GRGR(20) 1904 revisited

[Christopher Crosdale]

Although I certainly feel that the supply-demand equation is what fuels the
profitability of such drugs as cocaine, heroine, etc.  And that by increasing
scarcity you only increase profit and ability for "negative elements" of
society to gain power.  (ie, look at prohibition and the rise of the mafia of
this country when it found something that was so profitable and illegal to
sell.  Without prohibition I doubt they would have gained the foothold they did
in this country).  But as someone that has worked in the domestic violence
field, I don't see any option but to fight certain drugs tooth-and-nail,
especially cocaine -- marijuana and herione are another story.  The problem
with coke is not only a lowered inhibition toward violent behavior -- and I
understand that these people already have a predisposition toward violent
behavior -- but what happens, especially with alcohol and cocaine together
(metabolizes as cocaethynol in the liver, a drug with two or three times that
half-life of coke alone) is that they develope what appears to be an attitude
of invulnerability that leaves nothing but a huge wake in it's path, including
women, and children, and whoever gets in the way.  And if you have seen these
people act, you would probably agree the cocaine really isn't something that
should be readily available to society.  It may take the drug dealer out of the
equation, and the violence they commit over turf-wars or whatever, but if you
look into the statistics the biggest physical threat from coke is in the home.

Thanks for the use of the soap box,
Chris


Doug Millison wrote:

> Thanks for a thoughtful post, but I wonder. Is it the cocaine in and of
> itself that causes the violence, or do we observe that the substance acts
> in a matrix of poverty, exploitation, crime, violence, police brutality.
> The monetary value of the drug -- manipulated by "scarcity,"  CIA and other
> governmental intervention -- drives a lot of the violence, although a
> certain amount of the increase in violence certainly comes from the release
> of inhibitions by the substance itself, as we see with alcohol (remember
> Celine's rant about red wine and wife beating on weekend afternoons in
> Journee au bout de la nuit).  Ease some of the social problems, take the
> CIA and violent drug peddlers out of the equation -- cocaine as a
> socially-approved stimulant wouldn't look so evil, or would it? I don't
> doubt that cocaine is highly addictive, of course -- but then so are many
> of the socially approved drugs (alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, a range of
> psychoactive prescription drugs, TV, etc.). Is Pynchon really so wrong in
> this case?
>
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