- That sharp decline echoes an ongoing trend: 40 percent fewer people in the United States used cocaine in 2012 than they did in 2006; only 19 percent of Chicago arrestees had cocaine in their system two years ago compared to 50 percent in 2000; and less high school seniors say they’ve used cocaine in the last 12 months than at any time since the mid-70s. In fact, the report indicates cocaine was sporadically unavailable in Chicago, Houston, Baltimore, and St. Louis in the spring of 2012. So where’d the blow go?
Frontline did a great episode on the drug war where they point out that Meth lurched into the power vacuum left by the abolition of quaaludes. here's a bit of it. Even Robocop 2 figured this much out - "Nuke" was what the drug trade resorted to when heroin and coke became scarce. You think the Russians would cook Krokodyl if they could still get heroin? People aren't doing coke anymore because meth is cheaper and more prevalent. Ask any DEA agent if they'd rather deal with meth or coke, they'll tell you coke every time.
I really don't understand the title of this article. The whole interview in the article describes how things come in waves, and that Cocaine happens to be in a trough at the moment: | Are you saying cocaine’s bled itself dry? I think so. ‘Til next time( my emphasis ). The country forgot the first cocaine epidemic about 50 years after it ended; the same could happen again, but not in this half-century.| The whole article comes off to me as proof that the drug was IS un-winnable. The fact that new generations forget the dangers of previously popular drugs, combined with the creation of new drugs (as minimum_wage mentioned), creates a situation where you spend money and manpower on a bloated, reactionary force that (generally unsuccessfully) attempts to play whack-a-mole with various powerful drug lords. The solution is, and always has been education and treatment. Educate people from a young age on the effects of dangerous drugs and addiction on your body and brain chemistry. Don't treat addicts like pariahs and lepers, but give them the help that they need to overcome their chemical addictions and get them back on their feet. it also wouldn't hurt to sort the wheat from the chaff and figure out what drugs are problematic enough to be worth policing and which drugs should be controlled and taxed (like alcohol and tobacco).
Aye, the title even runs counter to their opening paragraph: At best, they won the War on Cocaine. But really, people just found other, more accessible drugs. Who wants to pay $100/g for a drug that has been branded as "hardcore" for all your life? Especially when those dollars could buy you a kilo of this month's new psychedelic stimulant that has no slang name nor any documented deaths.I really don't understand the title of this article.
These include the continued rise in abuse of prescription drugs (second only to marijuana in popularity), the increase in the production of heroin in Mexico and its availability in the U.S., and the emergence of synthetic designer drugs.
Technically true of older street drugs, too, but in a different way. Before: "Is that white powder coke or flour?" After: "Will I go crazy and black out on 25C-NBOMe?" (Middle: "Is this tab LSD or DOB?")you don't know what you're taking half the time and even if you know it's name you don't know what it really is.