When the Drug establish act got passed in 1986 this caused much turmoil as mantuary sentences got passed effecting many African American families. This gave many criminal sentences to African American’s who an addiction to crack this also gave many criminal sentences to many of these individuals coming from these lower income families. This was a missed oppurinity for law makers of this time period because if there were more effective measures that were put in place in order to ensure that people would effective recovery from their addictions, and also by allowing individua’s to recover, this would keep family members in their homes this allows them to teach their children the dangers of these drugs and helps to prevent families from circling through the cycle. This is a missed chance for not seeking the oppurinity to understand the how, when where, and the what drug abuse and how to effective devise measures to ensure that others will not fall to be victims for drug addiction either. With 51,000 people who have a drug addiction which ends up leading to their death. This has gained much national attention as this should as many individual’s and their families have been impacted by this new oncoming drug abuse. This is a national emergency as this can affect more individual’s in our country from death than traffic accidents. This not only impacts the families but as suffered due to a new way of approaching drug addiction has created the on slot of causing much rift individuals who had to pay with jail or prison time for their drug offenses. This also causing much disparity as everything done is everything learned meaning that for generations were punishment was the outcome for drug offenses this causes individual’s to see that their outcomes for getting these people incarcerated has effected them and their families in such a negative way this also causing much stress for the individua’s who want to make a difference in the world that have to live with the fact of making an arrest or making a call to revoke previous paroles based on crack and cocaine addictions. This has caused a rift in generations and with the widespread of heroin its good to see that we have taken the steps as a nation in order to understand that this is a issue of mental health and that can be used in order to benefit the communities as a lost for one person to the death of using a drug is a death to much more. Also by declaring this a national emergency this allows steps to be taken to ensure that, we come together in local communities, state and also as a nation with a more widespread view on support this comes to create a better outcome for overcoming This will allow us as a nation to help bring these victim back to functioning members of society better members of their families and also will help us as a nation to prevent the factors that are causing individual’s to any type of drug use. eagle789
The past history of drug epidemics in the United States in not one of a happy ending and ultimately was just another front in the war on drugs. In the 1980s, the drug of choice was the easier to make and acquire version of cocaine, crack cocaine. This addictive and dangerous drug decimated the inner city and African American population back in the day. These afflicted individuals became casualties in the war on drug, however, the war on drug is not the war on a foreign entity like most of use picture. No, instead, it is a civil war wherein that the United States will lose either way as it did in the crack epidemic. The same carries over into the new epidemic, this time it is opioids. This time, however, the US is handling it in a very different way than it did in the early 1980s. The United States, and its people as a whole, have become more accepting and caring for those afflicted by the drug. Rehabilitation and counseling have now taken precedence over arrest and incarceration and many factors play a role in this. Overcrowding of prisons, a different mindset, who is afflicted, etc. All of the previously stated factors play a role in how differently we treats the addicts compared to in the 1980s. A big question to ask is: have we learned from the mistakes of our past? Is this why they are being treated this way? Personally, I am not too sure about that. This article point heavily toward a difference in the race of those afflicted as well. While I see a correlation, I have it embedded subconsciously in my head to tread lightly on the subject. The correlation that is often talked about is that of how crack was treated worse back in the day and those mainly affected by the drug were of African American descent while today’s drug of choice, opioids, afflict those of Caucasian descent. This difference was emphasized in parts of the article and is something that I see a lot of in the correctional and criminal justice field. The proof is there and I see it but I also want to dig a little deeper to find out more on the subject. That is all I will say about that. The article also goes on to talk about how if the epidemic is not stop, it will eventually come to the doorstep of the reader. This is something that very well may happen. It does not always have to be you, it could be someone you care deeply for. I mother, a brother, a sister, a father, an uncle or aunt, etc. Drug epidemics are no joking matter and they spread just as easy as an actual viral infection if not treated carefully. The more we do, as a country, to help, council, and rehabilitate those afflicted, the better off the United States as a whole will be. Everyone can do something to help one way or another. –TheMarshall789
This article really explained how different methods were and currently are being used to deal with the outbreak of a drug crisis. It was mentioned in the article that during the 1980's, no one cared about the urban "crackheads" while today in 2018, heroin addicts have a disproportionate impact on white urbanites and rural areas. The term urban "crackheads" is referring to blacks that politicians believed 'belonged in jail and were dispensable' while the heroin addicts are whites that 'need treatment'. I think that is outrageous how politicians viewed blacks as crackheads that deserved to go straight to jail. Race should not be the determinate factor in the choosing between either incarceration or rehab for a person who is addicted to drugs. Another item discussed in the article talked about how in 1986, certain sentences were created to be tougher on crack cocaine cases rather than powder cocaine cases. This creation of new sentences mainly affected African Americans more than any group in the United States. I believe that this change