The Forgotten Men and Women...

[jaxind]

Why is it whenever tRUMP and the republicans talk about taking care of the Forgotten Men and Women, I know it's always in reference to the rural, white person. Why aren't black people ever included in the Forgotten Men and Women group??! How come they can get away with their obvious bias?! And, when it comes to all the help they want to give to the white, rural voters with their opioid crisis, where was their concern ever for black people and their problem with drugs??!

[Nitram]

1. The answer is that the GOP narrative on race has long been similar to their narrative on poverty.

They believe poor people are poor because they are lazy and immoral. That's why they keep trying to add additional work requirements for Medicare and other programs, ignoring the fact that the majority of recipients already work, or have disabilities that prevent them from working.

For African Americans they add to that such blatant lies as African Americans have advantages in getting admitted to good universities or for getting jobs, because of 'reverse racism.' They charge that African Americans are naturally violent, and prone to crime. They attribute crime and poverty statistics to African American "culture." They turn reality on its head when they accuse the disadvantaged of being at fault for their own disadvantages. Many of those disadvantages are actually barriers and obstacles that conservatives have placed in the way of success in the African-American community.

[planetc]

2. The war on drugs is a boondoggle for white careerists

And the original criminalization of marijuana was a conscious and deliberate excuse for throwing African Americans in jail. This was just another way to get them to work for nothing. America's thinking on drugs in general is royally fouled up, not to mention self-contradictory. Legal drugs are good: prescription drugs are all good, even if they are addictive, and illegal drugs are bad even if they're not addictive. Among legal drugs, alcohol is untouchable, but taxable, despite being addictive for some people. Coffee and cigarettes are taxable, and people can use all they want, as long as they pay the taxes. Opioids are good legal drugs except for addicts, of course. And above all, In America, the only useful government response is to deprive all those addicts of their supply, even if this results in more pain for legitimate chronic pain sufferers.

If the only useful response to a bad drug is choking off the supply, this creates two new industries: Drug Enforcement and Prison for drug traffickers. Many paychecks are being cut to pay to protect us from the evils of drugs, except for those that happen to be legal, and taxable, of course.

I hope this clarifies the US position on drugs: it needs a decent mood altering substance administered until it gets over the compulsion to arrest people, lock them up, and tell all the rest of us how evil they are. It needs some creative and fact-based thinking on drugs.