Smack, Crackle, Pot: This Is Your Brain On Dope!

Apparently, the war on drugs in NYC, or lack thereof, is the sexy story of the season. This is how we will close October. That and all the lives lost in the recent bombings in Iraq. Getting Deja vu?

What struck me the most about all the articles about drugs in NYC papers was the failure of any of these reporters to mention the war in Afghanistan, one of the largest producers of poppy, the source of heroin. Of course according to one speaker at a Department of Justice event, most of the smack is not coming from Central Asia, but from Latin America. Seeing as the gang folks south of the border have reinstated the mass use of the guillotine to protect their turf, this isn’t a far off option. Guess that means all those family vacations to Mexico are off the table for a bit. Still, it seems convenient to dismiss the war in the extremist Islamic nation as completely unrelated to the “war on drugs.”

But back to the matter at hand. The New York City media has gone coo coo for coca puffs. Literally. The NY Observer wrote a piece on crack pipes and yellow rocks and how to get pipes at your local bodega;  the NY Press wrote about scoring bags of Nike, the hot new skag strain, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; and The New York Times and Newsday earlier covered Long Island teens on the smack. Finally, Crain’s New York wrote an interesting piece on “dope” and how hedgies are benefiting from prison overflow by investing in private prison management companies. One might make the assumption that free trade and wars have somehow enabled the flow of drug smuggling and rather than focus solely on closing the borders because of illiegals hopping the border thanks to their greedy coyotes, monitoring the border might also help control drug trafficking.

Take the hedgie story. Coming off the heels of the hedge fund insider trading scandal involving Galleon, Crain’s revealed that Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman suggested to a room of investors that one way to profit from the increasing number of white collar criminals is to buy some shares of private prison operators, such as Corrections Corp. of America (CCA). CCA’s board includes a number of middle-aged professionals with what appear to be quite impressive resumes, including Thurgood Marshall, Jr.

Now, while most these articles mourn the addiction of young teenagers, there is an undertone that the media and its audience are shocked to learn that supposedly sheltered suburban children have fallen victim to drugs. Of course of all this surfaces as a friend of mine, a social worker for a city organization, discovers that a client she’s been working with for a few years, after getting busted for robbery, is in fact also a crack dealer and a crip. After getting rehab instead of jail, he is in school and getting good grades, will likely go to college thanks to her help. But, he is apparently still selling and still a crip. And how will a student face loans and the shit pay they face upon graduation? Will he take the long hard road and join Generation Debt, or sell a few rocks and pay the registar in cold hard green. Cash that is?

There seems to be less sympathy for the city kids than the suburban ones. This is the vibe I sense: the urban dwellers, that’s one thing, but the nice suburban kids, well that’s one less kid paying full price for a private college. Those dollars already went to pay for rehab and mommy and daddy’s retirement took a big hit in 2008.

So, what is the government doing about this? I don’t expect we’d hear the real deal, but I was shocked to see a few things. I am in support of the legalization of marijuana because I do not think it is necessarily a gateway drug. Keep in mind this is a personal opinion and no more. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice put out a press release saying that in states that legalized marijuana for medical use, it will not go after smokers with serious illnesses, but it will pursue those that are not in compliance with laws and are attempting to sell or traffic the substance.

This was no big surprise. But, the discovery of the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009 was. I’m not making this up. Here’s the summary for bill H.R. 1459:

Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009- Amends the Controlled Substances Act and the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act to eliminate: (1) increased and mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses involving mixtures or substances which contain cocaine base (i.e., crack cocaine); and (2) restrictions on judicial authority to grant probation or suspended sentences for certain cocaine offenses.

Let the small guys go and pursue the kingpins. That’s my take on the bill. But out of curiosity I searched the Library of Congress and saw a number of bills about crack and cocaine. Take a look.

Here’s info from a few:

H.R.18
Title: To amend the Controlled Substances Act and the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act with respect to penalties for powder cocaine and crack cocaine offenses.
Sponsor: Rep Bartlett, Roscoe G. [MD-6] (introduced 1/6/2009)      Cosponsors (1)
Latest Major Action: 5/21/2009 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Subcommittee Hearings Held.

H.R.265
Title: To target cocaine kingpins and address sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.
Sponsor: Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] (introduced 1/7/2009)      Cosponsors (52)
Latest Major Action: 2/9/2009 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

H.R.1459
Title: To amend the Controlled Substances Act and the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act regarding penalties for cocaine offenses, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Scott, Robert C. “Bobby” [VA-3] (introduced 3/12/2009)      Cosponsors (18)
Related Bills: H.R.3245
Latest Major Action: 5/21/2009 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Subcommittee Hearings Held.

Then I searched for heroin. Both bills make sense but why would one group marijuana with heroin or meth??

H.R.2469 : To amend the Controlled Substances Act to enhance criminal penalties for drug trafficking offenses relating to distribution of heroin, marihuana, and methamphetamine and distribution to and use of children, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Poe, Ted [TX-2] (introduced 5/18/2009)      Cosponsors (7)
Committees: House Judiciary; House Energy and Commerce
Latest Major Action: 6/12/2009 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

S.132 : A bill to increase and enhance law enforcement resources committed to investigation and prosecution of violent gangs, to deter and punish violent gang crime, to protect law-abiding citizens and communities from violent criminals, to revise and enhance criminal penalties for violent crimes, to expand and improve gang prevention programs, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Feinstein, Dianne [CA] (introduced 1/6/2009)      Cosponsors (13)
Committees: Senate Judiciary
Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Think what you will but at the end of the day, a child’s wellness and mental health is up to both science and environment. Parents need to discipline and love their kids, and children need to be given direction because they ARE children. The youth of today, with their iPods at 8 and their cell phones at 10, are spoiled because technological advances have driven the prices of once-luxury goods down and parents are exhausted from working inside and outside the home. If ever there were a time for community parenting, now is it. It takes a village and if you want your kids to go to college not rehab, you better get to organizng.