Drugs, Victims and Race

Drugs, Victims and Race

Author: Anita Kalunta-Crumpton

Publisher: Waterside Press

Published: 2006-03-01

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1906534136

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A book that offers a fresh perspective on discourse around the 'drug problem' - in which Anita Kalunta-Crumpton explores common but frequently misleading themes concerning an aspect of criminal justice that know no racial, ethnic, gender, class, age, geographical or other barriers. She also provides an outline of UK drugs strategy from its class-oriented beginnings in the nineteenth century - through later expansion and pre-occupation with explanations based around race - up until the present day, causing her to ask: Who are the real victims of drugs, drug trafficking and drug supply? The book examines the 'drug problem' in the context of UK strategies and as a global phenomenon. Set against the backdrop of race and the politics of drug control, it looks at a range of events and issues from the supply end of the drugs chain through enforcement and court proceedings to treatment approaches re addicts and other drug users. Anita Kalunta-Crumpton also goes beyond myths, stereotypes and assumptions to look at the real life issues and social characteristics that affect the trafficking, supply and use of drugs.


When Crack Was King

When Crack Was King

Author: Donovan X. Ramsey

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2024-07-02

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 0525511814

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A “vivid and frank” (NPR) account of the crack cocaine era and a community’s ultimate resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the dramatic rise and fall of the epidemic “A master class in disrupting a stubborn narrative, a monumental feat for the fraught subject of addiction in Black communities.”—The Washington Post “A poignant and compelling re-examination of a tragic era in America history . . . insightful . . . and deeply moving.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Mercy FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • ONE OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND VULTURE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, She Reads, Electric Lit, The Mary Sue The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with today: a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality. When Crack Was King follows four individuals to give us a startling portrait of crack’s destruction and devastating legacy: Elgin Swift, an archetype of American industry and ambition and the son of a crack-addicted father who turned their home into a “crack house”; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an early advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist, basketball prodigy, and a founding member of the Zoo Crew, Newark’s most legendary group of drug traffickers. Weaving together riveting research with the voices of survivors, When Crack Was King is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.