|
|
| Potent Pot Rolling Up Sales |
|
Posted by FoM on August 27, 2000 at 21:20:56 PT By Serge F Kovaleski, Washington Post Staff Writer Source: Washington Post 
A more potent marijuana now rivals and in some cases has surpassed crack as the drug of choice among users and dealers in Washington neighborhoods once dominated and devastated by the highly addictive form of cocaine. The pot phenomenon has been attracting a new, younger generation of users, many of whom saw older siblings, parents and friends ravaged by the crack epidemic that besieged neighborhoods beginning in the late 1980s and extended through much of the last decade. Interviews with law enforcement authorities, substance abuse counselors, community activists and drug dealers, along with a review of drug-testing records from the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency, reveal that the consumption and distribution of cannabis in Washington has significantly increased as the crack market has contracted. One of the most troubling aspects of the shift toward marijuana is that – unlike the crack scourge – marijuana is popular with youths, including some in their early teens, according to police and drug counselors. Violence, largely fueled by turf feuds between young and armed dealers, is also a part of the marijuana market. Though less intense than the running gun battles that regularly erupted between street crews during the peak of the crack epidemic, when the District's homicide rate hit an all-time high, police say marijuana-related violence is a significant contributor to the city's persistent crime problem. Marijuana is in such demand that on various occasions, D.C. police have had to curtail undercover sales operations aimed at busting buyers because officers quickly ran out of the drug or were overwhelmed by the number of potential arrests. The customers regularly include residents from surrounding jurisdictions and occasionally buyers from Delaware, Richmond and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In some instances, these police operations have pulled in more than $800 in sales in less than a half-hour, investigators said. During one police raid on an open-air marijuana market along the unit block of Forrester Street SW, officers from the 7th District were forced to close off surrounding streets while making arrests because people continued to stream into the area to make buys despite the law enforcement presence. The Forrester Street market at one point was listed on a marijuana Web site as a place to find powerful strains of cannabis from Canada and Mexico and from labs in the United States where marijuana is cultivated hydroponically – in liquid concentrations of chemicals – to enhance its potency. Users are not only smoking a heavier duty variety of the herb, which has earned the street moniker "hydro"; they are also ingesting greater quantities of it, often by lighting up so-called blunts – cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and filled with the drug. At times, the availability of marijuana has reached absurd proportions. Until about 18 months ago, one of the largest open-air marijuana markets in the city operated on Orleans Place, just six blocks or so from the headquarters of the police department's major narcotics unit in Northeast Washington. Authorities were able to crack down on the market, but dealers moved their operation and now operate in smaller pockets throughout the area. "In the last three or four years, marijuana has become the main staple of drug use and sales in the District of Columbia. . .‚. When we do reversals [sting operations], we now take into consideration that there is an unlimited amount of buyers, especially near the Virginia and Maryland lines, where there are easy ins and easy outs," said Cathy L. Lanier, who until last week was the commanding officer of the major narcotics and gang crime unit and is now the commander of the 4th District. "Marijuana has always been there," Lanier said, "but it has become much more popular to sell and is much less vilified by society and users, whether they are on the street or being more discreet in the privacy of their own homes." To be sure, crack sales remain brisk in many Washington neighborhoods. Also, the use of higher-purity, inexpensive heroin that can be snorted or even smoked with marijuana has been on the rise. And there has also been a sizable jump in the prevalence of methamphetamines and Ecstasy, the rave party and dance club drug. But the growth in marijuana usage in Washington has outpaced that of any other drug in the city – a trend counter to that seen nationwide, where demand for pot among youths is decreasing. The ascendancy of marijuana in the city is due to a complex confluence of social, economic and legal factors extending back more than a decade. One of the predominant factors is that crack, the pellet of cooked cocaine, is viewed with contempt by a generation traumatized by the violence associated with the trade and by the effect on elders who would stop at nothing for another fix. "They saw the destruction from crack all over their streets and in their households; it was part of everyday life. They watched how it robbed them of their fathers, mothers and brothers," said Gerard Austin, an addiction counselor and member of the Alliance of Concerned Men, a group that helps at-risk youths. "Now the crack head is considered the worst of the worst. At least a junkie has some principles. But with a crack head, there is no cut card. Everything goes out the window." Austin said that nearly three-fourths of the juveniles and adults he is counseling use or have used marijuana as a primary drug – double the number five years ago. He noted that among users, rationales for smoking marijuana include the belief that "the good Lord left weed here as a way of expressing themselves naturally without getting addicted. They view it as socially accepted, more like alcohol, and they further justify it by saying it has medicinal uses." The escalating demand for marijuana has given rise to open-air markets like the one in the 1300 block of Valley Avenue in Southeast Washington, where dealers for the most part sell only cannabis. That is a departure from the past, when that and other drug markets hawked crack, hemp, heroin and LSD. Police have identified at least seven major marijuana centers in the District – one- to two-block areas where the drug is peddled outdoors – as well as a number of smaller markets that also are fertile ground for sales. A 20-year-old dealer, who would identify himself only as Leroy, said: "We beat the rap every day out here. . .