(And I admit today's screed is nothing paricularly original) that back in the 1980's the answer to "the crack epidemic" in urban areas was to up-arm the police and straitjacket the courts with punitive mandatory minimum sentencing etc etc.
Nancy Reagan's "War on Drugs" was pretty much a very real war on Drug Users, "Police, Gun & Harsh Conditions in Jail" was the answer to crack cocaine.
These days we have an opioid crisis and the cry goes up for treatment, mercy, better trained cops....more institutional patience & compassion in short.
Whats the difference?
White kids were overdosing on heroin in the suburbs, and that is ALWAYS a cohort that must be saved from itself by the gentlest means possible.
Those black kids gunned down in ghetto crossfires back in the 1990? C'est le' Guerre....C'est Le Vie.
So as I said, nothing original today, just remember the hypocritical underpinnings of the current "drug debate" when Charlie Baker hits your town this summer spewing the milk of human kindness for all those unfortunate dope addicts out there in Acton & Wellesley.
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