Actually, that’s the “theory”.
In practice, they simply get more folks who are low level users.
They occasionally get a middle man. But the low level users are usually just turning in other low level users.
Again. Just in my experience.
I would concede Wring that your experience and/or observation are rather backed up and supported by mine. LOL
Needs2know
matt_mcl quoted The Doubter’s Companion as saying:
John Ralston Saul must have been on drugs when he wrote that.
Poverty, despair, social instability, lack of education, and lack of economic alternatives are not the only reasons people do drugs. If they were, heroin would not have become “the plaything of the rich” that it is now.
People use drugs because they give their users a temporary high (i.e. they are recreational), and because they are addictive. All the other reasons for drug use pale in comparison. And unless you can change human physiology so as to remove these two effects, people will always use drugs.
So you believe that “the rich” are not inclined to despair and social instability?
I do see your point, Tracer. But I think he was hyperbolizing for effect. I looked at the word “production” more than “consumption.” Who manufactures drugs, especially in this country? Those for whom the risk is worth the potential gains, of course.
Is heroin the plaything of the rich these days? I don’t keep up with these things. But damn, that’s stupid.
It seems to me that drug use among the affluent tends to run in cycles. A drug becomes the ‘cool’ drug for awhile, then either the drug’s effects take down a few people, so everyone else with something to lose gets second thoughts, or the government cracks down on users, in which case most users who have a lot to lose, give it up. Then after awhile enforcement gets lax, or the scary news of one generation becomes the ancient history of the next (e.g. Len Bias), and a new drug, or one of the old ones, becomes the latest thing again.
There may be similar cycles among the lower classes, but I’ll bet they’re a lot less distinct.
Getting back to the OP, one approach that hasn’t been tried in the past 20 years, if ever, is providing enough treatment programs so that everyone who wants to get off drugs, has qualified help in doing so. During the '90s, we haven’t even had enough drug treatment programs to help those in prison for drug use that would like to participate in such programs.
You’d think if we were tossing drug users in jail ‘for their own good’ we’d provide programs so it could actually do them some good.
Arrest all the Black people under suspicion of drugs. That will take a hugh cut, about 5-8%, of the people taking and selling drugs. Wait a minute, they are doing that.
Telling children to, “Just say no.” Is like telling the Army to, “Just say bang!”
"Nancy Reagan? Dumb. Dumb and dangerous.
Frank Sinatra
(talking about Nancy Reagan)
“One meritricious bitch talking about another.”
Commentators remark on Kitty Kelly talking about Nancy Reagan.