiety. I also think that it would be more responsible for doctors to prescribe cannabis instead of opioids as the risk of overdose and chemical addiction is almost nonexistent. In the end however, I am glad that the author has realized the error of his ways, and I hope more people do so in the future. I think that the addicted are far better off if they have support systems and are likely to become more isolated from society when they are feared and shunned. -Rudedogg789
ReplyDeleteThe crake and opioid are the worst drugs that have ever hit the streets in america. People get hocked on these drugs for different reason and people will do anything to get these drugs. I personally know people that will go and sell stuff that means the world to them they will sell it because they need to crack and the drug that they are on and its the worse thing to watch. I
ReplyDeleteFeel sorry for people that have to go through this or the family that has to go through this and watch there love ones not make it out of it. This a serious thing that is going on in our world today and nobody is doing anything about and we think that it will just blow over but people are dying from this and we are just letting them rather than getting them the help that they really need to get over the addiction. After reading all these peoples things i really think these people need serious help rather than saying you are going to prison for this and will have to think about it for 2 years thats not right. These people will learn more ways to do with being in there so they are not getting the right treatment. These people will come out of prison and be worse than when they went in. We need to get to the bottom of this crisis and tell people that we are there for them because thats all they need is to know that there is people to help them. We do not need to make these people suffer and get them the rehab that they actually need so they can get back with there family so they dont have to bury them because they overdosed. Gator789