Perhaps the most terrifying statistic of all that Soares uncovered was that in Albany County (minority population 13 per cent) more than 95 per cent of imprisoned Drug Laws offenders were black or Hispanic. Whichever way you look at the figure, it can only mean one thing – something is rotten in the state. ibid.
[Matthew] Fogg concluded that the harm done to African Americans by the policing of drugs far outweighed the harm caused by the drugs themselves. ibid.
Slowly the American people may be reflecting that, after almost four decades of the War on Drugs, dependency levels and usage are higher than ever before; the price of all major recreational drugs has been declining resolutely over that period; and the state has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars in a criminal-justice system that delivers a lot of crime but very little justice. ibid.
By using prohibited narcotics, consumers are not only contributing to huge criminal profits, but they bear indirect responsibility for the trail of blood that marks every stage of its journey. ibid.
Luciano seizes what’s left of Genovese’s drug operation and makes it his own. The Making of the Mob s1e7, AMC 2015
Luciano is now in control of a global narcotics empire. ibid.
Every year a hundred billion pounds changes hands in Britain illegally. Much of the money is controlled by international criminal networks involved in human trafficking, terrorism and drugs smuggling. Leading the fight against these criminals is the National Crime Agency. Busting the Drugs Millions: Inside the National Crime Agency, Channel 4 2016
It was an organization worth over a £180 million pounds. And controlled by one man … One of the biggest criminal organisations they had ever encountered. ibid.
Why are you Americans interested in our drug racket? Puppet on a Chain 1970 starring Sven Bertil Taube & Barbara Parkins & Alexander Knox & Patrick Allen & Vladek Sheybal & Ania Marson & Stewart F Lane & Drew Henley & Michael Mellinger & Penny Casdagli & Peter Hutchins et al, directors Geoffrey Reeve & Don Sharp, Dutch rozzer to American rozzer
You don’t do a lot of drugs, do you? Fighting Demons 2015 starring Sean Bean & Eva Longoria & Kate Walsh & Shane Black & Tom Arnold & Leonard Roberts & Paul Ben-Victor & Willa Ford et al, director Rustam Branaman, employer to Bean
Charles Parker junior was born in 1920 and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Ken Burns, Jazz: The Gift 1940-1942, PBS 2001
Parker began to drink, to use marijuana, then Benzedrine dissolved in cups of black coffee that allowed him to play without sleep night after night. ibid.
Charlie Parker was seventeen and already hooked on heroin. ibid.
The unofficial queen of 52nd Street was Billie Holiday ... In 1941 she married a some-time marijuana dealer named Jimmy Monroe. And began smoking opium. Ken Burns, Jazz: The Gift 1943-1945
While a new plague – narcotics – swept through black neighbourhoods dimming hopes and destroying lives. Jazz music would reflect it all. Jazz had always involved risk. To create art on the spot, to step forward and express oneself, had always meant taking enormous chances. But now for some young musicians the time seemed right for freeing jazz from what they considered ‘the tyranny of popular taste’. Ken Burns, Jazz: The Gift 1945-1949
The Dolls of the title actually refer to the arcane showbiz slang for tranquillizers, uppers and sleeping pills which help the three young heroines – one a model, one a singer, one a sex-symbol and actress – smooth the jagged freeways to the top of their professions, but in the common imagination they have come to represent the actual women; women so bound up in sex and money and performance that they seem in themselves to be some sort of heady, rare narcotic. Julie Burchill, introduction to Valley of the Dolls
The intersection at Broadway and 72nd Street on New York’s West Side is officially known as Sherman Square. To heroin addicts it’s needle park. Panic in Needle Park 1971 starring Al Pacino & Kitty Winn & Alan Vint & Richard Bright & Kiel Martin & Michael McClanathan & Warren Finnerty & Marcia Jean Kurtz & Raul Julia & Angie Ortega et al, director Jerry Schatzberg, opening caption
I got nothing, man. ibid. Pacino to black man in street
I’m not hooked, I’m chippin’. ibid. him to her
Some friends. Do you know I’ve been beat by half the people out there? ibid.
It’s my business. It’s what I do good ... When I go into an apartment I jam the lock. Stick some toothpicks in the keyhole and break them off. That way when the people come back I can hear them trying to get in. Make it out the fire-escape. ibid. Hank the burglar to Winn, with Pacino
This Is A Raided Premises. ibid. notice in hallway of block of flats, with rozzer in chair
I’m a germ: you should split. ibid. him to her
Everybody rats ... always. ibid. rozzer to her
I’m the supplier: we’re gonna have stuff coming out of our ears. ibid. him to her
It’s the game you’re playing, Helen. I didn’t make the rules. ibid.
I’ve got people working for me now, Helen. I just sit there counting the bread. ibid. him to her
I want you to shape up and put some clothes on. ibid. her to him
‘But what are we going to do? We come from poverty.’ Cartel Land, opening scene, 2015
‘So they took their revenge by killing all his workers.’ ibid. grieving woman
‘Every autodefensa keeps his usual job … but they all volunteer to protect our towns.’ ibid.
‘It’s time we defend ourselves.’ ibid. autodefensa leader
Legal highs: the drugs that have been causing havoc for nearly a decade. Linked to 204 deaths in 2015. Panorama: The Battle against Legal Highs, BBC 2017
There are 640 varieties of legal highs globally. ibid.
A place of unparalleled fertility, life, vibrancy, prosperity, music, cheer – I’m talking about Punjab … This state is in jeopardy like it’s never been before … We’re talking about a hurricane of drugs … Today, 73.5% of the entire youth population of Punjab is addicted to drugs. Glut, The Untold Story of Punjab, 2010
The streets are infested with pedlars. ibid.
Which is smuggled into India through the 553 kilometre long international borders shared with Pakistan. ibid.
We will find villages with seemingly nobody ill, no hospitals in the vicinity, but plenty of pharmacy shops. ibid.
‘No-one’s left alive. This isn’t life.’ ibid. mother
Control of the international opium trade has always been a key factor in the rise and fall of empires. The Corbett Report: The CIA and the Drug Trade, James Corbett online 2012
During the eighteenth century the British monopolised the opium trade in India and shipped thousands of chests of opium per year to China. ibid.
So too has the CIA been found time after time to be at the heart of the modern international drug trade. ibid.
The Trump administration has appointed an extreme marijuana prohibitionist, Pennsylvania representative Tom Marino, to serve as US Drugs Tsar … A rabid hardliner on drugs policy. The Corbett Report: Trump Reignites War on Weed, James Corbett online 2017
If somebody wants drugs, give ’em drugs. Charles Manson, Manson Speaks: Inside the Mind of a Madman I, History 2017
It’s never going to stop. When one dealer gets caught there’s five more waiting to take his spot. Dopesick: Fentanyl’s Deadly Grip aka Fentanyl: The Drug Deadlier than Heroin, opening scene, Vice 2016
It’s the devil’s pill. ibid. addict
It doesn’t last long so you’re sick again … Fentanyl, you can withdraw like three times a day. ibid.
The deaths for Fentanyl is outrageous. ibid. dude
In 2015 close to 300 people died from Fentanyl in Alberta. Many of these deaths were caused by bootleg, non-pharmaceutical pills. ibid. caption
Because it’s such a powerful and toxic opiate, the withdrawal syndrome is also quite pronounced. ibid. doctor
Twelve friends in two years. ibid. addict
Zavodskoy: Rumours of a new moonshine drug called Krokodil that had some terrifying consequences. Krokodil: Russia’s Deadliest Drug aka Siberia Krokodil Tears, Vice 2011
We use Dimedrol so we don’t throw up. ibid. addict