was made to affect the African American population within the nation in a negative way. This is another perfect example of racism being a part of our country's laws and their creation. I just cannot wrap my head around the idea that some people believe that by targeting a specific race of people in the country and creating laws to negatively affect them, the drug problem is simply going to vanish out of thin air. Creating laws associated with racism to try to find a scapegoat for a nationwide problem is such an illogical thought. These nationwide problems are caused by and effect all different groups and kinds of people in the nation. One specific group of people don't just all create a drug problem for the nation together to hurt a certain other group, it is felt in some way by everyone throughout the nation, some just sadly feel it more than others do. One final item I would like to talk about is another statement that was in the article that mentioned how jail is not a good way to deal with drug problems, drugs can and will find their way into any part of the country, even where more affluent people live. I agree with statement one hundred and ten percent. I say this because it does not matter what laws are currently in place, drugs will still make their way into communities throughout the nation. Drugs are found throughout all types of households and communities, from poverty-stricken neighborhoods to the wealthy neighborhoods. As for jail time for drug use and/or possession, I do not see this as being an effective way to deal with the problem. By locking someone up for possessing drugs, the only thing that is happening is taxpayer money is being spent to hold a non-violent offender in prison and once they are released, they are more than likely going to go back and get more drugs. Instead of jail time for non-violent drug offenses, the go-to needs to be rehabilitation to fix that person's problem and keep them from going back to their old lives and getting in trouble over and over again. -Fozz789
I thought the article was good, but to hear myself what I am reading is shocking to the brain. Around the 1980’s it was easy for people to posses powder cocaine or crack cocaine. From what I got off the article, it seemed like African Americans were targeted way to many times. Now, when the Anti-Drug Abuse Act enacted in 1986, mandatory minimum sentences came into play and made situation even worse. Now, in the 1980’s drugs were going down everywhere and almost seemed like nothing could have been done. Instead of helping individuals with resources, the only resource that was used was to incarcerate because it was much easier. Why? Because being politicians think differently, and think that locking all cocaine and powered, or morphine addicts was the way to clean up the streets and it all eventually will go away, but that was not the case. Now that the drug act was being forced, not African Americans and other local urban communities were being incarcerated and targeted more because of some minor drug violations. Not only did that caught the attention, but the lawmakers did not even take advantage of helping the individuals from being incarcerated in the urban communities. Glanton states, “If crack addiction had been treated like a national crisis rather than a neighborhood vice, we'd have a better understanding today of how drugs spread through populations”. Glanton is right because if the U.S. has done something more positive to impact the individual in more supportive way, maybe we would not be having the drug crisis any longer. She also states, “White suburbanites are lobbying their state officials to help them solve a problem that is ruining young people's lives. They are holding rallies on statehouse lawns, urging elected officials to treat their addicted children with dignity — something that young people addicted to crack never received”. I suppose we are focusing more on the youth because, yes, the youth are the future, the next generation to lead the next generation to help decrease the numbers of drugs being overused in the best way possible without politicians using them brains and not enact laws that are not going to do anything or help. My verdict, the crisis on drugs is way to heavy now, but we can still help our youth to succeed and to lead the next generation to stop the drug crisis. This goes to all African American’s, whites, Hispanics, Asians, and more. It is important that the U.S. focuses more on how to help individuals and not deter crime by some law and just putting out their and see how it all turns out. - LILPUMP789
Wow is all I can say. The article started by saying that one hundred forty-two americans die every day from illegal drug abuse. To me this statistic is a crazy number that really should not be happening. Just think about how many families that affects every year with this many people dieing a day from drugs. I think this proves that it can not be something fixed by locking people up and calling it good. This proven when the article talks about the crack epidemic and the effect it had back in the 80’s. It was saying that no one cared back then about all the people getting locked away for drugs. Since crack was mostly a popular drug in african american communities, the article said it was almost overlooked, like politicians did not care. I thin the statement themade about how as a whole, america lost the chance to find out long term and short term effects of what works best for dealing with this is spot on. America locked away people for crack and cocaine. People would get out, if it was a lesser offense, and then go straight back to using it. Locking them away did not solve a single thing, and they knew that. They figured it would just go away eventually when they are all incarcerated. By doing this, we lost out on the opportunity to try treating these people with addictions instead of putting them away for years as a bandage to the epidemic. This had a huge effect on mostly african american communities. Now that today's crisis of opioids came into play it is affecting no one community in general, it is everyone that is getting caught up in this drug abuse today. Since this is happening, we realized we might need to treat it differently than we did with the crack and cocaine problem in the 80’s. This is where, as mentioned earlier, we missed out on such a good opportunity to try and figure out how to treat people with addictions instead of putting them away. I think we have had a lot of great outcomes with starting to treat this as a medical issues rather than a criminal issue. People are wanting to treat these people with respect and help they need in today’s society. This is a great thing for the people of today, but is honestly very sad to know that the young generation of the crack epidemic never got the same chance as today. It ruined so many families and made many people have records over petty drug charges. All these people needed was help and instead we never even gave them a second look. It is so weird to look back in retrospect to see what we were doing to these people. The american people could have saved so many families and lives by just helping these people who happened to get addicted to something illegal. Everyone has their addiction, some just happen to be worse than others. - ST789
