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Essay, 7 pages (1800 words)

Drugs in the urban community

The real America is filled with abandoned houses, prostitution, and citizens that have no hope on life. How can this lifestyle become a normal living condition? Some say there is no chance on restoring the communities that were destroyed from drugs. Is our government aware of the hardship and poverty while they send troops to war? The infestation of drugs overtaking communities results in corruption in neighborhoods, destroying families, weakening the school system and increasing the crime and violence rate.

The usage of drugs in major cities, and certain urban areas have transformed them to become an eye sorer. The type of place where unfamiliar faces will be scared to drive through at night. The ghetto is filthy and nasty looking; drugs have caused the used to be new, to look like a complete city that needs to be rehabbed. Some say the ghetto is a beautiful place and there is nothing wrong with it, certainly you would have to live there to feel that way. Recently real estate tycoons have made a fortune on rehabilitating houses.

So how do drugs make our neighborhoods look so bad? “ When it comes to drugs, think of it as real estate. Location is very important, just like your property value goes up and down, so does the drug market” (Local dealer 1, 2008). Local dealers compete in price and product, drug houses are being set on fire to force users to purchase from the arsonist that funded the fire. Once these houses have been burnt, that puts the house out of business until they move to another location and establishes their clients; I guess it’s like a store.

Most big time drug dealers have more than one drug house; the more houses the more money. Abandoned and burned out shells of buildings are a frequent sight, with some 16, 037 empty houses recorded in Detroit 1999. The city lacks funding to demolish the properties and the homes are often used for the production, sale, and use of illicit drugs, with drug gangs such as Young Boys Inc(2008). Homes, buildings, and any surface is used for advertising graffiti from territorial gangs, these areas are used to sell drugs.

In most cases there are no jobs available and drugs become a career, with a result one ending up in prison, or getting killed. But as we think of reasons for the dealers to choose their lifestyles, what else could be an option. As we all know that the economy goes up, and down. Seems like the urban areas have more poverty then what is expected. Let’s face it; there is not a lot of opportunity in these areas. There are so many teens that are forced to give up their dreams just to make a living, and feed family members. As a child we dream big, because of what we see on television.

These dreams usually consist of sports, and entertainment. I remember being a young boy with dreams of going to the NBA. That was my alternative; all I did was play basketball. I even began to write music, like any other teen that endures the struggles of life. But what do we do when are alternatives are taken away from us. What is there left for young adults to do, besides hang on the streets at different times. Even I have experienced things being taken away from my neighborhood. When we were in our early teen years, they took away the basketball rim at the local park.

So now there was no place to play ball at, unless we went to another park were there would be rival fights because we are not from their neighborhood. There are no programs for kids were I am from, that will keep them off the streets. And as we all know that there are not enough jobs available to support everyone in the local communities. For example; if you have one million people in a city, and you have actually one thousand hiring businesses, then some people are going to be unemployed. Some will start their own business praying to be successful.

The others will have to find a way to bring in some income, and most likely it will be selling drugs, crime, robbery, prostitution, and gambling. All of these are no healthy way of living, and they can get you killed, or a lifetime in prison. I think the government is responsible for the lifestyles that some individuals are forced to live. The addition of drugs has divided, and even torn apart some families. Most minorities are raised in a single parent atmosphere with not enough discipline encourage the child to do right from wrong. The single parent usually is the mother on government aid.

In some cases they will date a local dealer that is willing to assist her financially. Families are destroyed from the addiction of drugs; members are neglected because of one’s habits. Depending on how serious ones addiction is, this can also effect the growth of new born babies that suffer from addiction at birth, and malnutrition. Skin rashes from unchanged diapers are another effect from one spending money on drugs. You can purchase a bundle of diapers for $10. 00, which is the same amount it cost to buy a small bag of marijuana.

Child protection services are removing the children from their parents that are drug users, because they are neglecting the children. Intoxication can cause humans to become violent to the people that are around them. We have all heard plenty of stories of the abusive parents or parent that is an alcoholic, or any type of drug user. By the children growing up in this environment they either do one of two things. When they get older they might stay away from drugs and alcohol because of the horrible memories as a child, or they inherited the same ways, dealing and using.

