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If drugs are so cheap in America why are they associated with so much crime and violence?

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
Joined
Nov 3, 1999
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It seems like drugs like meth in Australia can cost approximately 10 times what they do in the US. However, there is nowhere near the level of property crime and violence connected to drugs in Australia that there is in the US.

This puzzles me. Although there certainly is crime in Australia it seems that Aussies can sustain drug habits in a more easygoing way than Americans can.

Any thoughts on what the difference between the two countries are?
 
Atelier3 said:
It seems like drugs like meth in Australia can cost approximately 10 times what they do in the US. However, there is nowhere near the level of property crime and violence connected to drugs in Australia that there is in the US.

This puzzles me. Although there certainly is crime in Australia it seems that Aussies can sustain drug habits in a more easygoing way than Americans can.

Any thoughts on what the difference between the two countries are?
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Who's to say? Could be the kangaroos and all that other whack shit from down under that y'all got forming an energy barrier to keep you safe to tweak in peace?
 
TheInvisibleStoner said:
Homelessness?

Quick check shows Aussie to have 116,000 homeless.

California alone has 151,278.

The poverty levels in US are much worse.
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Invisible stoner coming in with them kwik maths! Or maybe kiwi maths? Idk southern hemisphere spooky

Don't anyone dare try to verify these statistics

This is Drug Culture. Or Drug Coutoure as they say in France or wherever the fuck.

Leave them numbers and shit to the other BL drug nerds in neuroscience or whatever other subforum we gots goin on round deeezz bluelight waters


Speaking of waters.... whatch yall doing lurking here in muh waters???


I"M OLE GREGGG!!!!


someone get my reference

Or not




I'll show myself out... 😁 :cool:
 
And those numbers are estimated. I would imagine the true numbers are much higher.

Incarceration -

Aussie - 42,855 people imprisoned in Australia

USA - 2.3 million people were incarcerated in the United States

These guys get released to the streets ( a very large portion at least). And its a vicious cycle to survive.

EDIT: Yeah. There is no way to verify. Just some quick numbers found on google. Its all due to the poverty levels. Where homelessness, drugs, and crime all come along with it.
 
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TheInvisibleStoner said:
Homelessness?

Quick check shows Aussie to have 116,000 homeless.

California alone has 151,278. Total US estimated at 553,742

The poverty levels in US are much worse.
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This pretty much

Poverty and desperation are tied to most violent crime and especially drug crime
 
dalpat077 said:
I have a thought (although we've been down a similar road before but that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm wrong on this or have a hidden agenda):

Could it possibly have something to do with the different ethnicity of those involved? Not saying it is. Just a thought (which is what you were looking for).
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Maybe. This question arose today after I watched the Louis Theroux documentary about meth in Fresno, CA. Apparently Fresno is the meth capital of the US. Anyway, I just couldn’t imagine home being able to do something similar in Australia. Meth users are, in the main, fairly low key and engage in non-violent property crimes. Obviously there are sometimes some very newsworthy exceptions to this. I know a tweaker who knocked over a pharmacy with a sawn-off shotgun for example. However, there are not really communities with the whole culture built on crime and drugs.

I figured it might have something to do with Australia’s social safety net. There is free medical treatment, state-run drug and alcohol problems, and cash unemployment benefits that stop people falling into absolute poverty. But the thing that amazed me was that you could basically get enough meth to last a day for the price of a couple of coffees. When it’s that cheap why fund it with crime - unless I suppose you are too unemployable.
 
Yeah, same in canada. There is so much assistance available there you would have to be really off your rocker to be on the streets. Just being addicted to drug you are considered disabled and will get a check. Reduced housing, etc.

There is really nothing here in the states like that. Street addiction will eventually land you into prison (lets not forget that getting caught with even a grain of hard drugs is a felony and punishable by prison, and some amounts are mandatory prison). Come out of prison with nothing more than a bus pass and hopefully a few bucks you saved up in there. Where to go if you don't have family? Right back to the streets.

They aren't even giving assistance with covid. They don't give even the slightest fuck about addicts.

Its pretty much every man for himself here.
 
Atelier3 said:
What’s the rule on mod A deleting mod B’s posts for being whack-job level off topic in mod A’s serious thread?
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I'm sorry buddy, delete any of my doofy posts if you'd like. I have been on one and my feelings will not be hurt. Love you @Atelier3 and I'm sorry for my derailing <3

I truly hope that you're making some sort of progress on your habit, I know it's a struggle, and thank you for keeping it 100% all the time.

I've been reveling in my own stupidity recently and deserve a good smack down so Thank You! Much Love from the States!
 
I don't live there so don't really know the details but my guess is that it has to do with the following things:
-Much bigger and diverse population.
-Counterproductive criminal-justice system (like the fact that jails/prisons are an established industry and usually end up being kinda like crime school, makes worse criminals once they get out)
-Big history of organized crime and gangs.
- N°1 consumer of drugs in the world.
- Income inequality and a history of segregation.

