Drugs, Baltimore’s Blues

For more than two decades, Baltimore has had an entrenched subculture of heroin addiction.
Two-thirds of Baltimore residents with addictions are injection drug users.

According to a July 2000 assessment by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Baltimore is the “most heroin-plagued area” in the nation and faces one of the most severe crack problems as well.

Crack cocaine’s arrival in the early 1990s compounded the city’s longstanding problems with heroin; crack drew a younger crowd of users and dealers, and violent crime associated with drug sales escalated. Many heroin addicts also began using crack.

In 2008, things still have not changed, and are they ever going to is the real question? For any one who has ever visited the city of Baltimore, you’ve seen them. The number of junkies that stroll down city streets, looking for their next joy ride. Their eyes are cold and intentions unknown.

Can we take these people back, clean them up and make them regular tax paying citizens? Sure we can, but they need ALOT of help that their not getting. Most of the clinics in Baltimore, will supply an addict with a small dosage of the drug that he or she is addicted to. This is an attempt to slowly wing them off of the controlled substance.

I say, lets take it back to, “Pookie,” like in New Jack City (Great movie by the way), where addicts are forced to go “cold turkey,” and go through a series of withdrawal symptoms. I guess you can call this tough love. Well, call it what you want, but Black people have to start caring about one another.

Message from Ms. Morgan: “To my Black people who are well educated and are reading this blog, who have positions of power, who love to teach, who are disgusted by the poverty of inner city communities, who are not selfish, and who do not basque in their own success – work for your people. As the Talented Tenth we have a responsibility to serve, and uplift those who just don’t know any better. Know where you come from and give back. Even if you are privileged, and have never been without, research the struggle and embrace it- we are the ones we’ve been waiting for!”