Below is a chart for the lifetime usage of drugs and alcohol, for different levels of education. More money is spent of drugs instead of the well being of the children, as a result the child is forced to support his or her self, and start selling drugs at a young age. Friends of mine started dealing at the age of 13, and most of them have more than two felonies on their criminal record. Most companies would not hire you with a felony, so they are forced to continue to sell drugs, trying to raise capital to start a small business.

In most cases someone might feel sorry for the child, but this is just a way of life for the disadvantaged inner city youths. I also believe that our government spends way too much money on drugs than the well being of the people. In some cities they spend so much money investigations, and drug raids, if they took that money to create jobs, and help the people then we would have so much infestation of drugs. Americans turn to drugs as an escape to help free them from reality. To free their mind from all the stress, and poverty from lack of money. From the trials they face every day in the ghetto. It’s a chain reaction, it all starts from no home training and a messed up schools that don’t care if students learn or die, everyone is out to make a dollar, who cares about the consequences; I ain’t promised tomorrow” (Dealer 2, 2008). In fact there is an effect on the school system, when there are drugs in the community. Drugs weaken the school system, which causes a chain reaction in the lack of education. Some schools even have metal detectors because some students are bringing guns inside for protection, or to carry out plans of retaliation, because violence travels to the local high schools in the city.

Schools are also a breeding ground for gang activity in urban communities, from rivalry neighborhood’s called sets. Students are even using drugs in the bathrooms of high schools, and keeping alcohol in their lockers. Drug transactions also take place in the classrooms, in the hallways, and at lunch time, these drugs usually consist of marijuana, and ecstasy pills. Young dealers are usually known for being out late all night until the morning time when it’s time to go to school. This is called” Staying on the grind” (Dealer 1, 2008).

More students are dropping out of school so they can sell drugs to support themselves, and children if they have any. Most children come from a single parent home, so there is very little supervision to keep the child from running the streets all day, and even at night. In big cities like Detroit, Mi teens would rather make money than to go to school, it is a very materialistic place to be. Staying out a little longer to make an extra $200 bucks to go buy the latest pair of gym shoes, seems to be more reasonable than studying for a test.

I would imagine that schools would be packed if they were giving the kids checks for good attendance. With less students attending, the school does not meet the enrollment requirement, and is forced to close because not enough students attend the school. Many high schools are closing because of this problem. It seems like it only gets worst, and more students are dropping out of high school, because they are faced with other problems. Some teens cannot attend school because they are in jail, pregnant, selling drugs, or working, anything to help support the family to make life better.

With the schools closing, that means active students must attend another school, and eventually all the schools become over crowded, and some students are forced to stand up. I guess the effect of drugs in the urban community is a big chain reaction; one person’s habit will cause a tremendous domino effect that can cripple someone’s life. How long will this cycle last? The school systems aren’t the only thing that is affected by drugs. The rate of crime and violence soars as drugs sweeps through the community. Drug users are often arrested for stealing items from their local stores; these items can be sold for drugs.

Usually in areas where there is a lot of drug traffic, you can find prostitutes around the clock trying to make some money to purchase drugs. Party stores and gas stations are another place where you can find the homeless, and alcoholics asking for change to support their drinking habits. Some hard working citizens suffer from home invasion, from drug attics needing money, or something worth value to trade for drugs. ). Below is a graph showing the trends on offenses in the US, “ Uniform Crime Reports” (FBI, 1934-1990).

Big time drug dealers are killed because of their success, and then it’s a retaliation that never ends. Rivalry gangs or drug lords will eliminate anyone to expand their business. Sometimes they become greedy, and begin to kill off the competition. In order for them to sell drugs they must purchase them from someone more successful than them, and to take their position they must kill them, and keeping the money and drugs from the transaction. This is how some dealers become heartless, doing whatever it takes to make the money, and take over the streets where the money is.

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