Where is the outrage and "war on drugs" mentality re: crystal meth???

[jeffrey_X]

Where is the "war on drugs" outrage/mentallity with crystal meth and the rural (white) landscape as there was with crack and the inner city?

Seems to me like these are very similar problems/issues, no? Why is crystal method not being scrutinized in the same manner as crack?

Is it becaues there are two different populations being effected?

If crystal meth was being abused by minorities in the inner city would there be a bigger call for action or would it be declared a bigger problem?

I don't know the answers, but it seems to me this is just another chapter in American Hypocrisy.

Would love to know if anyone else feels the same way.

[Fovea]

1. Japan, 1940s

How can you not love a drug that makes people work harder, longer?

And then, after a few years, it kills them.

Win-win for the ownership society.

[BlakeB]

2. Well I think there is a pretty big...

outrage over crystal meth, but you're right that it isn't really comparable to the crack problem in the inner city. The only real reason I can think for that to be is the reasons you stated. Although they may not be the only reasons. What gets me is how the outrage seems to be focused on Marijuana. A drug that, in a lot of ways, is safer than cigarettes and less impairing that alcohol. But that's American Hypocrisy for you.

[ugarte]

3. No minorities or evil foreigners to blame

Everyone knows good white Americans aren't the villains.

[bribri16]

14. Yeah, but meth accounts for horrid sexual abuses to children.

You would think the Christian right would take up a REAL cause and leave politics alone. But they are silent, silent, silent on meth and who uses and abuses this drug.

[Union Thug]

15. Exactly...in fact, just last weekend...

One more local methfreak, and former friend of my brother (who, as mentioned, spent many years as a similar freak), was just picked up for sexual abuse of at least one child.

To those wishing to form an opinion, get out on the street and see what the reality is. The drug laws in this country have resulted in disaster on SOOOO many levels.

[devilgrrl]

4. Because meth users are rightwing freeptards!

Take a visit out to Riverside County California... Freeper/Meth heaven.

[BrotherBuzz]

5. It mostly flies under the radar because it is totally homespun...

No foreign terrorists to vilify, just the local ones. Oh, crystal meth is in the inner cities as well as the rural environments - it is an equal opportunity killer and destroyer of lives.

[shanti]

6. you know the answer to this one

it's RACIAL.

[Union Thug]

7. absolute brick skulled, lame-ass hypocrisy..

My brother was a methfreak for nearly ten years, living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, doing god knows what to support the habit. He's out of it now but, of course, with ten years of invisibility, no one will employ him and everyday is a struggle.

About a month ago, concussion grenades were going off in a house only three away from mine, as local cops and feds busted up a meth dealer...leaving at least 4 or 5 others in our neighborhood untouched and fully operational. I think the only reason they came in was because of the reports that children were involved (you can imagine). In case you didn't know, meth freaks are violent mofos (which is one of the reasons i am extremely well armed). Only a few days back, a jacked up methfreak in a pickup truck stopped his car and physically attacked my neighbor for not getting out of the road/culdesac fast enough.

And yet our lame ass government is attacking medical marijuana and casual users of marijuana...a drug, as someone else pointed out, that is far less harmful than either cigarettes or alchohol... I hate alcohol. It traumatizes my body and leaves me feeling sick. Geez, I'd love to be able to relax with something that I know works for me..but then I have to fear the long arm of the hypocritical law...

[getmeouttahere]

8. Wow, scary stuff, Union Thug...

And talk about an uphill battle to change minds about marijuana! Have you ever seen the documentary, I think it's called "Weed" Woody Harrelson narrates, it shows how just when we think we're making in-roads to legalize pot, some RW crackpot starts screaming about how its a gateway drug! Will the hypocrisy ever end?

[Union Thug]

9. Gateway drug...what a joke..

The only possible way that pot could be considered a 'gateway' drug is due to the fact that people will often have to go to a dealer in illicit substances to obtain it. Anyone who's been around knows very well that these people are very happy to provide free trial offers to other substances to help diversify one's portfolio, so to speak.

Arguments could easily be made that alcohol and nicotine are also gateway drugs, probably more convincingly.

I'll need to check out the documentary. Thanks for the tip!

[GeekMonkey]

10. Legalize and regulate all drugs

The drug war does not even slow down drug use.

All we do is relinquish control of the drug market to unlicensed criminals.

The war on drugs is counterproductive at best.

What we should be doing is reducing the harm that the small percentage of users cause.

Legalize them all and watch petty theft and other such crimes virtually dissappear as drugs will be cheap enough to not require theft to support addiction.

O, I'm sorry, I was making too much sense.

[Union Thug]

12. Agreed...

as harmful as some of them are.. meth for example, legalization would remove a huge part of the criminal environment universally accompanies its use.

[DFWdem]

11. You must not be reading the news

The outrage and "war on drugs" mentality is most certainly there. To wit: many cities are limiting the amount of cold medicines and matches (2 primary ingredients of meth) an individual can purchase. The reason you don't see as much about it is because rural areas have a lower population density, so the problem isn't as concentrated as the crack epidemic was. In addition, people aren't standing around on corners dealing meth. Instead, they sell it from their trailer or house.

[tnlefty]

16. Additionally, workers for my local electrical coop are being

encouraged to "keep an eye out for the signs of the chemicals used to produce meth" and to report them. I think that the phone company, etc. is doing the same.

I realize that meth is a problem, but I just have a real hard time with this.

[maxsolomon]

13. to stop it, they need to stop selling cold medicine

psuedoephedrine is made by big pharma. can't hurt business. legal drugs good.

legalize the weed, and this might go away. i'd rather have a rural populace with "amotivational syndrome" growing dope everywhere than violent tweakers breeding like rabbits and getting their nasty meth mouths fixed up on my dime.