Chasing the Scream: Sunshine and Weaklings

1. "Second, by driving up the cost of drugs by more than a thousand percent, the new policies meant addicts were forced to commit crime to get their next fix" (pg. 37).
• I chose this quote because I was fascinated by the cycle of how drug addiction works and the role  drug lords played in keeping the sequence ongoing. I especially found it enthralling that as the the cost of the drugs went up, that was when addicts configured ways which usually involved crime to get their hands on specific drug they were addicted to.
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2. "Some 22 percent of addicts were wealthy, while only 6 percent poor" (pg. 36)
• I selected this quote because it was a statistic I was quite familiar with. Most of us tend to believe that drug use is mostly predominant in poor and underrepresented communities, however, as this quote will show, most drug use and interdependently drug addiction is most prevalent in wealthier individuals and wealthier communities. 
3. "Drug prohibition put the entire narcotics industry into their hands. Once the clinics were closed, every single addict became a potential customer and cash cow" (pg. 40). 
• I chose this quote because I felt that it was interesting to see how the drug dealers perpetuated the war on drugs to basically keep money in their pockets. I also find it sad that though Harry Anslinger had his own motives when it came to the war on drugs, he indirectly became a puppet or rather THE puppet to further push the agenda on the war on drugs that were set up by the very people he claimed to despise which were drug dealers.
4.  "The United States government, as represented by its [anti-drug] officers, Henry explained, had just become 'the greatest and most potent maker of criminals in any recent century' (pg. 37).
• I chose this quote because I reckoned it was interesting to see Henry Smith Williams take on the role of the United States government on the war of drugs and the creation of criminals as a result. Due to the harsh policies that were set in place to prolong the war on drugs, it drove individuals who were addicted and dependent on those drugs to resort to criminal activities to obtain said drugs.