Philadelphia Weekly covers the tragic prohibition created topic of the underground, yet quite visible, illicit drug trade on the streets of North Philly. I happen to live in San Francisco, and I could draw a similar map for you. Same for New York and Miami. We all know it, we all see it. Prohibition isn’t working. The drug economy is unstoppable. We must flow with the river of drugs, control it, and work to minimize harm, maximize contact with health professionals, and generally help people become productive citizens. And they may very well continue to use drugs while they are being productive citizens. Get used to that idea. We don’t want to push somebody away for using crack. We want to bring them closer to us, to continually offer health care and support so the person feels less compelled to use crack cocaine, for example. Help people help themselves. Prison is not the answer to any drug problem. End the war on drugs yesterday.
“…sounds arise from the underground economy.
“Wet, wet, wet.”
“Xannies!”
“Suboxone!”
“Oxy!”
“Greenies!”
“Dope?”
“You smokin’ that crack?”
“What you need?”
Eight different come-ons, from a vast collection of different Philadelphians—white, black and Latino; young, middle-aged and graying. And all these offers speak to the same basic truths: Philadelphia is awash in the narcotics trade. And like all illicit economies, the drug trade begets a brutal gangsterism whose stock in trade is violence—on an industrial scale. The statistics are as astonishing as they are appalling. “We’ve had 16,000 shootings here in the last 10 years,” says Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Reed. “Sixteen—THOUSAND!”
Where are the corners in your city? Would the drug dealers still be on the corner if drugs were made legal, as the cops from L.E.A.P. suggest? Who would their customers be? No one, right. Crazy as it may sound, health professionals should provide cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and other “illegal” drugs patients. Egads, even a business man who wanted to just get high on Saturday night could do that too. Cocaine would be available to adults. The stuff being sold on the streets now is actually very dangerous because of a new additive called levamisole. It eats your face. Nice. So we can either have our businessman dead on Monday morning, or we can have him back at work, feeling a little bit tired from a party weekend. If people understand purity and dose, they can regulate their use more safely. Here’s the big idea, please get used to it. People are going to do cocaine. They shouldn’t do it very often, if ever, but if they do it should be done safely. Believe it. Legal drugs save lives.
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