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The Era Of The Reagan Administration

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Raymond L. Jordan left high school at the dawn of the crack cocaine era of the Reagan administration. He began to come into his own during a period when cocaine prices reached an all-time low, and its availability an all-time high in communities like North Philadelphia ("The Roles of Ross and Blandon in the Spread of Crack"). All the men in his family were alcoholics, so his image of what it meant to be a man was tainted by liquor and aggression. The united force of his family history and environmental stresses proved to be stronger than twenty-five year old Mr. Jordan was strong-willed. Fifty-six year old Jordan is not the same man. The world does not make excuses for people who grow up in underprivileged positions—and perhaps it …show more content…

On September 10, 1986, Mr. Jordan was sentenced to life for second-degree murder. At the time Mr. Jordan was a highly functional drug addict, with a job as a janitor at Temple University Hospital and another with his brother at a construction company. He had been introduced to cocaine at the age of nineteen at a friend’s house. He was a daily cocaine user for four to five years. He struggled financially to make ends meet while also supporting his girlfriend’s drug habit. The day of the crime he had been drinking alcohol and freebasing cocaine for approximately fifteen hours. Free-basing cocaine is known to cause adverse health consequences including toxic psychological reactions like dysphoria, agitation, and irritability (Tashkin et al). In addition, according to a Report on Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy by the United States Sentencing Commission, free-basing cocaine has one of the most rapid increases in physiological responses in comparison to other consumption methods and leads to increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, increased body temperature, and symptoms similar to hypertension. The psychotropic effects of cocaine include a reduction of social inhibitions ("Cocaine, Its Forms, Methods of Use, and Pharmacology"), which in Mr. Jordan’s case may have included a heightening of propensity to violence. To make matters worse, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “cocaine abuse coupled with use of

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