And yeah many of the things you mentioned are probably making the problem worse such as incomplete healthcare, poor quality primary education (in some areas), untreated mental illness, etc...

I guess one would have to look at how it all started. It has been going on for awhile (war on drugs, alcohol prohibition, etc...).

Many drug producing countries have extremely cheap drugs and sky-high crime.
Most people commiting violent crimes are poor. To me that seems like the biggest factor, although poverty is also a symptom.
 
TheInvisibleStoner said:
Homelessness?

Quick check shows Aussie to have 116,000 homeless.

California alone has 151,278. Total US estimated at 553,742

The poverty levels in US are much worse.
Click to expand...

These numbers don't really mean what you're implying. You'd have to look at them as a per unit quantity and not a real number.

The population of Australia is ~25million; the population of California is ~38million. So, you'd expect the number of homeless to be higher, all things being equal.

Actually, given these numbers, quick maths tells us that the rate of homelessness in Australia is 4640/million people vs only 3981/million people in California.

I think it probably has to do with the social saftey net in place in both countries, with Australia's being a lot more conducive to helping people sort themselves out, as has been mentioned.
 
The US has a much lower median income, which is part of it. But also we have a huge amount of gang violence, and the cartels control the street drugs and the cartels are fucking monsters. Mostly it affects central America but it affects the USA, too.

Another thing is that in the US, addiction is treated as a crime. So many people are locked up for drug offenses, and then are molded into career criminals. And we have a subset of people who grow up thinking a life of violent crime in the drug trade is the only way they can survive. Can the same be said of Australia? I wouldn't know, but I'm guessing, no.
 
In addition to what has been said, drugs aren't cheap in America they are just super expensive in Australia. The relationship between drug price and crime probably isn't linear. If drugs were more expensive, it would be harder to get/maintain a habit for example and without the threat of having to withdraw from a big habit, opiate related crime could actually go down.

When I was using heroin, it was anything but cheap. I'd spend anywhere from $lessmoney - $momoney a day, which really adds up. I thought about what things would be like if it were cheaper and it's not as beneficial as it sounds because you end up using more and building a higher tolerance. So for instance a guy doing $shixty worth of heroin a day isn't getting twice as high as a guy doing $turdy worth because he has a higher tolerance. In order to truly be cheap, the price has to drop enough to the point where you can buy as much as you really want or need to maintain your habit. It's not like that in the USA, affording drugs is still a big problem for most addicts.
 
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Might also be our population is more than 10 times your own.... which in itself would mean more crime....
 
Fresno is a smallish town in CA’s Central Valley, an area known best for growing fruits and veggies. Other than growing produce, there really is fuck all to do there. It’s hours from the coast and is generally hot and dusty. The tallest buildings in Fresno would be grain cylinders. I’ve been there twice and my BFF grew up in Fresno.

A large portion of kids turn to drugs and alcohol by high school and the entire Central Valley is notorious for meth. Bakersfield, Modesto and Tulare are other nearby Central Valley towns that are known as hotbeds of meth production, distribution and use. There are lots of old tweekers running around with brain damage and plenty of new ones, too.

Fresno is not typical of the average CA city. It’s kind of a FUBAR place that people drive through to get to Yosemite National Park. I wouldn’t advise staying there much longer than a gas station stop or maybe a lunch break.
 
BellaJewel said:
Fresno is a smallish town in CA’s Central Valley, an area known best for growing fruits and veggies. Other than growing produce, there really is fuck all to do there. It’s hours from the coast and is generally hot and dusty. The tallest buildings in Fresno would be grain cylinders. I’ve been there twice and my BFF grew up in Fresno.

A large portion of kids turn to drugs and alcohol by high school and the entire Central Valley is notorious for meth. Bakersfield, Modesto and Tulare are other nearby Central Valley towns that are known as hotbeds of meth production, distribution and use. There are lots of old tweekers running around with brain damage and plenty of new ones, too.

Fresno is not typical of the average CA city. It’s kind of a FUBAR place that people drive through to get to Yosemite National Park. I wouldn’t advise staying there much longer than a gas station stop or maybe a lunch break.
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The methamphetamine is getting real wild up in deez Appalachian mountains too! Washington DC used to be PCPland + a CRACKhome.... but once you get out of the city.... Them tweakers be freaky leaking + cheeky freaking tweaking. Furries in the hills and all dat.
 
I think Americans are just a ‘feistier’ breed of people by nature really. Guns and all that.
Aussies are too lazy for that crime rubbish, do you know how hard it is to rob someone with a butter knife?

No, seriously. It’s the cash flow issue.
Australians carry their weak and impoverished as best they can. Americans have to mortgage their soul to see a GP 🤷🏻‍♀️
 
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