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 Disco Cat
iS A PoiNdexteR
Registered: 09/15/00
Posts: 2,590
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 White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies 
#8360504 - 05/04/08 05:24 AM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies
WASHINGTON (AP) -- They were indelible images of the cocaine world of the 1970s and '80s: Rich yuppies and white suburbanites partying down with a couple of lines of "blow." Stockbroker Charlie Sheen snorting up in the limo in "Wall Street." Woody Allen's sneeze in "Annie Hall."
More than 30 years later, the image remains but the reality of coke in the United States has shifted significantly. Long portrayed as a white crime, Hispanics now make up the overwhelming majority -- 60 percent -- of federal offenders facing powder cocaine charges.
In fact, data show, more Hispanics than whites or blacks have been sentenced on federal powder charges as far back as 1992. Law enforcement officials say that's because federal agents almost exclusively pursue cocaine traffickers from South America and Mexico instead of end-of-the-line U.S. consumers.
Until the last decade, when the price of cocaine dropped sharply, consumers were largely affluent and educated. That fed into the misperception -- often reported by The Associated Press and other news organizations -- that most powder cocaine offenders were white, experts say.
"There was a lot of publicity about the white population using it; it was more of a higher economic status thing," said Dorothy K. Hatsukami, a behavioral scientist at the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Center. She co-authored a 1996 study medically challenging federal sentencing guidelines that penalized black cocaine offenders more harshly than white ones.
The study cited 1993 data indicating that 69 percent of powder and crack cocaine users were white, compared with 15 percent black and 13 percent Hispanic. However, it suggested that far more blacks and Hispanics used the cheaper crack cocaine than whites.
"Articles in the papers were all related to the jet-setters into powder cocaine, so that's probably why we were focusing on the white population," Hatsukami said in an interview this week. "There was a lot of media focus on whites and powder in the 1980s -- then, it was almost legitimate to be using powder.
"That's what people did at parties, and people didn't think it was all that harmful."
The issue of race in cocaine use surfaced again recently with last winter's U.S. Sentencing Commission vote to ease penalties for crack cocaine offenders -- more than 80 percent of whom have been black, according to data between 1992 and 2006. Fewer than 10 percent of crack offenders are white or Hispanic, the Sentencing Commission data show.
By contrast, the number of Hispanic offenders has risen steadily over the years, from 40 percent in 1992 to 58 percent in 2006, the data show. At the same time, the number of white offenders has steadily dropped: from 32 percent in 1992 to 14 percent two years ago.
Federal drug agents and prosecutors are quick to defend their focus on leaders of major drug rings and international traffickers -- mostly blacks and Hispanics -- instead of small-time or individual cocaine users who are generally charged with state and local crimes.
Last year, for example, federal prosecutors won convictions against 445 people suspected of simply possessing drugs, according to Justice Department data provided in a study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The federal government convicted more than 12,209 -- nearly 30 times as many -- drug traffickers, manufacturers and distributors during that time, the TRAC study shows.
In the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s, cocaine traffic mostly moved up the Interstate 95 corridor. Colombian traffickers airlifted or shipped bricks of the drug to Miami, then moved it up the East Coast to New York, where it was distributed. A kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) then was usually worth at least $50,000, Drug Enforcement Administration agent Michael Sanders said.
"That's a chunk of money -- it was a big affluency thing," Sanders said. "It was pretty much white Americans -- that was the market that was purchasing it."
Once the feds started cracking down on Miami, much of the traffic moved to Southwestern states, where Colombians paid Mexicans to smuggle the cocaine across the border, Sanders said. The price of a kilogram has since dropped substantially -- to as little as $15,000 in Houston and New Orleans recently, he said.
By 2000, half of all cocaine traffickers facing federal charges were Hispanic, U.S. Sentencing Commission data show. Additionally, Hispanics made up 61 percent of traffickers smuggling in more than 5 kilograms (about 11 pounds).
"I'm not going to tell you it's not worthwhile to put the user in jail," Sanders said. "But we are mandated to dismantle and disrupt major cartels. That's our ultimate goal."
For the most part, Sanders said, state and local police and prosecutors are responsible for cracking down on cocaine consumers.
The FBI reports that more than 875,000 whites and Hispanics were charged with local and state drug abuse crimes in 2006. By comparison, 483,800 blacks were similarly charged.
The data do not detail how many Hispanics alone were charged because the statistics only look at differences in race, not by ethnicity, said FBI researcher Nancy Carnes.
In recent years, the big-time distributors have started sending cocaine traffic to Europe.
"It's a market that's been largely untapped -- up until now," Sanders said.
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 Deebard420
"Bostons Finest"
 
Registered: 03/15/08
Posts: 166
Loc: In A Mind Fuck
Last seen: 2 years, 9 months
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies [Re: Disco Cat]
#8361092 - 05/04/08 11:02 AM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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no surprise hispanics get charged the most they fuckin cultivate the shit not white people 
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todesengel
the chinese chicken
Registered: 08/04/05
Posts: 778
Last seen: 6 days, 15 hours
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies [Re: Deebard420]
#8361287 - 05/04/08 12:19 PM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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They aren't always stereotypes 
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Coaster
Baʿal
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
Loc: Deep in the Valley
Last seen: 7 months, 17 days
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies [Re: todesengel]
#8361291 - 05/04/08 12:21 PM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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Mush 4 Brains
Registered: 12/19/07
Posts: 3,908
Loc: lesbians
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies [Re: Coaster]
#8361482 - 05/04/08 01:27 PM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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skiing those Columbian slopes huh
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Coaster
Baʿal
Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
Loc: Deep in the Valley
Last seen: 7 months, 17 days
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies [Re: Mush 4 Brains]
#8361483 - 05/04/08 01:28 PM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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hell ya, and marchin with those crazy Peruvians
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UberDeepName
Zang!
Registered: 04/15/07
Posts: 712
Loc: do not write in this spac...
Last seen: 15 days, 20 hours
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies [Re: Coaster]
#8362063 - 05/04/08 04:25 PM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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Cocaine is one hell of a drug.
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"Call on God, but row away from the rocks"- Hunter S. Thompson
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spock1
Stranger
Registered: 04/14/07
Posts: 589
Last seen: 3 years, 11 months
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies *DELETED* [Re: UberDeepName]
#8362384 - 05/04/08 05:49 PM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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Post deleted by spock1Reason for deletion: .
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Invisible_Woe
Less reality, more fantasy!
Registered: 05/25/07
Posts: 5,737
Loc: The white ship
Last seen: 2 hours, 28 minutes
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies [Re: spock1]
#8362912 - 05/04/08 07:58 PM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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Drugs are so bad. MY preacher tells me if people do bad things they go to hell and have to serve Satan. you guys should stop talking about drugs to save your soul for real, your going to make God angry and he will unleash his terrible rage upon you and then once he kills you he will judge you based on your actions and if they are holy then you wil....nah im just kidding drugs are good and dumb Christians...or any Christians for that matter are dumb 
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Crave affection, love and courage. Be courageous and fly instead of falling down follow these instructions I’ve been given in this dream awake!
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Groomies
Ghost
Registered: 08/16/07
Posts: 1,119
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
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Re: White powder cocaine no longer just for yuppies [Re: Invisible_Woe]
#8363003 - 05/04/08 08:15 PM (4 years, 24 days ago) |
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Quote:
Invisible_Woe said:
drugs are good and dumb Christians...or any Christians for that matter are dumb
AMEN!
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