Drug Trade: Philippe Bourgois

Sudhir Vankatesh’s account of his experience with a local gang during his early graduate years at the University of Chicago greatly surprised me. The title immediately caught my attention mainly because gangs are something people consistently talk about, but never truly discuss what they do or how they act. The book follows this rogue sociologist’s journey for the greater part of a decade, alongside JT, the leader of one of the most powerful crack dealing gangs in Chicago. His odd friendship with this shockingly charismatic criminal create the basis for an ethically questionable story. Venkatesh takes this opportunity to study the gang and the projects (Robert Taylor Homes) and the relationship between the gangsters and the local tenants.

Next the Anti- Drug Abuse Act of 1986 is discussed, because this act is responsible for the harsh penalty for trafficking cocaine, which is a crime African Americans are much more likely to be convicted of. This act passed in 1986 with the support of two- thirds of the African Americans in Congress, because they felt it was justified and it was supported by the community who was suffering from a drug trafficking problem. Fortner’s point is then brought in, that it was possible to be skeptical of the drug war, while also believing that black lives matter.

Throughout the book, "Smack", Eric Schneider discusses the role that social setting played in the development of illegal subcultures in New York City following World War II (Schneider, p. 17). As Alison Hibner states, learning social setting is critical to the understanding of how certain spaces and geographic areas allowed the drug subculture to thrive and continue for many years following the war. The transformation from marijuana-smoking to the heroin-abusing after World War II was for the most part, witnessed at jazz clubs, after hours bars and cafeterias by drug-dealers, musicians, pimps and hookers and hence, led to a small subculture that consisted of these drug addicts and users (Schneider, p. 17).

Crack users range from the Wall Street stockbroker to a homeless person living in Central Park, but by and large this evil drug called crack had its biggest impact on New York’s inner city minority population. A New York doctor, Dr. Mark Gold who is the person who set up and helps run the not for profit organization called 800-COCAINE, a hotline set up to help addicts and perspective users answer questions about the drug and also offers counseling and drug intervention services; suggested that his findings showed that, “occasional users of crack quickly increased, the amount and frequency of crack use until total dependency was achieved.” Men and women who were once law abiding citizens and honest people were now robbing and stealing to pay for the drug, and many who once enjoyed good health were now suffering from a variety of physical and mental aliments springing from their cocaine abuse. Crack brings along with its amazing high, some ominous dangers. Dr. Robert Maslansky is the director of New York City’s Bellevue Hospital

In Punished: policing the lives of Black and Latino by Victor Rios Oakland boys are studied in an ethnography. The purpose of the ethnography was to examine the how the boys interacted with themselves, the education system and the justice system. The purpose of this essay is to review what Rios has witnessed and recorded, in his book, and look through the lens of different sociological theories and theorists. These Theories and theorists Rios himself used when describing the behavior.

Because these laws are made with entire populations or demographics in mind, it is impossible to account for individual experiences and specific contexts. Essentially, there are inescapable environments that greatly affect the livelihood of the people targeted by these policies. Bourgois focuses on crack’s effect on an impoverished community, specifically the Latino community in Spanish Harlem. In this context, crack was the main drug of choice involved with holding people back from taking advantage of the opportunities the system tried to provide. Reflecting on his experience, Bourgois explained the inevitability of interacting with the world of drugs. In his neighborhood, where deals were made was a club with air conditioning at the center of the community. Of course people would cluster there. Some women even brought their infants to relax in these spaces. However in Enrique’s grand story of immigration, the experiences he faced resulted in him sniffing glue. Drug use was rampant in his hometown and on his journey north, and it was impossible for him not to get exposed. Once settled in North Carolina, his addiction resurfaced, forcing him to turn to other substances in an attempt to recreate the high achieved from sniffing glue. Enrique and the men of Spanish Harlem have very different backgrounds and issues and require different

The book traces the devastating effect that the drug war has had on minority Communities, classed as ghettos where predominantly black or brown people reside. This group of people have suffered from years of harassment and biased law enforcement. Frankly the War on Drugs is a racist cause, an excuse to discriminate against African American communities in order to achieve

