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Why is crack such a predominantly "black" drug?

EveryStar

EveryStar

Bluelighter
Joined
May 23, 2007
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I'm not just discussing the fact that its user demographic is almost uniformly low-income, but rather the fact that it seems race-specific, almost race-restricted, more than any other drug. Even meth, which is clearly a predominantly white, low-income drug, as far as demographics go, it seems to be the white equivalent to crack. But crack, really, apart from a small handful of people I personally know, every crackhead I've ever met has been black, I've met maybe twice a Mexican crackhead.

It's not just using either, but selling. I've never met, and can't even imagine a white dude slanging rocks. And if I did, it'd probably be a low-rank middleman who got it from a black guy anyway. Please, don't think I'm being racist or anything of the sort here, I'm merely just curious as to what, specifically, draws black people to crack more than any other race. I rarely see white bums who are crackheads (crackheads being real easy to recognize, quite honestly), and yet there are plenty of low-income whites/hispanics/Asians, but it's mostly only black people who use. Not just the low-income ones, either, I've seen a few Intervention episodes about world-class athletes (boxers, basketball players and such) who hit rock bottom after getting addicted to crack, even though they were famous and wealthy, so it's not just something to do with it being a cheap, highly addictive drug, I mean they got addicted to rocks, not powder, which is far more expensive and more of a "rich" drug.
Among the lower-income population, most of the acquaintances and friends I've made that live in the slums use either crack or heroin, but heroin is used by everyone, Asian, white or black it doesn't matter. Crack I only see blacks use. Even the fiercest junkies I know will defend dope to death when comparing it to crack, and how much better and cleaner dope is and how nasty and "poor" crack is in comparison.

Is there any science to it? Kind of like how Native Americans have that gene, or enzyme or something along those lines that makes them predisposed to alcoholism. What are your thoughts on the matter? Experiences?

Any responses are much appreciated.
 
Crack is twice as expensive by weight compared to powder. If anything, hard is the rich mans drug. Have you ever smoked? It's not like powder where you can blow a "fat" line every 20min and be cool. You can use $5 rocks as fast as you can smoke them :) So pretty much, people who smoke crack smoke as much as they can afford daily. On top of that, I've met more WHITE crackheads. Mostly down in rural areas though.
 
In canada there is no racial divide amoung powder and rock users so it's pretty much down to what is your preferance. Alot of people rock up at home as well when they get sick of snorting lines and arent quite ready to break out the syringes. Im white and id rather rock anyday so meh.
 
There's no racial divides for any drug in my country, New Zealand.
 
I live in the Washington DC / Baltimore area and I disagree wholeheartedly with the title of this thread.

Black or White they all use...
 
Crack aint a predominantly black drug at all. Are you really that blind? Where do you get your information from? Your imagination?

Seriously, I aint tryna be a dick to you but its hard to hide my disgust that somebody could be so ignorant.

THERE ARE MORE WHITE USERS OF ANY DRUGS , PERIOD, IN AMERICA THAN ANY OTHER RACES. MORE WHITES COMMIT DRUG RELATED OFFENSES, MORE WHITES ARE IN JAIL FOR DRUG USE, MORE WHITES ARE IN TREATMENT PROGRAMS.....There is NO DISTINCTION of drugs by race. drug addiction effects ALL RACES, CLASSES, and groups EQUALLY.....It dont care if you black or white or poor or rich. Your kind of thinking is a biased and ignorant viewpoint thats stuck in the past, you obviously aint doin much research to find out about your theory here.

If you really cared about findin the answer, you would research drug addiction statistics and find out that you wrong, instead of comin on here and askin a bunch more people about their biased opinions to back up yours. Its like instead of lookin for real answers and facts, You want a bunch more foolish-asses to just repeat your point of view like 'yea, i know, why does all those black folks smoke so much crack? Silly black ppl!" 8(

I have seen drug addicts and sellers of every drug, in every race. You obviously a very sheltered person and really need to see more of the world. To assume something that AINT TRUE AT ALL, is true, based on the race of the person and your personal perception of it, guess wat...that IS racist. You puttin people into boxes based on race, becuz of how you "Think" of it, how YOU see it, and how you see it aint even reality. How you gonna say crack is such a black drug when it aint even. I known just as many white crackheads as black.

