Does buying drugs in the hood contribute to gang violence, poverty, etc..?

[muvolution]

I've lived in the hood and as several people have said, very few of these excuses actually work. When I lived there, I looked like it, I mean, I'm white, but I was grimey, dreaded, and riding a bike, not driving a car with shit goodwill clothes and dumpstered food and I STILL got hassled by cops. Also, I hadn't changed my driver's license, so I had to carry around a copy of my lease to show residency. Fucking sucked.
That said: if you gotta drive to the hood to cop and you happen to ride a bike also, take it (hopefully you have a shitty bike) park your car at a park on the border of said neighborhood, then ride to your dealers house. There is no "you had a taillight out" or "you were speeding" crap to deal with and thus you are much less likely to encounter an LEO.

That said, if you and 40 of your closest friends frequent one house or area, it's going to be HOT, and you really won't have any good reason if you are seen coming out of there. I always carried bike tools with me, and I got asked about a particular person one time about 2-3 blocks after leaving and I was just like, yeah dude and I hang out, i was there to fix his bike, produce said bike tools, and free to go - but never thought about going back.

Anyone buying drugs in the hood should consider that your actions directly contribute to the vicious circle of poverty, gang activity, crime, and violence that defines "the hood."
You are all on a HARM REDUCTION site, so think about the harm you are causing.

I don't want to come off as preachy, but just think about it a bit. I'm so happy to be back living outside the city. I haven't heard sirens in I don't know how long. No more gunshots at night. No more broken glass and old toys littering the street.

Man, fuck the hood. You couldn't give me a key of H to move back there.

I moved these posts into their own thread since it is an interesting topic, and was derailing the other thread. -Tommyboy

 

[The Rock Monster]

I haven't heard sirens in I don't know how long.

shit..i hear em everyday

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Anyone buying drugs in the hood should consider that your actions directly contribute to the vicious circle of poverty, gang activity, crime, and violence that defines "the hood."
You are all on a HARM REDUCTION site, so think about the harm you are causing.

I don't want to come off as preachy, but just think about it a bit. I'm so happy to be back living outside the city. I haven't heard sirens in I don't know how long. No more gunshots at night. No more broken glass and old toys littering the street.

Man, fuck the hood. You couldn't give me a key of H to move back there.

I used to have my heroin dealer come to my apartment, that is... until he was pulled over and illegally searched.

He didn't go to jail, but of course, he didn't get his drugs back, so he had to start selling in the hood.

I think it's unfair to tell people copping in the hood they're part of the problem. Unless they are ripping off dealers, or are killing people/robbing/etc themselves, it's unfair to tell people that.

i always let em search the car.

Why? Not only do you not have to, it can only hurt you let him search the car.

The cop will take at least 45 minutes if not a solid hour searching your car man, do you really have that much of your time to waste?

 

[PoOkIeHeAd]

I think it's unfair to tell people copping in the hood they're part of the problem. Unless they are ripping off dealers, or are killing people/robbing/etc themselves, it's unfair to tell people that.

I think you are off on this one. Without customers dope dealers would not last long. Anybody that cops drugs period has blood on their hands given as said above the vicious cycle you are REINFORCING. Also think about the violence happening in Mexico right now. They are mostly fighting over control of the US drug market. Without said market they will quickly ask themselves what are they fighting for. Drug users play a part in all of this because without them there is no money to fight over.

 

[verso]

Anyone buying drugs in the hood should consider that your actions directly contribute to the vicious circle of poverty, gang activity, crime, and violence that defines "the hood."
You are all on a HARM REDUCTION site, so think about the harm you are causing.

I don't want to come off as preachy...

I understand what you're saying, and to some degree I agree with you, even, but at the same time all of those aforementioned elements -- poverty, crime, violence -- they exist almost inherently in nearly every facet of what we do from dope in the hood to pharmaceuticals in the suburbs.

I mean, consider this, I never had to buy any of my pharmaceuticals in the hood. I would simply drive down the street and pick them up from my very professional, hard-working and close family friend; but he got those pills from a woman who would sell her scripts to buy crack, and it was a recurring theme I found with every new pill connect. If I followed the pills back far enough, my buying them in some way contributed to another individual's poverty or violence or whatever. It's a difficult thing to avoid, not impossible, but very, very difficult, and it sucks, but it's something that I think we come to accept if we're going to continue doing what we do.

 

[muvolution]

This is an interesting topic, hopefully more people will weigh in on it.