This article was very shocking and alarming to me. This article basically viewed how we are approaching this “drug crisis”. When reading this article was more angry at the fact at how different we viewed races concerning the topic of drugs. As the article stated in the 1980’s we viewed blacks as crackheads and in today's society we view whites as heroin addicts. Before addressing the facts let me say that is truly preposterous that we used the term crackheads in the 1980’s but now we call whites just addicts. I think that is outrageous first off. Besides thinking of that point the article pointed out while this term was being used it really meant that politicians just wanted to throw blacks in jail and wanted to base it off that certain offense. The problem nowadays is that we view whites as needing treatment. Reading this left me angry because race should play now role in this sort of offense. There is no difference between a black man found with a pound of weed and white man found with a pound of weed. They both contain the same amount there should be no reason we look at a black man differently. Another thing discussed in the article was that in 1980’s politicians wanted to crack down on crime so by doing so they thought they could arrest there way out of this epidemic. Which every person with some common sense knows there is no way of this sort of approach to work. We were right because this only affected one group which of course was African Americans. Many of them were targeted and sent to prison for minor drug offenses and this mainly affected the poor urban communities. Racism was a very big problem as you can tell back then because everyone wanted to blame that one certain guy that looked shady. If you really think about it though one person or even one group of people are not the only contributors to this nationwide epidemic. They would have to put in some effort for that to happen. This is a problem caused by everyone in this country because everyone has a bit of responsibility to why this is happening. Race should never be involved into this because it is a doing of a lot of people. As said in the article it keeps coming back to how prison is not a solution for drug offenses. Which all in all we already know but we are not doing anything about it. Drug addicts benefit nothing from sitting in jail for a period of time because by the time they get out they will be more likely to hit the streets up again. As we said in class a person is likely to fall about 7 or 8 times before picking themselves up and realizing what they are doing. We can help these people if we could only give them the necessities they needed and not punishing them by throwing them in a cell for a year. Hollywood789
It seems more likely to me that the difference in response is due to the nature of the addictions and the proximity of the common person to addicted. During the crack epidemic, most white people did not know the addicted before the substance dependence, however they are far more likely to know someone who has become addicted to opiates. This causes more sympathy as relationships are already established in the latter case. The difference in response also likely has much to do with the violence engaged in upon by those who are addicted. A vice article that I linked to in the other blog about opiates states that these people are far less violent than were the sufferers of opiate addiction. I think that the response to these problems by the justice system has done nothing but further the problems. People turn to drugs when they feel isolated from society, and a criminal record with no rehabilitation only works to further isolate these people making them likely to reoffend. I think that these people should face mandatory rehabilitation and be reintegrated into society afterward. These people should not receive a criminal record for this as that would only damage them further. I do think the the difference in response to these two problems from politicians is largely problematic. However, I think that if the crack epidemic were to occur today and again be largely isolated to black communities, politicians would react much differently than they did at that time. It is unfortunate that black crack addicts did not receive the same sympathy that opiate addicts receive today. I agree with the author that had there been sympathy instead of fear, much more would have been done in the way of mass addiction, and the opiate problem would likely be far easier to fix. It is important for people to realize this moving forward. I hope that if there are substance based epidemics that are isolated to specific populations in the future, the sympathy being fostered today will extend to those problems in the future. I wonder if the treatment of the crack epidemic has at all been a factor of people’s responses to the epidemics today along with the reasons I already mentioned. I was obviously not around for the crack epidemic, but it seems very obvious that the mass incarcerations that resulted from it were not helpful in addressing the problem. Perhaps, people have realized this and are being careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past. While I do not think that any epidemic is a good thing, I hope that the sympathy for victims of the opiate addiction works to bring the american people together, and prevents responses similar to those of the american people in the time of the crack epidemic of the 1980s. Overall, I do think that is fear to call the different responses a double standard, but I question whether it is solely because of the difference in the addicted or if it is because we have matured as a society. In either case, I hope that the sympathy felt for victims of addiction currently felt due to problems currently faced by society does not die with the the opiate addiction. -Rudedogg789
