What looks like your neighborhood abandoned house with poor lightning, boarded up windows and doors and overgrown bushes, might just be your community's biggest crack or drug house. These vacant or condemned houses used for criminal activity are all over the United States. However watch out, police departments and neighborhoods around the nation are putting their foot down to crack and houses that sell it. Are you ready to take initiative?
Crack is made from powered cocaine and is sold in rock form. The crack rocks are crystallized in the cooking process and are yellow and tasteless. The drug produces an intense and almost immediate high. Smoking crack allows doses of cocaine to reach the brain within seconds and effects begin within minutes. Leading us to experience a combination of abnormal strength feeling, poor impulse control and delusions.
America's outlook of crack cocaine is identified with poor blacks and Hispanics. Crack houses, crack dealers, crack whores and crack babies sum up everything a white person fears about the "ghetto lifestyle," along with the media and government. Shamelessly to manipulate and amplify the racists connection between black and crack. Hundreds of crack users die annually but not all of them fit into the stereotypically profile. Truth is, today in your middle class neighborhood sweet and innocent teenage Susie and Bobby might be out on the weekends smoking crack with their friends as a regular thing. Along with drinking alcohol and smoking pot.
The crimes that come along with crack dealers, users and other drug utilizers are horrendous. Murders, rape, abuse, assault, driving accidents and robbery are just some associated with crack, and any other drug. Owners of drug houses or who deal are often victims of personally robbery, and cant report it to the police due to the illegal activity their involved with. Who wants to wake up to a gun in their face, and watch all of their "hard earned" possessions be stolen?
So how do we determine if that crummy house around the corner is selling crack? Police departments around the US are trying to reduce the number of crackhouses, apartment units, motel rooms and other properties that engage in illegal drug trafficking and promote crime with in a neighborhood. There are many suspicions that can alert you; frequent visits at all hours, expensive cars in low-income neighborhoods, and visitors who stay for only a short period of time.
Since the Reagan officials tried harder to stop the Drug Enforcement Administration from exposing the illegal activities that were taking place, the more violence was being caused in these inner city neighborhoods, which lead to more arrests for possession. Now, Michelle explains how the War on Drugs has the most impact on African Americans in these inner city neighborhoods. Within the past three decades, US incarceration increase has been due to drug convictions, mainly. She states that, “the US is unparalleled in the world in focusing enforcement of federal drug laws on racial and ethnic minorities.”(Alexander2016). The percentile of African American men with some sort of criminal record is about 80% in some of our major US cities(Paul Street, The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs, and Community in Chicago, Illinois, and the Nation (Chicago Urban League, Department of Research and Planning, 2002). MIchelle referred to these becoming marginalized and calls them “ growing and permanent undercaste.” (Alexander2016, pp
“The House I Live” by Eugene Jarecki is a documentary that sheds a light on America’s ongoing battle with drug abuse by encompassing multiple viewpoints from all walks of life ranging from both sides of the law and everything in between: the police officers, politicians, drug dealers, inmates, grieving parents, authors and journalists about how the war of drugs affect their lives and the lives of others. The overall purpose of the documentary was to show the war on drugs and how it has failed in the United States.
Due to the serious consequences of the drug problem and its related crimes in the United States, law enforcement identified six goals to handle cases of such nature. The first goal is to reduce the gang violence associated with drug trafficking and prevent the emergence of powerful organized criminal groups. Organized group are the main distribution of drugs in the community. They sell drugs for many reasons. It’s fast money, help fund other criminal activities and difficult for law enforcement to build a case against them for it. The drugs problem brings other crimes into the community. With drugs comes violence, drug wars and death. It is the main cause of the degradation of the community. Therefore, confronting the root of the problem by
In quite a few lower-class communities, phrases like “your mom is a crack head,” or “shut up crack baby” are said jokingly to make fun of someone during what we call a “rip session.” Although said as a joke, some are very offended by the comments. Why? because for some, crack addiction hits too close to home for comfort. Seeing how easy it is obtained in lower class and poverty stricken neighborhoods, many find themselves falling victim to the powerful substance, crack cocaine. Low sociable economic systems are just one of the many factors that can lead to the use, and addiction of crack cocaine, others include movies, music, peer pressure, alcohol and cigarette ads. In this report I will discuss the effects, consequences, and possible treatment for crack cocaine addiction.
