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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhere was everyone when heroine, crack, cocaine were ravaging inner cities across America?
Addiction then was the result of low-life, lazy inner city families who were criminalized, abused, arrested, and killed. labeled welfare queens and cheats, and scoffed at by the three-piece business suits with white faces who perused the alleys and streets of black neighborhoods making stealth nickel, dime, and crack transactions.
Cries for addressing the drug epidemic in those places were met with scorn, broken promises, and secret plans for displacement and gentrification, no pity there, no heartfelt empathy. Oh, but the infrastructure of prisons made for many, many jobs in those states that are now being ravaged by opioids now.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
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blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)
yuiyoshida
(45,415 posts)n/t
Eliot Rosewater
(34,285 posts)black skin and so on.
A problem isnt really a problem until a white male experiences it, then WATCH out, the response can be overwhelming.
Now as it happens in this case trump wont do shit, but he is an idiot so it doesnt really count.
Not Ruth
(3,613 posts)125th st was poor and it was not poor. It was a busy business strip, with barely any parking to be found. With the exception of a 4 parking spot area that had Mercedes and Jeeps parked with pit bulls in the back seat, or empty spots that no one would park at. The rule was if you parked there, and you were not with the right people, someone walked up to you and shot you in the head. It was reserved parking. After a few incidents of people getting shot in the head, the locals stopped parking there.
I knew a few successful drug dealers. They were just neighbors to me, but they were all murderers when the situation required it.
These days, the same intersection has a Starbucks and a Whole Foods. The Starbucks is sort of nasty. They removed all the seats, but 2 to minimize the homeless using their wifi. It is a Starbucks nevertheless.
Doreen
(11,686 posts)coffee. They always behave and sit outside and do not bother people. If you talk to them most will talk to you. I do not think anyone has complained but if they did Starbucks is a pretty liberal company and probably in a very nice and polite way told them they are not going to quit serving them.
Not Ruth
(3,613 posts)Even workers there have to ring up their personal “purchases”. They make some pretty unique drinks for themselves by the way. They will let you stay for 12 hours eating food from outside without buying a single thing from Starbucks (unlike other businesses on 125th that have signs saying only food purchased there can be consumed and that there is a 30 minute time limit). Usually has an open public bathroom. And weirdly, they have no problem with people clipping their toenails in the store, I have seen it many times, used to take pictures of it, but realized it is just a normal thing that people do. The one thing that they will do is wake you if they see you sleeping for more than 20-30 minutes. Not sure if they are anti sleeping, or if they want to make sure that you did not OD. And of course if you act violent, they call the police.
Doreen
(11,686 posts)salvation army has a building made just for our homeless to go take showers and wash their clothes for free. In a town next to mine however they had to close a bathroom for the bus riders as none of the businesses would allow them to use their bathrooms and they did not respect them. I hate to say this but I think it had something to do with respect. That particular town is stuck up and look down on the homeless and is rude to them no matter how respectful the homeless people are. It is the town where the richer people live in our county. I know it is not an excuse but I see the reasoning. I also know it is not just the homeless who did that.
The homeless here try to sleep in places that are not in the way but as winter comes on it is harder to find places that are covered so they sleep in covered entrances until the store opens. We see fewer people in the winter at the soup kitchens and I think it is at this time of year if a homeless person finds a good sleeping place they do not want to leave it because they will lose it to someone else.
I actually went into Starbucks with something from somewhere else because I got something and then the person I picked up afterwards decided they wanted to go to Starbucks. I apologized and they said no problem. Other than that most people including the homeless usually do that.
Motley13
(3,867 posts)death with their 2 babies strapped in the back seat of their car.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Motley13
(3,867 posts)
BigmanPigman
(55,137 posts)but haven't received much feedback from the liberals I had mentioned it to for some reason.
coolsandy
(479 posts)probably invested in pot stock in the west and northwest. They are still here.
questionseverything
(11,840 posts)
tulipsandroses
(8,251 posts)I grew up in NYC in the 80's and 90's during the height of the Crack Epidemic. We lost so many to incarceration and gun violence due to turf war over drug sales. I am now an RN that works with addicts. The majority of my patients are white. Its great to see that people are softening their stance on addiction. But as one of my coworkers often says, Some of our patients have been court ordered to come in for treatment. Meanwhile, "Pookie is still in prison for having 2 crack rocks. (New Jack City Reference). There was no court ordered treatment for Crack addicts back then.