Opioids crises is the worst it has ever been becasue we thought that it would be a good idea to just let the people that got caught with the drug just sit in prison and think abou twhat they did and we thought that would help them. We were not very smart by doing this because in the end they would go right back to the streets and start doing it again because they did not get the right treatment that they needed. This is why we have a big problem today because the people that were in prison are getting out and found new ways t do it so they are trying these ways and will kill themsleve it they do ot get the help that they really need to beat this.Its sad that we just put them into prison just so they can sit there and figure out what they did wrong even though they did not need to go to prison and we couldve put them into a rehab center so they can beat this so they dont end up back in prison. Our system that we have is mess up because these people need help and we will not give the people what they need and they wonder why they keep showing back up in prison.Locking them up did no good for the people. They need to go to the rehab center so they could get the proper help that they need so they could fix the problem that they had. The thing is that when you start its hard to get off so why would you just put them in prison where they will find other stuff and then come out of priso even worse than when they went in. The main thing that is happening with these drugs is that they are dying and there families have to go through this. These families should not have to lose someone to drugs because the state was to lazt to give the people the right help so they went back to what they were doing and then lost there lives to drug overdose. Gator789
To my understanding crack is the most addictive drug to mess with. The behavioral model of addiction is perhaps the oldest view of addiction, philosophical and lay discourses. Addiction is described as a weakness of the will, and assumes that people with addiction have a compulsive desire to use psychoactive substances and that they eventually lose control over their use even in the face of negative consequences. Such consequences maybe loss of jobs, disengagement or conflicts within personal relationships, maintaining housing and health problems. The individual who chose to give in to their weak will and lose the capacity to exercise autonomy. The effects of crack and cocaine on society can be seen in the users families, community and work places. Domestic violence and any other random acts of violence are often brought by crack cocaine. Children are often the victims of crack or cocaine use parents children born to cocaine users suffer from the harmful abuse by their addicted parents. The effects of cocaine in society show themselves in different ways. For instance in the work place, cocaine is costly in terms of lost work time and influence. Cocaine users are more likely than nonusers to have occupational accidents which endangering themselves and those around them. Cocaine use can disrupt neighborhood with violence among other drugs dealer’s threats to residents and the crime of the addicts themselves. Once somebody is addicted on drugs it becomes so hard to get out of and costly. The long term effects of cocaine use can be devastating, so treatment is essential and earlier the better. Women especially should seek treatment particularly if they are planning a family because of the harm their drugs use can Couse to their unborn child. It can be a though road but with professional help and support users can get a clean and spare themselves and their families and friends the destruction that cocaine brings.Gusii 789
This article is very interesting in how the author views this current epidemic vs the crack epidemic of the 1980s. One hundred and forty two Americans die each day from an opioid overdoes, that’s a horrible number to look at and one that definitely causes alarm. It’s also interesting to see that people in the past who used a drug were associated with that drug, for example if you smoke crack you’re a crack head. This kind of mentality did not carry on to this current problem involving opioids. It’s now considered a health crisis and looked at in a new light, one of caring concern and disassociation from the person and the drug. What the author points out is that had people had the same concern for those involved in the crack epidemic of the 80s, and not locked them up and forgot about, we could have learned something that would have been valuable to this current situation. This is a very good point and I agree with what the author is saying. It’s sad that we let poor inner city people of color suffer but give this situation with opioids a different take. In the article the author points out that for the first time, due to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, there were mandatory minimum sentences for those people who were convicted of having specific amounts of cocaine. The irony of this situation was that more time was given for crack, a cheaper drug. It made me think what would have happened if the roles were reversed and how this situation might be played out differently. It is ironic how tough on crime republican politicians view this problem with a more sympathetic tone and insist on treatment versus prison time. With all this being said I do have to say that people are dying from this epidemic and it is affecting American life’s, regardless of race. I agree with the author that it does show a lot of racial bias when you compare how each are handled. But saying that I do believe we must learn from the past and move onward. People shouldn’t be locked up and thrown away, and I believe that many of these things we are doing with the opioid epidemic should bring light on other substances that have ruined people’s lives, like crack and methamphetamine etc. Like the author stated in this article, if crack was treated a national crisis and not a neighborhood vice, we would have a better understanding today on how drugs spread through populations.-pj789