‚. We can check out the unmarked cop cars coming from a mile away. By the time they park, we are gone, and besides, I don't carry enough of the weed on me to get busted for selling or anything like that." Leroy, one of about a half-dozen dealers near an apartment building that serves as the unofficial base of the marijuana market on Valley Avenue, said he can make upward of $500 in an evening selling $10 bags of marijuana. "I like the lifestyle and I like the money – it's big," he said. "The weed is where it's at right now. But I wouldn't sell crack anyway. Rock is for dying men and whores." Edward Harris, 21, who grew up in the East Capitol Dwellings public housing development in Southeast Washington and is now a peace adviser in the neighborhood, said: "It was cooler to smoke marijuana, because you saw how crack tore up whole cities and people and broke down families. Weed just lays you back. The word, the whole aspect of crack, is a turnoff." Law enforcement officials say many dealers have opted to sell marijuana partly because penalties can be much stiffer for someone caught distributing crack. Depending on the amount of the cocaine seized, the discretion of the courts and whether violence was involved, offenders can be charged with a felony and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. People convicted of selling marijuana, regardless of the quantity, would face a misdemeanor charge and a one-year sentence. In all, experts point out, it comes down to business savvy: A dealer can make a good deal of money in cannabis with a minimal risk of serving time if busted. Authorities pointed out that a dealer who purchases a kilogram of marijuana for $2,000 stands to make a profit of at least $10,500 by selling it in $10 ("dime") bags. Those involved in the fight against drugs hope legislation approved by the D.C. Council last month – which toughens the maximum penalties and makes distribution or intent to distribute more than a half-pound of marijuana a felony punishable by up to five years in prison – will send a stern message to dealers and help curb related violence. Others, however, question the impact of the legislation, which Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) has signed. Laws aside, communities have been showing less of a tolerance for the crack culture by pressuring dealers and users to give up the drug or get out. But marijuana's foothold in the city is also due to the quality of the product itself. "The boom in marijuana usage is largely explained by the fact that the drug has increased in potency over the years and is more powerful now," said Detective Mark Stone, of the major narcotics branch. "This is reflected in the language out on the streets," he said, noting that the term now is 'hydro.'‚" According to the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency, nearly 64 percent of the juveniles arrested in the first six months of the year tested positive for marijuana at the time they were booked, compared with 58 percent who did so in 1995. The proportion of juvenile arrestees who have tested positive for cocaine, the records show, has hovered between 4 percent and 7 percent over the same period. Users also have increasingly been mixing marijuana with other drugs. According to a drug abuse database set up by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the number of people in the District who went to hospital emergency rooms for drug episodes and reported that they also had smoked marijuana or hashish soared from 27 per 100,000 in 1991 to 62 per 100,000 in 1998. Investigators said that much of the marijuana arriving in the District is brought by New York City-based Dominican gangs and by others who import it from Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, where it is grown. Earlier this month, a task force of D.C. and Prince George's County police made a large marijuana bust, seizing 38 pounds apparently headed for the streets of Southeast Washington and arresting two District women. But the seizure was small when compared with the amount that moves through the District. At open-air markets, traffic can be thick, particularly on weekends, as drivers make buys from dealers who often aggressively solicit. The purchasing is not limited to Washingtonians. "If you go to one of these open-air markets you will see priests, orthopedic surgeons, students and others driving in with Maryland and Virginia plates," said Barry R. McCaffrey, the national drug control policy director. Overall, he added, "this is not just a poor or a black or a brown issue." While the marijuana markets attract violence, they also bring in prostitution, crap games, pit bull fights and a variety of other illegal activities – including the sale of fraudulent immigration documents. For these reasons, D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said he voted in favor of the legislation stiffening penalties for the sale of marijuana. His ward is home to two large marijuana markets: One runs along the 500 and 600 blocks of Hobart Place NW, and the other extends across the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Columbia Road NW. "To be quite frank, there are enough black men in jail in the District of Columbia, and I do not see the penitentiary as the solution," Graham said. "I voted yes because of the markets. Neighborhoods are suffering as a result of the secondary issues they inflict. One elderly woman in the ward is too terrified to put her trash out even at 7 a.m. That is no way to live." By Serge F. Kovaleski, Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, August 28, 2000; Page A1
District Toughens Marijuana Penalties Lax Laws Make D.C. Haven For Marijuana Softer Marijuana Laws Marijuana Laws in District Called Lax Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
 |
|
Comment #4 posted by jeff on September 22, 2000 at 12:47:16 PT:
|
| Comment #3 posted by nl5x on August 29, 2000 at 01:20:50 PT |
| Comment #2 posted by Too feet on August 28, 2000 at 17:39:17 PT |
Why are they sending the "message" only to the mid-level dealers? probably not too many "hydro" farms in the ghetto. By far the majority of the weed sold on the street ANYHERE is mexican schwag which comes into the country at the behest of the crooks in power. but they target so-called gourmet "hydro" as the competition for their lucrative mass-grown schwag. All the while filling the prisons, also all privately owned, with the poor and minorities.
It's too late to work within the system.
|
Comment #1 posted by r.earing on August 28, 2000 at 08:14:43 PT:
|
| Post Comment |  |
|  |