I cringe when I hear people say this is the worst drug epidemic ever. Many communities are still suffering from the mass incarceration that tore many families apart. The poverty that ensued with having a parent, sometimes both parents incarcerated. Children being sent to foster care. Already struggling family members having to take on raising the children of the incarcerated. Felony convictions that make it harder to find a job. LOSING THE RIGHT TO VOTE due to felony conviction. Not being able to get financial aid for college. I could go on. The human toll is staggering. Not to mention how the CIA profited from the Crack Epidemic. I am not in favor of pitting one tragedy vs the other. Its just another form of white supremacy. This is why when people say all lives matter, its such BS.
Having said that, while the opioid epidemic affects mostly whites ( Which happened most likely due to racism as well, pain not being addressed as much for black patients) - I do take care of many black opioid addicts. From older addicts that have been addicted to Heroin since the 70's to younger folks addicted to pain meds. I take care of quite a few sickle cell patients ( very painful condition which affects mostly blacks) that became addicted to pain meds. As an addiction nurse, its good to see people get the care they need whether its opioids, benzos, meth, alcohol, Cocaine. Quite often, many are addicted to multiple substances.
Docreed2003
(18,714 posts)
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,782 posts)Thanks for sharing those parts of your life and career. Not only do we need to work hard on better addiction treatment and prevention, our criminal justice systems is in just as bad a shape! I'm afraid Republicans are going to make both these needs even worse - leaving Democrats a huge mess to clean up when our day comes back around.
You are right - too many American voices in pain are not being heard. Thank you for your kind and loving service! 
tulipsandroses
(8,251 posts)coolsandy
(479 posts)
applegrove
(132,216 posts)is affecting Republican voters and their families.
Turbineguy
(40,074 posts)Got it in one. How are these people going to vote to screw themselves if they are all strung out on dope?
applegrove
(132,216 posts)and never vote again in their lives. No hope, no voting.
madokie
(51,076 posts)what your talking about came about soon after Ronnie Raygun and poppy bush were sworn in. I remember it well. Back during the Carter years if you didn't have a damn good connection pot was almost impossible to find around here from thanksgiving until mid summer. cocaine was a none issue as no one ever had any. Then the election of '80 and shortly afterwards you could get any and all drugs on any street corner, pot included. cocaine, crack, heroin, all of it
malaise
(296,107 posts)I have no doubt that this is a crisis but so was that. Private prisons are profitable
mopinko
(73,726 posts)ask ollie north.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)But it hit into white mid-class so that could be why.
unblock
(56,198 posts)Lock up the users!
Gee, wonder why they found that logic so compelling when the users were black and no so compelling when the users are white....
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)same thing. it was ass-backwards then, and it's ass-backwards now.
unblock
(56,198 posts)That's part of it, but there's definitely far less hostility to users now that they're white.
malaise
(296,107 posts)so they could get free labor
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)productive then, it is completely counter productive now.
Skittles
(171,714 posts)I think we all know why
moondust
(21,286 posts)And cheap prison labor!
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)My mom had a meth habit decades before the media ever mentioned the drug, was just plain missing (as in we didn't know if she was alive or dead for years at a stretch, then she'd call from somewhere or breeze back into town) for most of my childhood, never could stay clean for long and died in her 50s when her liver finally gave out.
Every now and then my dad has me look up some old friend of his, all boomers. Very rarely do they turn out to be alive, and he's of an age where that should be close to 50/50.
Nobody gave a shit about a bunch of working class white people dying in California either.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)must be taken OFF the legit stage and made to join the Big 3 you mention!
Unless you think we're really in Afghanistan for "democracy."