DETROIT Vs. Crack Cocaine
Name the block, cross streets, all that! Fucking dope done fucked up our brothers and sisters. Nancy Reagen aint shit and Coo Coo Ca Choo!!!
I dont get anything anymore but where did you get yours????
DETROIT Vs. Crack Cocaine
Name the block, cross streets, all that! Fucking dope done fucked up our brothers and sisters. Nancy Reagen aint shit and Coo Coo Ca Choo!!!
I dont get anything anymore but where did you get yours????
Well, after reading this post, the only thing I can say is if you want to see how crack-cocaine can wipe out an entire neighborhood within a few years, visit the Fox Creek area, formerly known as Crack Alley in the 80s [[Chalmers & Mack).
Crackheads and computers?
I saw the east side destruction first hand in the 80s.The crackheads would bang on peoples doors,and if they didn't confront them,off came the storm door.Into the shopping cart or sometimes balanced on top of the head.To the metal shop they came,25 cents a pound.I just started turning them away.The real crazy ones would have the pot or bowl of oatmeal,still warm sometimes in the cart.As the weeks went by you could tell who had it bad.Great way to trim those unwanted pounds.Very sad.I wish the police at the time had the heart to shut all of this down.Chief Hart,CY and the feds should have been on top of this.This was the start of the eastside urban prairie.
Of all the assaults on Detroit [[decline of manufacturing, white flight, black flight), the introduction of crack cocaine showed the quickest and most dramatic results.
My experience would be the area around Six/Seven Mile Rd and Gratiot. A clean, peaceful neighborhood became blighted, violent, and full of abandoned homes in a matter of a few years. Incidents like the awning removal, mentioned in a previous post, were the norm. I despised crack, those who sold crack, those who smoked it, and those who tolerated it. Still do.
Cadieux & Lanark
Never did Crack, never sniffed glue:
Acid: Brain gets rewired, scary, not a lot of fun
Mescaline: Crazy with an Edge, not bad
Coke: Feel like Superman, but so what? Waste of time and money
Reefer: Tried and true
So, why would anyone do Crack? What's the attraction? Seems stupid. Talk to me, brothers and sisters [["I want to see a sea of hands"). Reference?
Sounds like Brother J.C., in his "It takes five seconds, people, five seconds to decide..." speech!Never did Crack, never sniffed glue:
Acid: Brain gets rewired, scary, not a lot of fun
Mescaline: Crazy with an Edge, not bad
Coke: Feel like Superman, but so what? Waste of time and money
Reefer: Tried and true
So, why would anyone do Crack? What's the attraction? Seems stupid. Talk to me, brothers and sisters [["I want to see a sea of hands"). Reference?
Anyone who voluntarily does crack, after seeing what it has done to others, does not deserve five seconds of sympathy. There are other ways to turn on, tune in, or drop out...
"I would never do crack... I would never do a drug named after a part of my own ass, okay?"
--Denis Leary
Crack went to the rich folks in the 1970s to the poor folks in 1980s. It kills our families, wipe out generations, supports terrorism, rob us of our lives and turn nice neighborhoods into instant ghettoes. The police didn't see it coming before its too late, including state local and federal governments. The media in the 1980s tried to warn kids to "Just say no to drugs and yes to life." But it didn't gain enough attention. Today most people smoke, snort and inject drugs into their bodies like food. Pot is getting slowly legalized and global terrorists acquire more powerful weapons and bombs thanks to drug trade. If only the U.S. government put stricter laws on illegal street drugs than we and the rest of America don't have to talk or write about these problems or seeing more kids and adults in jail or DEAD!
WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET
In Memoriam: Neda Soltani
On some of those streets, you can drive all the way from Jefferson to Warren and not find one house standing, or any visible sidewalks [[only 5 feet prairies).
Around '87-'88 I worked at John R. & Winder, at a place called Hill Floral Products [[wholesale florist like Nordlie & Century). The packers that used to work there went into the surrounding neighborhood [[I think City Cab was back there somewhere) for theirs. I dropped some of them off when they needed a ride, over on Ashland & Charlevoix, Dickerson, Newport, Marlboro [[the "cigarette streets") between Kercheval & Mack. That whole neighborhood was really bad, too. It probably still is
Around 1988 I read that Detroit had the second largest number of IV drug users in the nation. That meant that Detroit beat out NYC or LA. I wonder where Detroit stands now nationally.
If by "bad" you mean "completely gone," then yeah, it is.
There are pockets/hotspots on the eastside that are the worst in the city. 7 mi./Hayes area and all along Gratiot from Connor up to 8mi. are aweful. I grew up at Gratiot/Outer Dr. area. Last week I drove down Gratiot in this area and was awestruck at the desolation. Looked like a third world country. Very sad, especially when I remember it as a viable/vibrant area.
Instead of doing anything to actually fight crack, we got lame public service announcements.
I remember the Coasters doing a radio PSA spot in which they sang, "Yakkety-Yak/Don't Smoke Crack."
Now imagine you're a crackhead, jonesing for your next fix. You're on your way to the dope house and you hear "Yakkety-Yak/Don't Smoke Crack" on your car radio.
I can just see the dopehead now:
"Hey, I remember that song. I'm not going to keep smoking crack if the Coasters say I shouldn't. I've made up my mind, dadgummit. I'm turning around and going to church instead of the crack house."
Yakkety-yak indeed.
The most destructive dopes are those found at the north corner of Woodward and Jefferson.
Yeah, my dad still lives on Tacoma between Boulder/Cordell. That section of the street is not too bad. The neighbors are pretty nice and helpful.
Let's try this again. Crack's getting blamed for a lot here, so it must be a pretty good high. LSD gave us "Revolver", "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", "Disraeli Gears". But what's the attraction of Crack? I've done some Googling, and the best I came up with was a revolting sequence of pictures of this crack-head performing unwholesome acts on an ugly, naked, old lady [[don't remember the website). Maybe it's just me, but I'm not exactly in a huge hurry to experiment with Crack. So, again, what's the attraction, brothers and sisters?
Crack addiction is one of the strongest addictions there is, smudge. There is no window for "experimenting" with it. It only takes once.
I never heard anyone say "you know, ever since I started smokin' crack, my life has been comin' up roses."
I do know some people who lost an awful lot of weight, though.
Very wise. Because it just might be the best feeling you have ever experienced. A lot of crack/coke heads will tell you the same thing. Unfortunately, without a strong will and knowledge of what hard drugs will do to you, you may end up talkin' bout "that shit be calling me" like Chris Rock in New Jack City.
Mack and Lenark? Creekside boundaries are Alter to Connor, the river to Jefferson. Did you mean Lennox?
I know many amazing people in that community.
What typically happens to crackheads? I know of a few families that were broken apart when the dad started in on crack. Its been years and its like they fell off the edge of the earth or something? Do they die of starvation or move to Florida, or ...?
If you are addicted to crack, do you usually end up dead or in prison?
What happened to all the zombies?
I know for a fact that's not true, because I have friends who tried it a few times and never did it again.
I don't think crack is any worse than heroin as far as addiction goes. [[And, yes, I know people who also tried that only a few times). The difference is in the buzz.
When a junkie shoots smack, he usually nods out for a few hours until he wakes up and sets about getting his next fix.
Smoking crack puts a person on edge, so he's more likely to go out and cause trouble. Also, one of the characteristics of cocaine, snorted or smoked, is that the user keeps wanting more.
A jittery dope fiend constantly craving his next fix is a heap more worrisome than some junkie crashed out on his toilet. Until the heroin addict wakes up, that is!
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