Code of the Suburb
I found chapter seven, “The Triumph of Conventionality,” to be of particular interest in the second half of the book. More specifically pages 134 -136, where co-authors Scott Jacques and Richard Wright share some of the reasons to leading moments, building up and resulting in desistance for many suburb dealers. Having to live through momentous events due to your decision to take up selling drugs and to eventually ending up quitting, is something no barely above puberty youth should be experiencing in his early life.
Last week I shared an indirect experience through family ties of my experience growing us as the youngest sibling of an older brother dealing drugs in the state
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Again, I can indirectly relate to this chapter through what I can recall and learned over the years. Brother the dealer has what you can call a thing for revolving doors, and I do mean that literally. He has been in-and-out of jail and prison, so many times that no one in the family could accurately count, including my brother. Only for a decade, I’ve witness some of his actions, heard or overheard about some of his drug dealing issues both good and bad. The other years afterward, leading up to the present, I have heard by word of mouth, directly from him or through someone else, be it family or an acquaintance of the family. Unlike most suburb dealers, when they finally decided to stop dealing, it was a done deal – finite. Notwithstanding, when it came to my brother the dealer. It became revolving for him with consistency, he would stop for a period of time for three, six and even slightly over twelve months, of not dealing drugs. Then the monetary needs start to kick back in or he got wind from the streets of other control substances he could sell and earn more than he did with just
When you think about a drug dealer , what comes to mind? Many times we think about a male, usually minority, who has no regards for society or others. Has it ever come to mind that a drug dealer ,although is practicing in illegal activity ,is still a person. A drug dealer can be a loyal father who goes to his daughter’s ballet recitals, the mother who attends all the PTA meetings ,or someone 's baby stubborn baby brother. In the short story “The Corner’s Photographs” by Brent Staples, The narrator 's brother , Blake, was a drug dealer and was killed by one of his clients. Because Blake didn 't live a respectable life after his death he was treated without respect. Blake was outcasted by his own brother, Brent, while he was alive and after his death he regrets how he treated his brother. Blake was dehumanized because of his life choices.
In the book High Price, highly credible author and neuroscientist, Dr. Carl Hart explains the misconceptions that everyone normally has about drugs and their users. He uses his own life experiences coming from a troubled neighborhood in Florida. The book consists of Hart’s life growing up with domestic violence in his household and the chance he had to come out and excel academically. He talks about the war on drugs and how within this war on drugs we were actually fighting the war with the wrong thing.
The Cocaine Kids and Dorm Room Dealers are two very different, but yet similar books. Cocaine Kids are about a group of kids, primarily of Hispanic race, with one kid of the Black race. The kids were raised in the inner city of New York. Dorm Room Dealers are about White, middle to upper-middle class college students, who was selling drugs for their status. The purpose of this paper is to prove that there are racial disparities among drug users. There will be examples from the texts that show the different takes on the drug markets and how race plays a factor. There also will be how these experiences shape the kids drug dealing and using. The paper will conclude how all the kids either remained in the drug career or left the drug career.
...lliams wrote in The Cocaine Kids was accurate. Instead of just writing more facts and statistics about these teenagers and cocaine, he told a story. He wrote something that more individuals can read and relate too. I believe the Williams successfully brings value and importance to these drug dealers lives. Williams shows drug dealing in the inner city in a very humane way. Their lives are closed to almost all outsiders because of the fact they are involved with illegal drugs. But after reading this book it showed me that even though they live a very difficult and dangerous way of life, they are not as different to us outsiders then we think. They too, have to continuously make tough and valuable decision to live and be successful within society. These dealers are just kids who had little time to be young and are trying to survive in a violent and corrupt world.
Throughout “Chasing the Scream” many intriguing stories are told from individuals involved in the drug war, those on the outside of the drug war, and stories about those who got abused by the drug war. Addiction has many social causes that address drug use and the different effects that it has on different people. In our previous history we would see a tremendous amount of individuals able to work and live satisfying lives after consuming a drug. After the Harrison Act, drugs were abolished all at once, but it lead to human desperation so instead of improving our society, we are often the reason to the problem. We constantly look at addicts as the bad guys when other individuals are often the reasons and influences to someone’s decision in
Connecting Sociology to situations that arise in everyday life has become easier and easier as i have progressed through Intro to Sociology this semester. When choosing what book I was going to analyze for my report, I chose Methland by Nick Reding. It details the quote “death and life of an american small town” through the perspective of those involved in the epidemic of the production of methamphetamine’s in the rural town of Oelwein Iowa. Despite the odds of a poor, small, and rural town in Middle America, Oelwein climbed to the top of the economic ladder with a multi million dollar drug franchise spread throughout the 1990’s. The midwest suffered greatly in the 1980’s with the downfall of the agricultural business in the United States. Soon drug dealers started flocking to these seemingly desolate towns in rural America to safely distribute their product. With the loss of jobs due to the farming downfall, many residents of Oelwein were seeking work and pay in anyway they could find. This is what started the official meth epidemic. Reding spent 4 years in his hometown of Oelwein Iowa to gain insight on the production and consumption of methamphetamine’s in this small town and also shines a spotlight on the problems of meth in this country today. But ironically, the comparison in this story of how the production and consumption of meth seemed to be driving this small town further into extinction, it also brought it back to life. Despite the destruction methamphetamines caused in Oelwein Iowa, the epidemic also brought the town back to life in a way that is irreversible. The highlight of the division of social class and who is able to climb up the social ladder is themed throughout the entire novel.
