“My crimey here think the way to go is more drugs. But I know better. I think making money is okay, but not making it just by dealing. You gotta go legit, at least for a minute. You gotta go state fresh, all the way live, if you wanna do anything worthwhile out here. Everybody thinks they can make crazy dollars, but they confused. It aint like that. I’ve seen co-caine bust many a head – they get fucked up and be clocking out after they find out they cannot find the key to understanding that mystery skied. But you know what? But-but0but you know what? They don’t have a clue. Word.” (Williams, 1989)
The book that I found interesting to read and write about for this class was The Cocaine Kids; The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring, by Terry Williams, published in the year 1989. Deciding what book to read for this class was rather difficult for me, I had purchased and started reading two other books before noticing they weren’t that compelling and fascinating. Then I finally came across The Cocaine Kids. What I found most intriguing after reading just the introduction was that Williams wasn’t trying to support any particular theory. I liked the fact that he was an open-minded individual who desired answers to his questions.
Another aspect of the study I found attention grabbing was Williams conducted the study by an ethnographic approach. This approach requires the researcher to build a close relationship with those individuals being studied and typically demands long- term engagement in the field. I enjoyed that it is a multiple technique approach and that not one method is appropriate to a situation.
The Cocaine Kids focuses on the lives of eight Latino and black young cocaine dealers in New York City from 1982 to 1986. This...
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...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.
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In the 1970’s Patricia Adler and her husband infiltrated a large drug smuggling and dealing ring located in Southwest County of southern California with the intent of learning more about the covert group. In Adler’s book Wheeling and Dealing: an Ethnography of an Upper-Level Drug Dealing and Smuggling Community, she delves into the multifaceted lifestyle and activities of those in the Southwest County drug world. In this paper, I will look into the factors that initiated their entry into the drug world, their activates that facilitated their smuggling and dealing of drugs, and their exit from the drug world, while applying multiple theories to explain their illegal behavior.
He says that drugs are a symptom of living in poverty and with inequalities. The drugs are not the cause for poverty they are what comes out of living in those situation along with inequalities in the system. In the text Hart states, “empirical evidence is frequently ignored when drug policy is formulated.”1 meaning that drug policy is basically all formed on theory rather than actual observation. In the book it is mentioned how racism set into institutions and poverty, before crack was the main reason for his family falling apart.
In Mike Sager’s Death in Venice, Sager creates a vivid story about the gang in Venice as well as their addiction to cocaine. What I enjoyed about this article, was that it told a story in the perception of the gang members. It allowed me to see a glance through the lives of the gangs in the late twentieth century. Throughout the story, I felt multiple emotions, it ranged from disbelief to anger. It is astounding how Sager documented the lives of young males in Venice. As a Chicana, I was surprised by the actions in the article, I grew up in an environment where my daily life was not surrounded by gangs and drive-bys.
In “The Ascent” Ron Rash introduces us to a child who is brought up by cocaine addicts name Jared. Jared ventures out into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to escape his sad home life and on his little adventure Jared finds the lost plane authorities had been looking for, for months. Upon leaving Jared takes the ring from the woman on the plan and returns home where he finds that his parents have already run out of drugs. His father takes the ring Jared had found and then sales the ring for money. His surroundings along with foreshadowing suggests Jared will have to make a life changing decision, but his youth suggests he is too naïve to come to such a realization.
Throughout There Are No Children Here, a continuous, powerful tension always lurks in the background. The gangs that are rampant in the housing projects of Chicago cause this tension. In the Henry Horner Homes, according to Kotlowitz, one person is beaten, shot, or stabbed due to gangs every three days. In one week during the author's study of the projects, police confiscated 22 guns and 330 grams of cocaine in Horner alone (Kotlowitz 32).
“Just Say No!” A statement that takes us deep into yet another decade in the history of the United States which was excited by controversies, social issues, and drug abuse. The topic of this statement is fueled by the growing abuse of cocaine in the mid 1980s. I shall discuss the effects of the crack cocaine epidemic of the mid 1980s from a cultural and social stand point because on that decade this country moved to the rhythms and the pace of this uncanny drug. Cocaine took its told on American society by in the 1980s; it ravaged with every social group, race, class, etc. It reigned over the United States without any prejudices. Crack cocaine was the way into urban society, because of its affordability in contrast to the powdered form. In society the minorities were the ones most affected by the growing excess of crime and drug abuse, especially African Americans; so the question was “Why was nearly everybody convicted in California federal court of crack cocaine trafficking black?” (Webb: Day 3). The growing hysteria brought forth many questions which might seem to have concrete answers, but the fact of the matter is they are all but conspiracy in the end, even though it does not take away the ambiguity and doubt. I will take on only a few topics from the vast array of events and effects this period in time had tended to. Where and who this epidemic seemed to affect more notably, and perhaps how the drugs came about such territories and people. What actions this countries authority took to restore moral sanity, and how it affected people gender wise.
