Grimes also includes an article on the Cocaine Epidemic that ravaged the United States during the 1980’s. The chosen source focuses on the profit that led to the proliferation of the drug. There is no mention of the fact that the War on Drugs led to massive incarceration of a minority population. Additionally, in order to understand this war, you have to analyze the effect it had on different demographics. The predominantly white user group gravitated towards powder cocaine while minorities favored the more potent crack cocaine.…
Unsurprisingly, the number of people addicted increased, and the government began efforts to regulate the sale and use of cocaine and narcotic…
The majority of policies prior to 1970 were related to a more broad approach of controlling the sale and use of illicit drugs, and the policies wavered between many types. The current war on drugs has evolved from a history of prohibition style legislation that was usually targeted towards a specific sector of illegal drug use. Initially, illicit drugs, such as cocaine, were held in high regards for the perceptions of their use as medicinal supplements and treatments (DuPont and Voth, 1995, p. 461). It was only in the early nineteenth century that the public perception began to change to see drug use as detrimental to the health of society, and began to push on the government to control it.…
COCAINE THE BIG PROBLEM This story has been told to me many times by an acquaintance. The person ive known had grown up in Alabama in the projects, it 's a really rough place you wouldn 't want to grow up in. They didn 't have nice things, and the lived in a house filled with bugs so it wasn 't very clean. He had a brother although it was very hard to keep occupied, after high school he had gotten into the wrong group of people and then first tried his first hit of Cocaine.…
The one major difference between the drugs is the high that is produced. In fact it takes under a minute to get that feeling and lasts from 30-60 minutes (American Addiction Centers). Crack cocaine is absorbed through the membranes of an individual’s lungs, then enters through the bloodstream and into the brain within 10-15 seconds (American Addiction Centers). Therefore the risk for overdose is extremely high and could lead to convulsions, coma, and even death. Crack cocaine is much less expensive than it’s powder cocaine and therefore much easier to sell (American Addiction Centers).…
With how controversial plea bargains can be for defendants’ fates, looking at the use of plea bargains in federal crack cocaine sentences is examining two levels of the American criminal system that is unjust for many. It was in 2007 when the U.S. Sentencing Commission, after “lobbying Congress in vain for ten years to remedy the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses” (Kosman 786), successfully added a ‘crack amendment’ to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The amendment attempted to decrease the sentences of some defendants who had been convicted of crack cocaine offenses, and the Sentencing Commission was able to make the policy retroactive, so that they could take another look at those who were sentenced unjustly.…
At the beginning of the documentary entitled “To Kill the Messenger” (2014), President Ronald Reagan publicized that “drug abuse” is the number one public enemy in the United States. The objective of his presidency was policy that would prevent drug trafficking and substance abuse. In October of 1982, Reagan announced the famous “War on Drugs.” He used military terms, such as “battle,” “war,” and “surrender” to describe his campaign to combat drugs (Nunn, 2002). During the campaign, Reagan increased the monetary resources allocated to his anti-drug movement and increased the quantity of drug task.…
It all started back in 1986 when the devil known as Ronald Reagan was president, there was crack everywhere and I’m not talking about on the sidewalk or your plumber’s…
On the other hand if you were found in possession of the cheaper crack which was mostly purchased by the less fortunate you could be charged with a felony and sentenced to long prison terms. Crack cocaine was an epidemic in the poor communities of this country, the fact that the penalty for anyone caught with it was so harsh is no surprise when you look at who was being arrested and the amount of arrest being…
Throughout world history, societies have used drugs, such as ayahuasca, opium, and marijuana, for spiritual and medicinal purposes. Even in our own country during the, heroin was prescribed to treat respiratory illness and cocaine was consumed recreationally via Coca-Cola products. In relatively recent years, however, the American government enacted numerous policies targeting the sale, possession, and use of specific drugs. In 1915, The Harrison Narcotics act enforced a policy with restrictions on manufacturing and selling marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine for the first time. After the creation of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics under the Hoover administration, drugs were increasingly criminalized through the enactment of The Boggs…
According to,(), the U.S. government saw crack cocaine being used mainly by lower class African Americans and they used their power to punish them although crack cocaine is the same as powder cocaine just in rock form. The punishment for crack cocaine became 100-1 in regards to the sentence for powder. They government also made a mandatory sentence for crack users which caused the incarceration rates to skyrocket. Multiple judges did not agree with these mandatory sentences as they felt they were sending low level offenders away for years although they did not deserve it. The ratio of crack to powder is 18 to 1 today which shows us that the U.S. still will not accept them as equals mainly because that powder cocaine is more used by whites while crack still is more popular with African-Americans.…
In 1986 and 1988, two federal sentencing laws were enacted that made the punishment for distributing crack cocaine 100 times greater than the…
The lesson the country had formerly learned about the use of cocaine was unfamiliar to the generation of young Americans emerging during the sixties and seventies. A new way of life was being sought after where some saw illegal drug use as a right they should be entitled to. Cocaine, as well as other drugs, was…
However, “this wasn’t, in actuality, a war on drugs,” it was a war on black people (74). Crack hit the streets rather suddenly. It was cheaper and easier to use than cocaine and happened to be “one of the most addictive drugs in the world” (71, 72). The irony, however, is that President Reagan and the CIA were behind the explosion of crack in America. It was all a big cover-up being used to pay for America’s role in the Contra War in Nicaragua (72, 73).…
In the article named, “Crack in the Rearview Mirror” Reinarman discuss how crack myth effected the population. There is belief that crack is different, but crack and cocaine has the same chemical compound.…