After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'

Re:After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doin... by whydoineedthis on Thursday June 17, 2021 @02:41PM (#27542973)

People say it failed without recognizing how bad the crack epidemic was, and is currently only a shadow of what it could be had it been left unchecked.

Yes, there are still drug problems - but not to the common extent you saw in the 80's.

I think the issue is that people hear the word "war" and think that only the cops and military are the sole soldiers. There is only so much they can be expected to capture without some massive invasion of citizen rights.

The truth is that more must be done by the communities themselves. Whether you call it a "war", or by any other name, you will need more than just cops and TLA's to solve the problem.

And yes, we should spend more on education as part of all of these efforts. The concerned citizens of this country have been asking for that balance to change for a large number of reasons. Unfortunately the status quo remains.

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Re:After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doin... by tmountain on Thursday June 17, 2021 @03:05PM (#27543254)

Drug epidemics follow a natural ebb and flow and tend to be generational. As younger family members take note of the effect that life ruining drugs like crack have on elder members of their families, they have a much lower propensity to experiment with those drugs. As communities collectively recognize the impact of drugs like crack, social outreach and grassroots efforts to educate and improve the situation are much more effective than the fear of whatever legal repercussions might come from outside. Crack literally "ran its course" and that's why the epidemic stopped.

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/19/us/crack-s-legacy-a-speci...

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Re:After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doin... by tetranomiga on Thursday June 17, 2021 @03:08PM (#27543292)

I can't believe you're unironically using the crack epidemic (that ravaged poor minority communities and was caused by the US government) to justify the War on Drugs (that ravaged poor minority communities and was caused by the US government). The REAL SOLUTION is boosting the lower classes and making life better for everybody, but that's too expensive to try, so wasting trillions and ruining minority and poor lives is better. /s

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Re:After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doin... by pmoriarty on Thursday June 17, 2021 @04:44PM (#27544363)

"People say it failed without recognizing how bad the crack epidemic was, and is currently only a shadow of what it could be had it been left unchecked."

How exactly was it checked?

It's never been hard to buy crack if you wanted it, and for every dealer busted 2 more would move in to take their place.

I've yet to see evidence that the drug war did anything except for ruining a whole lot of lives and make some people very rich.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doin... by whydoineedthis on Thursday June 24, 2021 @06:24PM (#27624653)

Yes, but it also wasn't hard to buy crack even if you didn't want it - hence the problem, and the fact it has had positive impact.

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Re:After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doin... by LorenPechtel on Thursday June 17, 2021 @02:50PM (#27543085)

Note that crack itself was a result of the drug war. Crack is a way to get more use out of a given amount of cocaine.

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Re:After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doin... by pseingatl on Thursday June 17, 2021 @03:33PM (#27543619)

It's also due to the fact that at least for a while, the DEA made ether unavailable. So the drug labs turned to benzene as a substitute. The problem is benzene is gasoline and no one is putting powder that smells like gasoline up their nose. The solution? Cook crack. The smell disappears when you boil the powder with baking soda. Had it not been for the DEA, crack never would have been an option.

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