Hacker News Reader

Pay enough money to politicians and you can make anything legal or be swept under the rug. The Sacklers pushed opiates on millions of Americans, knowing how addictive and deadly they were. Thousands (millions?) died and the Sacklers just paid some hush money in fines and it was all swept under the rug.

View on HN

It’s amazing that when the opioid crisis hit “rural America” people blame the distributors and called it a “disease”. But when it was rampant in the “inner cities” it was about “moral failings” and the lack of discipline. Even though the drug problem in the inner city was also caused by the government actively propping up governments where it was being produced in service to the Cold War.

You’re talking about two very different eras and this two different sets of people.

Eras? The “tough on crime” happened when Clinton was in office - whose wife supported him and ran for President in 2016, Trump talking about crime before he was into politics who was the President, and when Biden who is the President was in Congress (ie this is not a Democratic or Republican thing). The same politicians who are in charge now were in charge then.

Today minorities are statistically being given harsher sentences for the same drug crimes than non minorities.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com