The first detail the authors selected is the fact that drug dealers still live with their mothers at home. Drug dealing has been painted by the media as “one of the most profitable jobs in America” (Levitt 83). However, that is not the case. Drug dealing works much like a business in America, namely crack dealing in Chicago. In the novel, there is the example of the Black Disciples, a crack gang in Chicago. Their group is organized into a multitude of franchises that report back to the board of directors, providing the board with a large cut of the profits made on the streets. The leader of each gang made a large sum of up to $100,000, but “the foot soldiers earned just about $3.30 an hour, less than the minimum wage” (Levitt 93). This detail of the drug dealers was selected to appear in the novel to show how “conventional wisdoms” are false and misleading. The media at the time was stating that drug dealers made large sums of money participating in the illicit drug trade, but that was not the case. Drug dealers did not even make enough money to move out of their mother’s home. Foot soldiers worked for less than the federal minimum wage at the time, but the “conventional wisdom” was that the foot soldiers were making large sums of money. This detail causes the reader to question what they see in the media, and readers see that there exists a complexity behind
Stress, there is no way to avoid stress being alive. For some reason, people try to avoid, or run away from their problems by doing all kinds of drugs, such as nicotine, marijuana, ecstasy, and much more. These drugs relaxes people, relieving stress for a period of time. Of course, doing drugs is not good for your health, and we can not really prevent people from doing drugs, and getting an addiction in the first place. What people with drug addictions need to do is find any source of help as soon as possible, relieve their stress, or just find a medication. If nothing is treated to the addiction, then the addiction will just grow worse. Drug addictions can only prevent people from accomplishing goals or dreams in life. People sometimes feel
Cocaine Cowboys is documentary film that was released in 2006 that was directed Billy Corben, and produced by Alfred Spellman and Corben. The film is about the rise of cocaine smuggling and the Miami drug war during the years of 1970s-1980s in Miami, Florida. In our textbook that is chosen for this course which is called, “Sociology: A Global Perspective” (Ferrante). We go over deviance, conformity, and social control in chapter seven; all in which becomes very relevant when put in the same conversation with this film, Cocaine Cowboys. This film is a true example of deviance that our society struggles with still to this day.
The eighties had Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs, the crack epidemic in major cities, and the Columbian cartels’ emergence as a threat. Kingpin “freeway Ricky Ross” made his debut in the eighties and organized an empire solely on drugs. Ad campaigns featuring the first lady, Nancy Reagan, were launched in an attempt to have kids “just say no,” and “nope to dope” (Martin). The crack epidemic hit so hard, that many conspiracy theories stating that the CIA was sending crack...
Gootenberg, Paul. Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
Crack is the name given to cocaine that has been transformed into a condensed, more pure, rock form that can be smoked. It is the most addictive form of cocaine due to a higher potency level than the typical batch of street cocaine. Crack cocaine has often been referred to as a ‘soul drug’ because it has a tendency to rob its victims of everything including money, family, morals, and even life itself. Furthermore, it is possible to become addicted to crack cocaine from the very first time it is used, creating a vortex of misery for those who come into contact with it. Compared to other drugs, crack cocaine has a rather short history in America since it was only introduced the 1980’s. However, within this short period, Crack cocaine
Per Reporter: The children's mother and step-father (Crystal and Larry) used cocaine in the home. The children seen Crystal and Larry used the cocaine in the home. The children do not have access to the cocaine. The cocaine is not being sold or manufactured in the home. The home has no food most of the time. The children, mostly eat noodles. The reporter feed the children when she/he have them. The children have not lost any weight. Crystal does get food stamps. Crystal sells the food stamps to pay the bills in the home. Crystal has to sell the food stamps because Larry steals her check and one of the children's checks (J'Tavious). Larry takes the money and buys drugs. The dope boys (unknown) is threaten to shoot up the house, because Larry
“Getting tough on drugs inevitably translates into getting soft on nondrug crime,” they write. “When a decision is made to wage a ‘war on drugs,’ other things that criminal justice resources might do have to be sacrificed.”
One of the ever growing issues in our society is the use of drugs. Drugs come in many different shapes and sizes and can be consumed in a variety of ways. The drug epidemic is taking over our society and resulting in several drug addictions. There are a multitude of drugs that are used throughout the world and there is also a multitude of these drugs that are being abused. Drugs are used by many for several reasons whether it is to relax their body, to temporarily remove the stresses out of their lives, or for social acceptance drugs are being used. There are many reasons why drugs are an ever growing issue in our society. Although there are many types of drugs that exist, one of the most widely known and commonly abused drugs is cocaine. Cocaine