I Started Selling Crack At 12 - Part 3
It was my aunt, her boyfriend Donnie who was also a heroin addict and her three boys, Rickey, Zipp and Jo-Jo .
When I asked her about what school I would go to she told me "That shit ain't nothin but a waste of time, you can get as smart as you want but at the end of the day you still just a dumb nigga from the ghetto to the man." she used to tell us that "to them, we animals and that's why they put us in these concrete jungles and let us kill each other."
Credit: economist.com
How They Got Their Start.
My cousins said they all used to stand on the corner and sling dope when they were my age but one time my aunt and her boyfriend stole their package and disappeared for two weeks, the only option they had was to stickup a stash house of a different crew over in east Baltimore to get the money. They said it was so easy it changed everything, they never went back to the corner and when their supplier came to pick up the money they owed him, they sent him a message by tying him to a chair, covering him in gas and almost lighting him on fire. He let them keep the money and they let him go. From that day on they started to build their reputation as stickup boys.
From Robin Hood to Robbing The Hood.
In the early 80's the drug game was different it was run by O.G.'s and young guys from the neighborhood, it might sound odd but even though they destroyed the community with drugs, they took care of that same community, they paid peoples rent, gave the kids money and told them to stay in school,they lived in the neighborhood, they sponsored and created youth sports leagues, invested in community businesses, they made sure people had food to eat and kids had toys on Christmas. They wanted to be like SuperFly, The Mack, Black Ceaser, these were the Superheros that came from the Blaxplotation films of the 70's, the bad guy was "The Man" and that's who they fought, they were avengers of the ghetto.
In the late 80's the young guys figured out how to cut out the middle man and that's when the money started flowing like water. When the greed set in, the lessons of respect learned from the O.G.'s was forgotten, they started battling for territory, kids were getting caught in the crossfire of bullets and drug addiction.
In the early 90's The new school of drug dealers all wanted to be Nino Brown and Scarface, it wasn't about a better life outside of the governments chains anymore, it was all about ego and status. They didn't live in or take care of the neighborhoods anymore, they moved into the suburbs away from the Jungle and the war zone. Who owned the most corners and who had the most soldiers was the new game.
Credit: ambrosekane.com
I Gave You Power
The new school of thought was that the gun gives you power, that's where we came in, if we felt like a weak dude was getting it and he shouldn't we would show up and take it from him. If the guys on the corner were getting flashy, if the corners were making too much money, or people started feeling like they couldn't be touched we would be there to bring them back to earth. In reality we were driven by our own egos as well, our egos and our reputation but in our line of work your reputation was the difference between a shootout and a smooth in and out.
Part 2
https://steemit.com/life/@hustle-no-more/i-started-robbing-drug-dealers-when-i-was-15
Stickup Boy Stories
https://steemit.com/life/@hustle-no-more/setting-the-stash-house-on-fire-stick-up-boy-stories
Crazy, you could make a movie with your life story.
The crazy part is how many others share the same story as me and live this on a daily basis.
That IS the crazy part man, when legalization is all that's needed to nearly entirely eliminate the violence in the drug trade.
When it comes to weed, LSD, mushrooms, ecstasy I can agree about the need to lift the prohibition, however I don't agree that there is a place for legal heroin, crack and meth.
While it might eliminate some of the street level violence, there will always be an underground market and as the market shrinks the corners become more valuable, so this might actually increase the violence in the poorer communities where they could not afford to purchase legally.
Certain drugs absolutely lead to no where but a physical dependence and addiction, the user loses sight of everything except getting their fix, eventually when they can no longer hold a job and they turn to robbery and theft to get the money for the next hit.
I have only met a couple of recreational crackheads and responsible junkies in my life. Lives are lost to more than just the gun.
For certain.
Now, that said, what if drugs cost what they actually cost instead of what they end up costing under prohibition, and were pure?
People would die because of drugs, I get that, but people die because of drugs every day, today. And every day, today, far more people die because of alcohol than because of illegal drugs. I'm not debating that "certain drugs absolutely lead to no where but a physical dependence and addiction," though I am debating the second part of that statement.
Legalization wouldn't just make the corners less valuable; it'd more or less obliterate their value, and the prison-industrial-complex that goes along with them. Now, every study that's been done, including the real-world national level actual legalization of all drugs in Portugal shows that usage rates decline in such a scenario.
But let's say that usage rates went up. Just, hypothetically. So, drugs are legal and you can buy them in stores similar to today's head shops and they're pure. Usage rates go up by 10% nationally. Deaths due to drug use decline anyway, because drug users know what they're using.
Oh, then there's philosophy: Look all we've really got in the end is our bodies, and maybe our minds. The man can't control what you think, but tries really hard to control how you think it. To me that's not alright.
"The police state" in the United States is a direct descendant of our failed drug policies. All that's needed now is to admit failure and move on.
And you're right: There's not going to be many responsible crackheads, weather drugs are illegal or legal, and there surely will still be crackheads in either case, as well, so I choose legalization, the course that I think harms society the least.
Wow, these stories are awesome. Tragic display of mankind, but still awesome.
I read every one of your posts. Thanks for writing.
Thanks for following and reading
Nice - I'm eager to learn what happened to you. If you're sitting in your house writing this from your Kingpin empire, or are a changed man? Interesting post nonetheless!
Hey thank you so much for sharing all of this. I really admire your vulnerability
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