Due to the unfair sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine, despite the fact that the two are the same drug, just in different forms, the government endorsed a law to reduce the sentencing of those who were convicted of crack related offenses. Repealing past wrong doings seemed to be a hurdle initially for lawmakers, but ultimately inmates finally received some of the justice that they deserved. The disparity in sentencing was seen by many as to be a racial war, considering the fact that blacks typically used crack, and whites used powder cocaine. Even though they are in essence the same drug, just broken down into different forms.
Attention Material: Cocaine is mostly known as an illegal drug, but very few truly acknowledge it for its medical purposes and fully understand its history in the country. Cocaine is a tropane ester alkaloid ,which is extracted from the leaves of the coca (Erythroxylon coca) plant (Clayton, 1996). Cocaine is considered the most powerful and most dangerous drug of natural origin. Cocaine is illegal in the United States and is classified under the Schedule II medication which is contained in the Controlled Substance Act of the United States Constitution.
Let’s talk about how fair these laws are. Many say that these laws are used to profile African Americans and inner-city minorities primarily by the sentencing difference in rock and powder cocaine. There is a difference in the two forms and how they’re sold. Cocaine can be bought and sold as powder or rocks, also known as crack or crack cocaine. The effects of each are essentially the same. People will get the same effects with powder as w...
This study examined the determining factors to why these subjects involve themselves in the activity that they do. By sitting down and talking with these Adolescent Black males you get a better understanding of them and their situation. It has been concluded that the ones involved in crack dealing either struggle with peer pressure, low self esteem, socioeconomic status or severe family issues.
In the documentary, “High in Houston” better known as the ‘Bloody Nickel’, the “5th Ward” neighborhood in Houston, TX is full of drugs, gangs, and cartels. I could not understand how every day and night man and woman were out either prostituting for either food, but mainly money for drugs to get high. Some of the most popular drugs in this area that were discussed and that were discussed that most dealers sell and most people want to buy is prescription cough medicine “lean” which is codeine and crack cocaine. The drug dealers in this documentary talked about how they sell their items, how they run the streets in the 5th ward and do not mind killing someone to prove that to a person who challenges them. I am sad that right here in Texas, not even 40 miles outside of Prairie View, TX where I attend school class at, there are young man and woman who would whether sell drugs into our communities and kill our black community and keep us down. The question is when will we ever rise above the stereotype? Women day and night are
The war on drugs is greatly concentrated on cocaine and even more so on crack cocaine.
In the 1970s, cocaine was expensive and considered a "status" drug. The introduction of inexpensive crack increased the accessibility of this substance, and crack has become the drug of choice for many users, especially for inner...
is starting to show up in more and more inner east coast cities 2. Crack or rock
Drug arrests occur too often and are taking up a majority of general arrests in America. “Drug arrests were the single largest category of arrests, accounting for more than 10% of all arrests in the country” (A drug, 2015). One out of ten of every arrest in the United States of America is a drug arrest. This over focus on drug arrests needs to stop as it is taking focus off of more damaging violent crimes. Overall drug arrests are up 8.3% from a decade ago” (A drug, 2015). Drug crimes are increasing because of the American government increased focus on drug crimes, despite the fact that it is not helping the problem. Even though drug arrests are going up, drug use in the United States of America is “... plentiful and widely used as ever” (Grenier,
Blighted homes have become a breeding ground for criminal mischief and drug activity. Drugs are being sold, hidden, and prepared in the blighted properties across the city. Criminals use the abandoned homes as a hideaway from local law enforcement and the FBI. The sharing of needles by drug users can spread diseases like HIV/AIDS and even hepatitis to the community.
Another tragic and very important issue ate the " Crack Babies". A crack baby is a child born to a mother who was smoking crack during her pregnancy and up until the time of birth. The infant is addicted at birth, suffers withdrawal agonies, and continues to suffer from developmental abnormalities. These tragedies occur at too high a rate no matter how many there are… The 1991 Household Survey data estimated that about 280,000 women of all ages might have used crack at some time during the year.