When the Drug establish act got passed in 1986 this caused much turmoil as mantuary sentences got passed effecting many African American families. This gave many criminal sentences to African American’s who an addiction to crack this also gave many criminal sentences to many of these individuals coming from these lower income families. This was a missed oppurinity for law makers of this time period because if there were more effective measures that were put in place in order to ensure that people would effective recovery from their addictions, and also by allowing individua’s to recover, this would keep family members in their homes this allows them to teach their children the dangers of these drugs and helps to prevent families from circling through the cycle. This is a missed chance for not seeking the oppurinity to understand the how, when where, and the what drug abuse and how to effective devise measures to ensure that others will not fall to be victims for drug addiction either. With 51,000 people who have a drug addiction which ends up leading to their death. This has gained much national attention as this should as many individual’s and their families have been impacted by this new oncoming drug abuse. This is a national emergency as this can affect more individual’s in our country from death than traffic accidents. This not only impacts the families but as suffered due to a new way of approaching drug addiction has created the on slot of causing much rift individuals who had to pay with jail or prison time for their drug offenses. This also causing much disparity as everything done is everything learned meaning that for generations were punishment was the outcome for drug offenses this causes individual’s to see that their outcomes for getting these people incarcerated has effected them and their families in such a negative way this also causing much stress for the individua’s who want to make a difference in the world that have to live with the fact of making an arrest or making a call to revoke previous paroles based on crack and cocaine addictions. This has caused a rift in generations and with the widespread of heroin its good to see that we have taken the steps as a nation in order to understand that this is a issue of mental health and that can be used in order to benefit the communities as a lost for one person to the death of using a drug is a death to much more. Also by declaring this a national emergency this allows steps to be taken to ensure that, we come together in local communities, state and also as a nation with a more widespread view on support this comes to create a better outcome for overcoming This will allow us as a nation to help bring these victim back to functioning members of society better members of their families and also will help us as a nation to prevent the factors that are causing individual’s to any type of drug use. eagle789
ReplyDeleteThe past history of drug epidemics in the United States in not one of a happy ending and ultimately was just another front in the war on drugs. In the 1980s, the drug of choice was the easier to make and acquire version of cocaine, crack cocaine. This addictive and dangerous drug decimated the inner city and African American population back in the day. These afflicted individuals became casualties in the war on drug, however, the war on drug is not the war on a foreign entity like most of use picture. No, instead, it is a civil war wherein that the United States will lose either way as it did in the crack epidemic. The same carries over into the new epidemic, this time it is opioids. This time, however, the US is handling it in a very different way than it did in the early 1980s. The United States, and its people as a whole, have become more accepting and caring for those afflicted by the drug. Rehabilitation and counseling have now taken precedence over arrest and incarceration and many factors play a role in this. Overcrowding of prisons, a different mindset, who is afflicted, etc. All of the previously stated factors play a role in how differently we treats the addicts compared to in the 1980s. A big question to ask is: have we learned from the mistakes of our past? Is this why they are being treated this way? Personally, I am not too sure about that. This article point heavily toward a difference in the race of those afflicted as well. While I see a correlation, I have it embedded subconsciously in my head to tread lightly on the subject. The correlation that is often talked about is that of how crack was treated worse back in the day and those mainly affected by the drug were of African American descent while today’s drug of choice, opioids, afflict those of Caucasian descent. This difference was emphasized in parts of the article and is something that I see a lot of in the correctional and criminal justice field. The proof is there and I see it but I also want to dig a little deeper to find out more on the subject. That is all I will say about that. The article also goes on to talk about how if the epidemic is not stop, it will eventually come to the doorstep of the reader. This is something that very well may happen. It does not always have to be you, it could be someone you care deeply for. I mother, a brother, a sister, a father, an uncle or aunt, etc. Drug epidemics are no joking matter and they spread just as easy as an actual viral infection if not treated carefully. The more we do, as a country, to help, council, and rehabilitate those afflicted, the better off the United States as a whole will be. Everyone can do something to help one way or another. –TheMarshall789
ReplyDeleteThis article really explained how different methods were and currently are being used to deal with the outbreak of a drug crisis. It was mentioned in the article that during the 1980's, no one cared about the urban "crackheads" while today in 2018, heroin addicts have a disproportionate impact on white urbanites and rural areas. The term urban "crackheads" is referring to blacks that politicians believed 'belonged in jail and were dispensable' while the heroin addicts are whites that 'need treatment'. I think that is outrageous how politicians viewed blacks as crackheads that deserved to go straight to jail. Race should not be the determinate factor in the choosing between either incarceration or rehab for a person who is addicted to drugs. Another item discussed in the article talked about how in 1986, certain sentences were created to be tougher on crack cocaine cases rather than powder cocaine cases. This creation of new sentences mainly affected African Americans more than any group in the United States. I believe that this change was made to affect the African American population within the nation in a negative way. This is another perfect example of racism being a part of our country's laws and their creation. I just cannot wrap my head around the idea that some people believe that by targeting a specific race of people in the country and creating laws to negatively affect them, the drug problem is simply going to vanish out of thin air. Creating laws associated with racism to try to find a scapegoat for a nationwide problem is such an illogical thought. These nationwide problems are caused by and effect all different groups and kinds of people in the nation. One specific group of people don't just all