Word: druggings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...problem of crack abuse among the affluent is especially disturbing because it comes at a time when the middle class seemed to be weaning itself from recreational drugs. Between 1985 and 1988, the number of casual drug users in the U.S. dropped from 23 million to 14.5 million, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. But according to another federal study, the number of Americans using crack cocaine at least once a week increased by one- third during that period, from under 650,000 to more than 860,000. "The poor people in the ghetto aren't buying...
Psychologists say upwardly mobile Americans who turn to crack share personality traits that may make them vulnerable to the drug's siren call. Dr. Jeffrey Rosecan, director of the Cocaine Abuse Treatment Program at Manhattan's Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, sketches a profile of the typical crack user: a man in his 30s or 40s, single or divorced, with a high- pressure job, little inner peace and a history of moderate drug use and heavy drinking. "They're extremists, hard drivers, workaholics," says Rosecan. "With an all-or-nothing personality and a history of drug experimentation...
Crack is not for men only. One of the most striking developments of the past five years is the increase of crack abuse among middle-class women. The American Association for Clinical Chemistry, the organization whose members perform 80% of the drug tests in the U.S., reports that among people who test positive for drugs, the percentage of women jumped from 25% in 1972 to 40% in 1988. Many of them first used cocaine to help lose weight...
...Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law of 1970 was aimed at mobsters and drug traffickers, but in recent years prosecutors have used the statute to go after white-collar criminals with gangbusting zeal. That application of RICO has been attacked as unfair, especially the practice of freezing the assets of suspected criminals before trial. Last week the Justice Department issued new RICO guidelines requiring that prosecutors seek a forfeiture of assets in proportion to the crime rather than try to seize all of a defendant's business interests. The changes come in response to pending congressional legislation that would weaken...
...severity; this can lead to situations in which an armed assault can draw the same penalty, say 15 years, as a simple robbery. In recent years, moreover, disparities in the punishments prescribed for various crimes have been exaggerated by legislators' tendency to enact mandatory minimum sentences, particularly for drug crimes...