It’s part of what I find so frustrating with the American discourse on drugs. We talk about the drug trade in the United States as if innocent victims in America are being poisoned against their will by foreign bad actors.
In reality American consumers have pumped so much drug money into their neighboring countries that the cartels are a threat their governments.
The cartels and the dealers are very bad guys, but the consumer’s hands are not clean.
having grown up in an area ravaged by the drug trade i’d say you’re on the right track but missing the mark a little. the drug trade is fueled by people who are absolutely desperate for any relief from the ravages of the reality we live in, and frequently who starts people on a drug course is a doctor prescribing opioids in a high risk case.
what i think most americans miss is that the drug trade’s perpetrators are not foreign cartels, but domestic tax evaders and billionaires. the republicans are sicking ice on immigrants and using fentanyl as their justification, but the opioids are grown here in america largely along the appalachian spine. the flow of drugs is less into the us than people estimate and has more to do with exports than imports than most realize.
if the republicans REALLY wanted to cut down the drug trade, here’s what they’d do:
fund programs that economically elevate poor americans and prevent people from being totally desperate and destitute like SNAP, WIC, and housing vouchers
invest heavily in early education
combat organized crime outfits by utilizing the tools that are best at stripping them of power: utilizing anti-hate laws to help minorities feel safe, celebrating multiculturalism, creating multiuse public spaces that are free to use like parks, rec centers, and playgrounds
but of course conservatives won’t do any of that because if they did they wouldn’t be conservatives. they profit from all these broken systems being broken, so they keep them broken.
It’s part of what I find so frustrating with the American discourse on drugs. We talk about the drug trade in the United States as if innocent victims in America are being poisoned against their will by foreign bad actors.
In reality American consumers have pumped so much drug money into their neighboring countries that the cartels are a threat their governments.
The cartels and the dealers are very bad guys, but the consumer’s hands are not clean.
having grown up in an area ravaged by the drug trade i’d say you’re on the right track but missing the mark a little. the drug trade is fueled by people who are absolutely desperate for any relief from the ravages of the reality we live in, and frequently who starts people on a drug course is a doctor prescribing opioids in a high risk case.
what i think most americans miss is that the drug trade’s perpetrators are not foreign cartels, but domestic tax evaders and billionaires. the republicans are sicking ice on immigrants and using fentanyl as their justification, but the opioids are grown here in america largely along the appalachian spine. the flow of drugs is less into the us than people estimate and has more to do with exports than imports than most realize.
if the republicans REALLY wanted to cut down the drug trade, here’s what they’d do:
but of course conservatives won’t do any of that because if they did they wouldn’t be conservatives. they profit from all these broken systems being broken, so they keep them broken.