There aint no "science" to it--where do you live at? How much of that place have you really seen? Do you jus livin in opposite world or somethin? Or , more likely--YOUR PRE CONCEIVED NOTIONS ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE , IS AFFECTING THE WAY YOU SEE THEM AND DISTORTING YOUR VIEW OF HOW MANY OF THEM ACTUALLY IS ADDICTS.

If you can look at a situation , and see it as totally opposite of how it is, and not even be able to realize that you are seeing it wrong, thats some nice subtle bias right there. If you can look at a wide amount of races that use and abuse drugs, and see that somehow black folks use more crack, when the reality staring you in the face is not that at all....Then you are using your ideas about people--Prejudices--to support your racist views, and you dont even realize that you bein racist. You really believe that , "thats just how it is, just tellin it like it is." But you aint--you tellin it like YOU see it, and how you see it aint matchin up with reality. THAT right there is racism. you aint gotta be burning crosses on ppl lawns to be a racist yo. The subtle not-even-aware-he-is-a-racist is one of the worst kind of all.

Anyways, this is prolly why u see shit how you do: Crack is seen as a "ghetto" drug, and like most of the popular abused drugs in the US like heroin, they come from the ghettos where they sold to the WHITE USERS who come in from the suburbs to cop it.

Why do you think that you seen mostly black dealers?

Maybe cuz the hood is usually a majority populated by black folks??

Do you really think that this is a RACE issue, that got something to do with the genetics of the black race, or a SOCIAL/CLASS ISSUE that effects people of that class equally but a large population of that class happens to be black.

For the dealers that applies but for the users, you just way fuckin off yo. I dont know how you can say that crack is a black drug it is soooo equally abused, If anything, black folks seen the shit it done to their communities in the 80s and they fear that shit. They aint about to be walkin around known on the block as a fuckin feen. No respect for feens. They are a joke in the hood. nothing but a pathetic ol shell for the dealers to get their paper off. You will find lots of black ppl very against crack becuz of all this and they know FIRST HAND how it can destroy their community and families, when these white kids just see shit on DARE and be like hey, Ima try that, next thing you know they on that shit on the daily runnin down to newark twice a day to cop their shit.

I dont know where the fuck u live yo, but it sounds liek u need to get away from there and see how the rest of the world operates, becuz u looking at shit from a very limited perspective and it aint nothing like the reality.

And that there is a perfect sign of racism.

When you aint aware of the fact that "the way things are" really AINT how shit is at all--Its just how YOU see it. When you aint able to seperate how YOU see things from how shit IS, that is a real easy way to start gettin some real bias ideas in your head.

I dont know how somebody can ask the question u did in the face of so much evidence that says the opposite of that is true. But its prolly becuz of the standard idea of "black crack addict/homeless bum" on the street in the ghetto--its easy for white people to imagine a crack feen as black. And if your first idea when you hear the words crackhead, is of a black dude in the hood, thats a good sign that you just might be a little more racist than you thought, becuz the majority of crack smokers aint black at all.

Ima leave this for now, but if any of yall get some stupid ass ideas in yall heads that its funny to say racist type of shit, you gonna get infracted and the thread will just end up shut down, exactly like the last therad that asked this question in like 2005 that was called "smack white crack black" or some shit like that, and pretty much asked the same question, so yall better be on your church behavior, real talk.
 
^^ Yeah but NZ and the UK are much different places then the usa. I hear what the OP is saying... I always say its like this Black do Crack Whites do H. thats the way it seems around here
 
good post lacey.

i knew plenty of white crackheads, course i lived in maine which is one of the whitests states in the country.

your post is foolish
 
it's something you heard a lot about when they were talking about the difference between sentences for crack vs. powder possession. a lot of the activists said that the sentencing disparity was racist because of the racial disparity between users of the different forms of cocaine (and, although it seems white people actually use at a slightly higher rate, 80% of people arrested for crack are african american).

so while it may not actually be true, it's an idea that's often brought up in more legitimate contexts than just talking shit about the ghetto.
 
lacey k said:
Crack aint a predominantly black drug at all. Are you really that blind? Where do you get your information from? Your imagination?

Seriously, I aint tryna be a dick to you but its hard to hide my disgust that somebody could be so ignorant.