The reason with the old ways do not work, Alexander say, is because “self-destructive drug users are responding in a tragic, but understandable way” (226). It is not their drug- problem that caused the dislocation, but the dislocation that cause the drug problem. He uses the term dislocation to describe the lack of integration with “family, community, society and spiritual values” (226). Alexander goes on to explain that history proves that inability to achieve health opportunities can take on the form of violence, and damaging drug use. Therefore, the “drug problem” (226) is not the problem. The problem is more the “pattern of response to prolong dislocation” (226). Alexander supports this by explaining the reason for the dislocation as being globalized by a society that is market driven which can only be established by the displacement of tradition, economy, and relationships. This has been seen in history before in England during the 19TH century, when “a brutal, export-oriented manufacturing system” was accompanied by work...
Drugs are not only a problem for older generations, but often times those in younger generations become involved in the drug trade as well. According to Anderson (1990), “Children who become deeply engaged in t...
This resource provided depth in this paper due to the introduction of dangers posed by the drug dealers. Because of the fact that marijuana was illegal, determined users must purchase the drug from black market dealers. This source informed my thinking via pointing out the fact that even children may be harmed by heartless drug dealers. In a sense, they are portrayed in this context as “predators” preying on hopeless victims (i.e. buyers of marijuana or other drugs). Drug dealers only care about profits and apparently have no concern as to whether or not their product will lead people to
...liams (in person) First hand account of drug trafficking, use, abuse, effects, and treatment in a Washington State male correctional facility.
The story begins with the narrator’s brother, Sonny, being arrested for using heroin. When the narrator discovers what has happened to his brother, he slowly starts to relive his past. Up to this point, the narrator had completely cut his brother and his childhood from his life. He disapproves of the past and does everything in his power to get rid of it. The narrator had become an algebra teacher and had a family who he moved to get away from the bad influences on the street. As a result, it is shown in the story that he has worked hard to maintain a good “clean” life for his family and himself. Readers can see that he has lived a good life, but at the toll of denying where he came from and even his own brother. For years, his constant aim for success had been successful. However, as the story progressed everything he knew started to fall apart.
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
Williams, Terry. 1989. The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring. New York: Da Capo Press.
In the book, Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through his Son’s Addiction, the narrator, David, talks about his son, Nic, and his struggle of his methamphetamine addiction. Nic began to use pot, booze, and then LSD at the very young age of eleven. He then moved on to a bigger drug: methamphetamine. According to his father, Nic was a sweet, smart, beautiful boy who became a thief, a street person, a liar, and elusive. He was on a quick, downward spiral. David took much of the blame himself and thought if he made certain decisions in the past, Nic would have been a different person than he turned out to be. Nic and his father both knew that in order for Nic to be a better person, he would have to break the cycle of addiction. Nic refused. Nic would often break into his father and step-mother’s house and steal valuable objects and often write out checks to himself. David knew that something serious had to happen for Nic to clean up his act. He claimed he had to be desolate and desperate, but Nic had been banned there had been no change.
As I am looking out the window, the train passes by for the last time. We live directly behind the railroad tracks; everyday we hear the same annoying train pass by. I am happy that we are moving out of this neighborhood. It's sad to say, but there were days when I didn't want to walk across the street because I would have to deal with the low-life drug dealers and crackheads. All day long the crackheads would stand across my street in front of the store, drink, act foolish, and waste away to practically nothing. The drug dealers would stand out there from the time I went school until late at night. They never tried to sell drugs to me, but I hated looking at them. They thought that selling drugs was the only way to make money, rather than getting an education. While I look out the window I notice them standing across the street wasting away. "Tiffani, come bring this box to the car," yells my mom. I guess I have to take some boxes down.