Has the crack cocaine "epidemic" really ended? (originally posted 10/21/10)

"The crack epidemic rolled through some lives like a wildfire and burned slowly through others over years... "



Dear friends,

Just a couple of months ago, President Obama signed a bill that will, presumably,bring more fairness in sentencing people for drug-related convicions. It was not only beneficial for certain African American individuals, but for our communities as well.

Additionally, while DAs, politicians, and police agencies have claimed an end to the crack cocaine “epidemic”, at least in African American communities nationwide, the recent crack cocaine-initiated massacre in the Mattapan section of Boston, that took the lives of two young men, along with a young mother and her two-years-old son, proves that the assertions by those “prodessional” groups mentioned above are dead wrong.

To be sure, in an advanced civilization such as ours, people are always trying to run from themselves, as we, as individual beings, try to find a way to deal with what has been called the ““lonesomeness and separateness’” of this experience called human life.

One of the ways that we deal with that dilemma is by pursuing happiness. Yet, if not kept in check, a lifestyle of hedonism can develop that can, both unwittingly and uncontrollably, lead to a dependency that makes a person lose his or her “sense of self”, while, simultaneously, losing integrity. Once that happens, the affected individual can no longer keep a promise, of any kind, to not only himself or herself, but to anyone else.

Unfortunately, since humans are social, not solitary, beings, this means that, in any given community, the more individuals who lose themselves to any number of addictions, the more the whole community deteriorates.

Even worse, if we see this as an individual’s problem, as opposed to being a “community” one, then no matter how well-intentioned efforts are made to curb this situation, much less end it, a waste of our most valuable resource – human energy (whether physical, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual) will, invariably, be the result.

In any case, on the link below, the outstanding Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times provides us with a thoughtful analysis of how crack cocaine still affects African American communities. Is the “epidemic“ really over, or has it merely taken on a new form?
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks-20100807,0,7458393,full.column