Drugs and Their Association with Hated Minorities

Opium dens and the Chinese
Opium first appeared in El Paso, Texas. The Chinese immigrated to El Paso and began selling Opium to Caucasians. Although the Chinese have been smoking Opium for years, it finally became popular with the Caucasians. The business boomed because the Chinese were selling their Opium along the railroad. Almost every stop along the railroad across New Mexico and Texas had one Opium shop. The Chinese were becoming wealthy that led to a racial divide. El Paso said the Chinese were taking advantage of “fine folks”. This problem led to an ordinance in March of 1882 prohibiting excessive use of Opium. Then in July of 1882, Caucasians were prohibited of even entering an Opium establishment. I found this interesting because the government allowed the Chinese to smoke Opium way before these laws were established. They didn’t start cracking down on the issue until Opium became a problem with Caucasian railroad workers. The government showed no concern for the Chinese and yet they passed laws to target the Chinese and not punish the Caucasian males who were originally the problem.
San Francisco, California was one of the first places Opium became immersed in America culture along with the Chinese people. The Chinese were isolated from Caucasians during this time, which allowed them to create Chinatown. Since the Chinese were so isolated and frowned upon, this led to opium dens. Almost every store, laundry, grocery and even restaurants, in Chinatown had an Opium den. Although they were allowed to smoke Opium they had to bring in their own. What I found interesting while reading this specific reference was Opium was legal for the Chinese to smoke but if they smoked Opium in front of a Caucasian they were immediately arrested, along with others present. Certainly proving a bias attitude and unethical treatment of the Chinese. Since the reference was written by a young man during this time period, the young man really had an unbiased attitude, which I found interesting. I would think he would despise the Chinese. Eventually Opium became illegal in America and was burned and destroyed.

Cocaine with African-Americans Cocaine really became a racial issue in the South. Caucasians feared African-Americans who were involved with cocaine. The plantation owners assumed the slaves would leave the plantations and rape and abuse their wives. The medical publications and of course the news supported this theory. The myth went so far as to assume African-Americans could receive superhuman powers and became crazy causing Caucasian policemen to carry higher-powered guns. This doesn’t even register in my mind. I never realized how intense and irrational our society was in racial segregation. I know during this time, slavery was a huge issue and truly unjustified. I almost feel as if, plantation owners were fueling this theory to cause the racial segregation battle to become even worse. Plantation owners were working their slaves so hard, these men had to resort to drugs to continue their work. It shows how wrong the owners treated their slaves.
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act passed in 1986 by President Nixon proved our government was corrupted. The rule stated “50 grams of crack, instead of 5,000 grams of powder cocaine, merit a ten-year minimum sentence, and 5 grams of crack, rather than 500 grams of powder, trigger a five-year sentence”. This targeted lower income African-American communities. Since powered cocaine is more expensive then crack cocaine, African-Americans are more likely to have crack cocaine in their possession. The difference between the grams is so significant that many Caucasians are never caught with 5,000 grams of powder cocaine where as African-Americans have been caught multiple times with 500 grams of crack cocaine. The ratio of this is absurd and doesn’t make any sense. This led to more African-Americans being arrested and placed in jail. Even if Caucasians were caught with 5,000 grams of power cocaine they experienced lower sentencing then crack cocaine offenders. The jail population consists of nearly 50 percent African-Americans and more then half of them convicted of possession of excessive crack cocaine. The government is more concerned on punishing minorities then controlling the problem. In the 1980’s the CIA actually targeted African-Americans. The CIA imported tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine and delivered it into inner cities. The CIA imported it so much it allowed drug dealers to sell the drugs and purposely intended to destroy communities. They knew cocaine was addicting and can be turned into crack to sell for a cheaper price. It’s so interesting to me that our government can be so corrupt. They try to protect Caucasians but yet destroy minorities.

Alcohol – urban Catholic immigrants
During the 1850’s, Catholic immigrants were living in urban areas. Drinking and getting drunk was daily life. But later in the 1850’s, the middle class began to develop and drinking was no longer part of the middle class. Catholic immigrants continued to drink. That left the Catholic immigrants isolated and looked down upon by middle class Americans. In 1869, a Protestant’s, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, were on a mission to Americanize the Catholic immigrants. Rather then embracing the culture, they wanted to change the entire Catholic culture. By changing the culture, the Anti-Saloon league was born. Their objective was to focus on the anti-alcohol. It became a battle between the dry (natives) and wet (immigrants). Although they had good intentions, their actions were not justified. With their free press, they first targeted the makers of the alcohol distribution, which were Germans. They began calling people who supported the Germans un-American. Finally the group was broken up. I can’t believe the Anti-Saloon league targeted the Catholic immigrants in the first place. Normal Americans were buying and drinking the alcohol but yet they focused purely on the immigrants. When in reality they should have been focusing on the overall population and controlling alcohol consumption. The group was very counterproductive and obviously ineffective.