create a drug problem for the nation together to hurt a certain other group, it is felt in some way by everyone throughout the nation, some just sadly feel it more than others do. One final item I would like to talk about is another statement that was in the article that mentioned how jail is not a good way to deal with drug problems, drugs can and will find their way into any part of the country, even where more affluent people live. I agree with statement one hundred and ten percent. I say this because it does not matter what laws are currently in place, drugs will still make their way into communities throughout the nation. Drugs are found throughout all types of households and communities, from poverty-stricken neighborhoods to the wealthy neighborhoods. As for jail time for drug use and/or possession, I do not see this as being an effective way to deal with the problem. By locking someone up for possessing drugs, the only thing that is happening is taxpayer money is being spent to hold a non-violent offender in prison and once they are released, they are more than likely going to go back and get more drugs. Instead of jail time for non-violent drug offenses, the go-to needs to be rehabilitation to fix that person's problem and keep them from going back to their old lives and getting in trouble over and over again.
ReplyDelete-Fozz789
I thought the article was good, but to hear myself what I am reading is shocking to the brain. Around the 1980’s it was easy for people to posses powder cocaine or crack cocaine. From what I got off the article, it seemed like African Americans were targeted way to many times. Now, when the Anti-Drug Abuse Act enacted in 1986, mandatory minimum sentences came into play and made situation even worse. Now, in the 1980’s drugs were going down everywhere and almost seemed like nothing could have been done. Instead of helping individuals with resources, the only resource that was used was to incarcerate because it was much easier. Why? Because being politicians think differently, and think that locking all cocaine and powered, or morphine addicts was the way to clean up the streets and it all eventually will go away, but that was not the case. Now that the drug act was being forced, not African Americans and other local urban communities were being incarcerated and targeted more because of some minor drug violations. Not only did that caught the attention, but the lawmakers did not even take advantage of helping the individuals from being incarcerated in the urban communities. Glanton states, “If crack addiction had been treated like a national crisis rather than a neighborhood vice, we'd have a better understanding today of how drugs spread through populations”. Glanton is right because if the U.S. has done something more positive to impact the individual in more supportive way, maybe we would not be having the drug crisis any longer. She also states, “White suburbanites are lobbying their state officials to help them solve a problem that is ruining young people's lives. They are holding rallies on statehouse lawns, urging elected officials to treat their addicted children with dignity — something that young people addicted to crack never received”. I suppose we are focusing more on the youth because, yes, the youth are the future, the next generation to lead the next generation to help decrease the numbers of drugs being overused in the best way possible without politicians using them brains and not enact laws that are not going to do anything or help. My verdict, the crisis on drugs is way to heavy now, but we can still help our youth to succeed and to lead the next generation to stop the drug crisis. This goes to all African American’s, whites, Hispanics, Asians, and more. It is important that the U.S. focuses more on how to help individuals and not deter crime by some law and just putting out their and see how it all turns out. - LILPUMP789
ReplyDeleteWow is all I can say. The article started by saying that one hundred forty-two americans die every day from illegal drug abuse. To me this statistic is a crazy number that really should not be happening. Just think about how many families that affects every year with this many people dieing a day from drugs. I think this proves that it can not be something fixed by locking people up and calling it good. This proven when the article talks about the crack epidemic and the effect it had back in the 80’s. It was saying that no one cared back then about all the people getting locked away for drugs. Since crack was mostly a popular drug in african american communities, the article said it was almost overlooked, like politicians did not care. I thin the statement themade about how as a whole, america lost the chance to find out long term and short term effects of what works best for dealing with this is spot on. America locked away people for crack and cocaine. People would get out, if it was a lesser offense, and then go straight back to using it. Locking them away did not solve a single thing, and they knew that. They figured it would just go away eventually when they are all incarcerated. By doing this, we lost out on the opportunity to try treating these people with addictions instead of putting them away for years as a bandage to the epidemic. This had a huge effect on mostly african american communities. Now that today's crisis of opioids came into play it is affecting no one community in general, it is everyone that is getting caught up in this drug abuse today. Since this is happening, we realized we might need to treat it differently than we did with the crack and cocaine problem in the 80’s. This is where, as mentioned earlier, we missed out on such a good opportunity to try and figure out how to treat people with addictions instead of putting them away. I think we have had a lot of great outcomes with starting to treat this as a medical issues rather than a criminal issue. People are wanting to treat these people with respect and help they need in today’s society. This is a great thing for the people of today, but is honestly very sad to know that the young generation of the crack epidemic never got the same chance as today. It ruined so many families and made many people have records over petty drug charges. All these people needed was help and instead we never even gave them a second look. It is so weird to look back in retrospect to see what we were doing to these people. The american people could have saved so many families and lives by just helping these people who happened to get addicted to something illegal. Everyone has their addiction, some just happen to be worse than others.
