The answer is that if you’re going to apply the standards of inner-city crack addicts to the entire US population, you’re so far from having a rational discussion that I can’t take you seriously.
I will note that a trillion dollars wasted on the war on drugs has done exactly nothing to reduce any of the issues you raised. Zero. Total waste.
Nope. I was only applying it to you since you are the one who offered this statement:
I spent my youth in the heart of New York City. I guarantee that I’ve seen everything you have and at least ten times more.
You portrayed yourself as somewhat of an authority on the drug culture after making this completely asinine statement:
Cocaine is about as heavy a drug as alcohol, and no more.
As someone who has experienced the front line first hand, I can say that you do not have a clue what you are talking about. Sure, at one point in your life you may have snorted some coke that had been stepped on 42 times in East Harlem. But when you find your best friend dead of a heart attack with the needle still dangling from his arm because he got the crazy idea to shoot a whole gram of Peruvian flake, then you can come and tell me how pointless drug laws are. Capisce?
“The answer is that if you’re going to apply the standards of inner-city crack addicts to the entire US population, you’re so far from having a rational discussion
You’re way off. You seem to think that drugs only affected inner cities. WRONG! The examples I gave you all came from middle income working class areas. And you have no way of deciding if the war on drugs has been successful, because you don’t know where the base line was.
Stop trying to make an educated decision on something you know nothing about.