Bourgois makes it clear in the introduction that the focus of the book is not about drugs or crack, nor is it focusing on whether American society is facing a “drug problem”, rather it is about who is using these illegal substances, how they go about using them, and why they are using them. He focuses on societal influence, and the circumstances that he believes leads people in these types of communities to enter the underground economy and abuse harmful substances. An emphasis is placed on history concerning the Puerto Rican culture early on in the book since East Harlem is heavily populated with people of Hispanic decent. Many people who immigrated to the U.S. from Puerto Rico in the 1940s and 50s stared off in the manufacturing industry (Bourgois 1995: 51). The economy then went through a dramatic change, and jobs began to leave the country, due to the fact that labor was cheaper in other nations, like China. Due to these changes, within a twenty-year period from 1967 and onwards, nearly half a million people lost their manufacturing jobs, and the unemployment rate soared (Bourgois 1995: 51). The effects of these economic

The Opium Dealer was the first to speak. All knew he was a man of great physique Since he fought in the war of Mozambique As well as ‘gainst the Sheikhs and Sikhs. He learned the savages and how they thought: He had the Maxim gun, and they had not.

One of the main economic problems that many people, particularly gangs, in Robert Taylor faced was the fact that they didn’t want to trade in their status for entry-level jobs because in many cases, gang leaders made far more than they would have if they worked minimum wage jobs (72). Many of the gang leaders such as J.T. held the false belief that the drug economy was “useful for the community, since it redistributed the drug addict’s money back into the community via the gang’s philanthropy” (115). However, the drug economy is not a stable or lucrative economy compared to your average jobs because it was clearly very hard for people to get ahead in gangs, thus no one ever had a fair shot of earning more money in their life span. Nevertheless, the situation can tend to be a grey area of debate since a lot of the residents did attempt to hold blue-collar jobs but continued to get laid off (60). In this case, the underground economy of drug sales may have been the only choice for residents looking for an income. Another way the gangs play into the economic situation is when there are drive by shootings, in which case parents

1. The author of the article might have simply overlooked this movement in his work. One of the points for missing this aspect is based on the idea that the countercultures have only been represented as small groups and their activities can be disregarded. However, it is essentially important to consider even the influence of the minorities while such influences might have led to immense changes in the world-views of the people. At the same time, the drug movement has not had such an immense impact on the flow of the political processes to be included in the article. While the article deals with the political aspect of the history, the drug movement influenced the social and cultural aspects more. The political impact of this movement was not

Boston is being threatened by the increasing use of drug. The number of arrests related to drugs is continuously on the rise. It also implies a huge inestimable underground ‘black market’ of drugs running through the city. Boston’s Mayor Raymond Flynn is looking to take the drug problem head-on. He enforced various ‘anti-drug’ and ‘drug-education’ programmes but quick and substantial profits were increasing drug-trafficking and attracting illegal drug dealers. This time Mayors policy advisor Neil Sullivan and Marc Zegan initiated a research program to create a plan to ‘de-market’ the drug in Boston. Harvard Business School’s four member field study group came up with a research design and analysis.

Many times individuals turn to a gang to escape a life of poverty or financial uncertainty. A sense of hopelessness and desperation can result from being unable to provide the basic necessities. “Young people living in poverty may find it difficult to meet basic physical and psychological needs, which can lead to a lack of self-worth and pride” (Lee, Dean, and Parker 1). Individuals who are faced with a lack of money many times turn to crime if they cannot earn enough at a legitimate job to support themselves or their families. “This partly explains why gangs exist in poor, rundown areas of cities” (Grabianowski 1).

Drug trafficking first started to show itself in Latin America during the years from the 1960s to 1970s, when the use of drugs began to become more popular throughout the youth of this period (“Crandal”). During this time, the people in these exporting countries started to see a large growth in the revenues brought upon by the trafficking, and rural communities began to supply more and more drugs, beginning with Marijuana, but eventually becoming a much larger exporter of cocaine(“Drug Trafficking”). Cocaine began to seem like the perfect drug to traffic

In a country of struggling economies, many have viewed the drug trade as one South American’ s most successful businesses. Latin America 's drug trafficking industry has been depicted in United States popular culture through motion pictures such as Scarface and Traffic. The purpose of my research is to take away society’s perception of what Hollywood has depicted drug trade to be and bring out what narcotics trafficking really is, as well as trying to coincide with the motivations of those people who take part in this. I will present the origins of drug trafficking, case studies regarding two countries (Mexico and Colombia), as well as the overall effects of the business on South America and United States. Drug Trafficking in South America starts in the early 19th century.