ReplyDelete- ST789
This article was very shocking and alarming to me. This article basically viewed how we are approaching this “drug crisis”. When reading this article was more angry at the fact at how different we viewed races concerning the topic of drugs. As the article stated in the 1980’s we viewed blacks as crackheads and in today's society we view whites as heroin addicts. Before addressing the facts let me say that is truly preposterous that we used the term crackheads in the 1980’s but now we call whites just addicts. I think that is outrageous first off. Besides thinking of that point the article pointed out while this term was being used it really meant that politicians just wanted to throw blacks in jail and wanted to base it off that certain offense. The problem nowadays is that we view whites as needing treatment. Reading this left me angry because race should play now role in this sort of offense. There is no difference between a black man found with a pound of weed and white man found with a pound of weed. They both contain the same amount there should be no reason we look at a black man differently. Another thing discussed in the article was that in 1980’s politicians wanted to crack down on crime so by doing so they thought they could arrest there way out of this epidemic. Which every person with some common sense knows there is no way of this sort of approach to work. We were right because this only affected one group which of course was African Americans. Many of them were targeted and sent to prison for minor drug offenses and this mainly affected the poor urban communities. Racism was a very big problem as you can tell back then because everyone wanted to blame that one certain guy that looked shady. If you really think about it though one person or even one group of people are not the only contributors to this nationwide epidemic. They would have to put in some effort for that to happen. This is a problem caused by everyone in this country because everyone has a bit of responsibility to why this is happening. Race should never be involved into this because it is a doing of a lot of people. As said in the article it keeps coming back to how prison is not a solution for drug offenses. Which all in all we already know but we are not doing anything about it. Drug addicts benefit nothing from sitting in jail for a period of time because by the time they get out they will be more likely to hit the streets up again. As we said in class a person is likely to fall about 7 or 8 times before picking themselves up and realizing what they are doing. We can help these people if we could only give them the necessities they needed and not punishing them by throwing them in a cell for a year.
ReplyDeleteHollywood789
It seems more likely to me that the difference in response is due to the nature of the addictions and the proximity of the common person to addicted. During the crack epidemic, most white people did not know the addicted before the substance dependence, however they are far more likely to know someone who has become addicted to opiates. This causes more sympathy as relationships are already established in the latter case. The difference in response also likely has much to do with the violence engaged in upon by those who are addicted. A vice article that I linked to in the other blog about opiates states that these people are far less violent than were the sufferers of opiate addiction. I think that the response to these problems by the justice system has done nothing but further the problems. People turn to drugs when they feel isolated from society, and a criminal record with no rehabilitation only works to further isolate these people making them likely to reoffend. I think that these people should face mandatory rehabilitation and be reintegrated into society afterward. These people should not receive a criminal record for this as that would only damage them further. I do think the the difference in response to these two problems from politicians is largely problematic. However, I think that if the crack epidemic were to occur today and again be largely isolated to black communities, politicians would react much differently than they did at that time. It is unfortunate that black crack addicts did not receive the same sympathy that opiate addicts receive today. I agree with the author that had there been sympathy instead of fear, much more would have been done in the way of mass addiction, and the opiate problem would likely be far easier to fix. It is important for people to realize this moving forward. I hope that if there are substance based epidemics that are isolated to specific populations in the future, the sympathy being fostered today will extend to those problems in the future. I wonder if the treatment of the crack epidemic has at all been a factor of people’s responses to the epidemics today along with the reasons I already mentioned. I was obviously not around for the crack epidemic, but it seems very obvious that the mass incarcerations that resulted from it were not helpful in addressing the problem. Perhaps, people have realized this and are being careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past. While I do not think that any epidemic is a good thing, I hope that the sympathy for victims of the opiate addiction works to bring the american people together, and prevents responses similar to those of the american people in the time of the crack epidemic of the 1980s. Overall, I do think that is fear to call the different responses a double standard, but I question whether it is solely because of the difference in the addicted or if it is because we have matured as a society. In either case, I hope that the sympathy felt for victims of addiction currently felt due to problems currently faced by society does not die with the the opiate addiction. -Rudedogg789