THERE ARE MORE WHITE USERS OF ANY DRUGS , PERIOD, IN AMERICA THAN ANY OTHER RACES. MORE WHITES COMMIT DRUG RELATED OFFENSES, MORE WHITES ARE IN JAIL FOR DRUG USE, MORE WHITES ARE IN TREATMENT PROGRAMS.....There is NO DISTINCTION of drugs by race. drug addiction effects ALL RACES, CLASSES, and groups EQUALLY.....It dont care if you black or white or poor or rich. Your kind of thinking is a biased and ignorant viewpoint thats stuck in the past, you obviously aint doin much research to find out about your theory here.
Click to expand...

Just curious - so all those who said the stricter crack penalties were racist and a result of racist ideas were ignorant and blind too? Again, just curious.
 
When I was in an inpatient rehab in upstate NY I was one of 6 white people. 3 of us were junkies, 1 pillhead, 1 meth user, and 1 alcoholic. This was out of 100 people. Most of the people were black, and there were about 15 spanish. The spanish seemed to preference heroin, and the blacks were mostly there for crack.

This was in 2007, and in upstate NY (although most of the people were from NYC).
Just sharing my experience.
 
I'm thinking it varies by area. From what I know of The Hill District, it's a ghetto that's almost 100% black, and that what gets pushed around that area is mostly heroin and either crack or cocaine. When I went to donate plasma, what I saw was a few crackheads, small-time drug users like myself, and people who looked to be around college age. What's interesting about the place is that they paid people in cash - it's like they know most of the people who go there are doing it for drug money and they cater to it.
 
double ewe said:
it's something you heard a lot about when they were talking about the difference between sentences for crack vs. powder possession. a lot of the activists said that the sentencing disparity was racist because of the racial disparity between users of the different forms of cocaine (and, although it seems white people actually use at a slightly higher rate, 80% of people arrested for crack are african american).

so while it may not actually be true, it's an idea that's often brought up in more legitimate contexts than just talking shit about the ghetto.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's the way they're portrayed. Drugs are typically used by all races at the same rate. But, if you're black, or a different minority, you're much more likely to come in contact with the legal system. Also, you're less likely to enter any type of rehab.

Plus, you have the way crackheads are portrayed by the media. If there's a crackhead in a movie, they're probably black. If crack is ever mentioned by a musician, it's probably mentioned by a rapper, who's most likely black.

So, just taking those two into account gives you an idea why the stereotype exists.
 
drug addiction effects ALL RACES, CLASSES, and groups EQUALLY
Click to expand...

( 2008 ) "Current illicit drug use among persons aged 12 or older varied by race/ethnicity in 2008, with the lowest rate among Asians (3.6 percent) (Figure 2.9). Rates were 14.7 percent for persons reporting two or more races, 10.1 percent for blacks, 9.5 percent for American Indians or Alaska Natives, 8.2 percent for whites, 7.3 percent of Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders, and 6.2 percent for Hispanics."

Source:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2009). Results from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings (Office of Applied Studies, NSDUH Series H-36, HHS Publication No. SMA 09-4434). Rockville, MD, p. 25.

MORE WHITES ARE IN JAIL FOR DRUG USE
Click to expand...

(1999) "Our research shows that blacks comprise 62.7 percent and whites 36.7 percent of all drug offenders admitted to state prison, even though federal surveys and other data detailed in this report show clearly that this racial disparity bears scant relation to racial differences in drug offending. There are, for example, five times more white drug users than black. Relative to population, black men are admitted to state prison on drug charges at a rate that is 13.4 times greater than that of white men. In large part because of the extraordinary racial disparities in incarceration for drug offenses, blacks are incarcerated for all offenses at 8.2 times the rate of whites. One in every 20 black men over the age of 18 in the United States is in state or federal prison, compared to one in 180 white men."

Source:
Human Rights Watch, "Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs" (Washington, DC: Human Rights Watch
 
My friend knew a white crackhead who lost a $600k a year job to the addiction. At his worst, he ended up spending $10k a month on the crap. He started out using coke and moved on to crack one night when he couldn't find any coke.

I used to know a LOT of white tweakers but I've never met a black crackhead. I think that's just a stereotype.
 
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