From Afterthought on a Disposition (suffix to Naked Lunch),

IF you wish to alter or annihilate a pyramid of numbers in a serial relation, you alter or remove the bottom number. If we wish to annihilate the Junk Pyramid, we must start with the bottom of the pyramid: The Addict in the Street, and stop tilting quixotically for the "higher ups" so called, all of whom are immediately replaceable. The addict in the street who must have drugs to live is the on irreplaceable factor in the junk equation. When there are no more addicts to buy junk there will be no junk traffic. As long as junk-need exists, someone will service it.

amazing how nothing has changed in 50 years, since that was first published.

Some may say that nothing can be done about this problem (crime, poverty, gang activity, violence caused by drugs) but I think that as soon as people start standing up to authorities and demanding an end to the violence, waste of money, and broken lives that the "War on Drugs" causes, the logical solution will come, which is something akin to the Swiss system of Harm Reduction through diamorphine and cocaine prescriptions. More on the Swiss system here (thanks jspun)

 

[muvolution]

to expand on what pookie said, at one time, if you bought marijuana at all, you were certainly contributing to gang violence, murders, etc... Now (in many states) you can buy your weed from a dispensary and know that your money is going to taxes, hard working small-business owners, growers, etc, and staying in your community instead of being diverted to fund crime. Now imagine that all drugs in every state were treated like that.

 

[Folley]

Most marijuana is not grown by "criminals" its mostly grown by people who spend most of their lives perfecting the art of growing. Shitty weed on the other hand is usually grown by people trying to make a quick buck. I see where your going with that, but marijuana is a bad example of a drug that causes criminal behavior

 

[Folley]

Right, I understand, all drugs will lead to criminal behavior and if you trace it back far enough your bound to be helping some cartel somewhere, but weed is a lot different now a days, at least for me here in Washington. Any weed thats is any good is usually grown by someone who has been doing it for a long time, and thats their job. They sit at home growing weed all day, paying their rent with the money they make from their harvest. Sure there is still a lot of weed grown by gangbangers and cartels and such, but its usually grown fast, and without attention to quality.

Ive gotten weed picked straight off the plant before, like it was straight wet. Dripping almost, I would never get that from someone who is serious about selling weed

 

[muvolution]

you are re-inforcing my point. Weed is alot different nowadays.

 

[Folley]

you are re-inforcing my point. Weed is alot different nowadays.

That I am sir, Im more adding information for the sake of information than anything else

 

[Pegasus]

Not buying drugs because of the harm caused to society is like not eating meat because you don't like that animals are killed to supply the country's food. Maybe it makes you feel good about yourself, but you're not making any appreciable impact on the problem. With drugs though, there aren't even real alternatives that you can use. Vegetarians have vegetables... What do drug users have?

 

[Folley]

There is booze and cigarettes, but those are for people who are easily amused

it probably really depends on who you buy it from, If you get it from a guy on the corner in the projects, yeah its probably going to a gang

but the ex-hippie trying to pay rent by selling pills and shit is much different obviously

 

[cj]

I look at it the opposite way me buying drugs in the hood is bringing money into that community. I give my dealer money he spends it in the community buying things which helps jobs come there and all that. Truth is if my dealer wasnt selling he would most likely be unemployed which wouldnt help anyone.

 

[Attack Fader]

Well if they legalized and start letting people shoot up at designated clean safe places (much like bars are with alcohol) then business owners would be getting money from it and not people in da hood people will do drugs no matter where they have to get it from. If it is as easy to get as buying alcohol people won't deal with thugs anymore

 

[psychomimetic]

The only drug I use frequently is weed and I smoke almost nothing but schwag which all comes from Mexico, i.e. cartels made up of horrible violent criminals. I don't buy from the hood because I don't like to interact with dealers in the hood, and I can't afford better weed usually so I can't buy weed grown in the US. But I do buy schwag.

So in a theoretical sense, does my money go to those people? I guess is does, in a small way. But I don't think it contributes to the violence. They would continue being violent regardless of what I do. I think the Burroughs quote above was best, as long as people want drugs someone is going to sell drugs. I think that the blame falls more directly on the government that makes the drug trade illegal, thus forcing the money from drug sales into the hands of criminal organizations (although most dealers aren't violent or crazy people).

I don't see how the drug sales would contribute to poverty though.

 

[verso]

This is such a good thread, and I think that you've hit the nail on the head right here:

Some may say that nothing can be done about this problem (crime, poverty, gang activity, violence caused by drugs) but I think that as soon as people start standing up to authorities and demanding an end to the violence, waste of money, and broken lives that the "War on Drugs" causes, the logical solution will come, which is something akin to the Swiss system of Harm Reduction through diamorphine and cocaine prescriptions. More on the Swiss system here (thanks jspun)