• ConcreteHalloween [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    12 hours ago

    Violent crime has been down across America lately. Baltimore had it’s lower murder rate in like 50 years (and that actually was correlated with the mayor implementing some progressive community policing reforms which did help accelerate the trend), however nobody is exactly sure why. One theory is that because fentanyl has become the main narcotic being distributed in the US, and fent is so easy to distribute you don’t really need a proper “organized crime” network to do it, it’s resulted in less and less powerful street gangs who aren’t fighting over turf as much, but that’s just one theory.

    • InexplicableLunchFiend [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      13 hours ago

      Fent also makes you a sleepy sleepy guy instead of meth or crack which make you into active roaming criminals fiending for more. Fent is also so cheap you don’t really need to rob people to keep up the habit

      • ConcreteHalloween [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        12 hours ago

        Yeah this is part of the reason why people PERCEIVE crime as being higher in cities despite it actually being lower. There’s less violent crime but there’s a lot more obviously intoxicated and destitute people in the street. They may not be committing any crime (well besides having and consuming an illegal substance) but having so many clearly desperate people in your immediately surroundings is still very unpleasant and makes people feel less safe.

    • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      15 hours ago

      Baltimore having its lowest crime spree isn’t an accident at all. Their mayor is a lefty and has this proactive community outreach he’s doing. Like, he’s deliberately moved away from policing to fix violent crime. The lowering of violent crime in Baltimore far exceeds what we’d expect to see for the national average.

      The way you put it makes it seem like their efforts there haven’t been useful and that flatly untrue.

      • ConcreteHalloween [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        15 hours ago

        Didn’t mean it that way. Im from the Baltimore area originally think his policing reforms are great and definitely were a huge contributor to the lower murder rate.

        But it is also true that rates were already declining before he entered office and have been declining across the country. He accelerated the trend in his city but the trend was already happening.

      • anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml
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        15 hours ago

        I have to imagine size and potency, as well as a partial legal framework for it to exist in (medical use).

        If I want a balloon up my ass of fentanyl I could probably make 10x more on it, but why bother when I could buy it off the resident who needs to pay off half a mill in student loans?

        • Wheaties [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          14 hours ago

          haha as if there weren’t enough pressures to stay out of US medicine, becoming collateral in the drug bust of your colleague sounds like a nightmare.

          • anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml
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            11 hours ago

            There’s incentive not to snitch or arrest since fewer people are in medicine these days because of the huge cost of that education (at least in the US), so you’re incentivized to keep your mouth fucking shut if you see or hear of any fent dealing because it might take a while to replace them and all those patients will fall on your overworked shoulders, which will undoubtedly result in deaths and they might actually be very competent as a doctor, and their replacement will be in even more debt. Thus the system perpetuates itself.

            The problem with debt traps is that they inevitably result in desperate people doing desperate things.

      • ConcreteHalloween [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        15 hours ago

        It’s so potent a very small amount can supply a lot of dealers. No need for submarines or secret tunnels or guys driving box trucks with false bottoms, a guy with a backpack can get a ton over the border. Plus it’s often in pill form so it’s easy to disguise as legal medication.