Edgar Allan Poe's War On Drugs

“I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”

― Edgar Allan Poe

These are the words of Edgar Allen Poe. An esteemed writer and poet that suffered from the perils of drugs. What is profound is Poe wrote these words not in today’s war on drugs era. He didn’t write it during the free love movement of the 60’s. He wrote this in the 1800’s. This was a time in which one wouldn’t think about the evils of drugs. I say this to say drugs and alcohol have been around so long they are a part of the American fabric. They have ravaged entire communities for so long that we as people have become numb to this epidemic. Specifically drugs have made life in the African American demographic harsh and unstable. From the heroin scourge in the 1970’s to the crack epidemic of the 1980’s drugs and

You are likely to find even a novice person who know how much a “dime bag” (marijuana) or an “eight ball”(cocaine) costs. Children sing songs like “Im in love with the CoCo”, a drug themed song that came out in 2013 that was a billboard top 100 song for eight weeks. Drugs have not only become common but they have become cool. Our society doesn’t see the high unemployment or the mass incarcerations associated with drugs. Young African American men do not see the prison industrialized complex they enter when they begin to encounter and sell drugs. They do not see the true nature of the drug business that author’s Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt speak on. According to their book Freakonomics the vast majority of drug dealers in America make less than minimum wage. These facts are never really spoke on, but just like everything else change can happen