ReplyDeleteOpioids crises is the worst it has ever been becasue we thought that it would be a good idea to just let the people that got caught with the drug just sit in prison and think abou twhat they did and we thought that would help them. We were not very smart by doing this because in the end they would go right back to the streets and start doing it again because they did not get the right treatment that they needed. This is why we have a big problem today because the people that were in prison are getting out and found new ways t do it so they are trying these ways and will kill themsleve it they do ot get the help that they really need to beat this.Its sad that we just put them into prison just so they can sit there and figure out what they did wrong even though they did not need to go to prison and we couldve put them into a rehab center so they can beat this so they dont end up back in prison. Our system that we have is mess up because these people need help and we will not give the people what they need and they wonder why they keep showing back up in prison.Locking them up did no good for the people. They need to go to the rehab center so they could get the proper help that they need so they could fix the problem that they had. The thing is that when you start its hard to get off so why would you just put them in prison where they will find other stuff and then come out of priso even worse than when they went in. The main thing that is happening with these drugs is that they are dying and there families have to go through this. These families should not have to lose someone to drugs because the state was to lazt to give the people the right help so they went back to what they were doing and then lost there lives to drug overdose. Gator789
ReplyDeleteTo my understanding crack is the most addictive drug to mess with. The behavioral model of addiction is perhaps the oldest view of addiction, philosophical and lay discourses. Addiction is described as a weakness of the will, and assumes that people with addiction have a compulsive desire to use psychoactive substances and that they eventually lose control over their use even in the face of negative consequences. Such consequences maybe loss of jobs, disengagement or conflicts within personal relationships, maintaining housing and health problems. The individual who chose to give in to their weak will and lose the capacity to exercise autonomy. The effects of crack and cocaine on society can be seen in the users families, community and work places. Domestic violence and any other random acts of violence are often brought by crack cocaine. Children are often the victims of crack or cocaine use parents children born to cocaine users suffer from the harmful abuse by their addicted parents.
ReplyDeleteThe effects of cocaine in society show themselves in different ways. For instance in the work place, cocaine is costly in terms of lost work time and influence. Cocaine users are more likely than nonusers to have occupational accidents which endangering themselves and those around them. Cocaine use can disrupt neighborhood with violence among other drugs dealer’s threats to residents and the crime of the addicts themselves. Once somebody is addicted on drugs it becomes so hard to get out of and costly. The long term effects of cocaine use can be devastating, so treatment is essential and earlier the better. Women especially should seek treatment particularly if they are planning a family because of the harm their drugs use can Couse to their unborn child. It can be a though road but with professional help and support users can get a clean and spare themselves and their families and friends the destruction that cocaine brings.Gusii 789
This article is very interesting in how the author views this current epidemic vs the crack epidemic of the 1980s. One hundred and forty two Americans die each day from an opioid overdoes, that’s a horrible number to look at and one that definitely causes alarm. It’s also interesting to see that people in the past who used a drug were associated with that drug, for example if you smoke crack you’re a crack head. This kind of mentality did not carry on to this current problem involving opioids. It’s now considered a health crisis and looked at in a new light, one of caring concern and disassociation from the person and the drug. What the author points out is that had people had the same concern for those involved in the crack epidemic of the 80s, and not locked them up and forgot about, we could have learned something that would have been valuable to this current situation. This is a very good point and I agree with what the author is saying. It’s sad that we let poor inner city people of color suffer but give this situation with opioids a different take. In the article the author points out that for the first time, due to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, there were mandatory minimum sentences for those people who were convicted of having specific amounts of cocaine. The irony of this situation was that more time was given for crack, a cheaper drug. It made me think what would have happened if the roles were reversed and how this situation might be played out differently. It is ironic how tough on crime republican politicians view this problem with a more sympathetic tone and insist on treatment versus prison time. With all this being said I do have to say that people are dying from this epidemic and it is affecting American life’s, regardless of race. I agree with the author that it does show a lot of racial bias when you compare how each are handled. But saying that I do believe we must learn from the past and move onward. People shouldn’t be locked up and thrown away, and I believe that many of these things we are doing with the opioid epidemic should bring light on other substances that have ruined people’s lives, like crack and methamphetamine etc. Like the author stated in this article, if crack was treated a national crisis and not a neighborhood vice, we would have a better understanding today on how drugs spread through populations.-pj789
ReplyDelete