Serious Topic - Crackheads In the DR?

D

DominicanQuest

New member
Oct 22, 2012
148
0
0
I was just looking at the What To Do When You Are Attacked thread, and after seeing a bunch of people talk about "drug addicts," I just have to ask - there are young crack heads in the DR? I have been here a year and I just don't get it. I am sure that there are some young drug users, but I have never seen any young people that seem to be under the influence of anything other than Brugal, Barcelo, or maybe weed.

I have talked to a bunch of Dominicans - and a lot of them have complained about the drug problem. But, I have been all over- Punta Cana, Samana, Santiago, Sosua, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Cotui, Bonao - and I can honestly say I have never been offered to be sold drugs. I have never seen a young person, "tigere," that made me say "wow - that guy is on something!" (other than alcohol.) I am in my early 30s - and I "blend in." No one here knows I am not Dominican until I speak to them.

Where are all these drug addicts hiding? Not that I desire a run in or anything, but when I lived in Baltimore there was no doubt about the crack and heroine addicts everywhere. The same goes for Washington D.C.

While I do not doubt that crack and other hard drugs can be found here, it just does not seem to me that the penetration is to the level that the people need to fear for their lives because "crack heads" are running wild. If anything, alcohol seems to be the drug of choice among young Dominican jovenes.

Moreover, if I remember correctly, when I lived in B-more and the D.C. area, crack did not seem to be a major factor in making people homicidal. Sure, people committed robberies in order to get money to buy the drug, but I don't remember hearing anything about crack or heroine making people more violent while under the influence (I am sure that there are websites that say crack makes you violent, but after having lived around them - it has not been my experience that people become HOMICIDAL.) I could be wrong about that - but one thing I DO know - alcohol is proven to cause some people to take on a very violent nature.
 
M

mbgmike

New member
Jan 17, 2012
475
4
0
i am sure their are some. i tend to go to areas that most all tourists many ex patriots do not go to at night.
of course i live in Pto Pta.. I have not seen much evidence of it. Not Like in Houston..I lived in Virgin Islands and there were many. of course you have to be around people that do that sort of thing...
i think most crackheads just steal to get more if they no longer work. most are not violent from what i know. i think the usa has a larger problem with it per capita.
 
J

JMB773

Silver
Nov 4, 2011
2,625
0
0
DominicanQuest said:
I was just looking at the What To Do When You Are Attacked thread, and after seeing a bunch of people talk about "drug addicts," I just have to ask - there are young crack heads in the DR? I have been here a year and I just don't get it. I am sure that there are some young drug users, but I have never seen any young people that seem to be under the influence of anything other than Brugal, Barcelo, or maybe weed.

I have talked to a bunch of Dominicans - and a lot of them have complained about the drug problem. But, I have been all over- Punta Cana, Samana, Santiago, Sosua, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Cotui, Bonao - and I can honestly say I have never been offered to be sold drugs. I have never seen a young person, "tigere," that made me say "wow - that guy is on something!" (other than alcohol.) I am in my early 30s - and I "blend in." No one here knows I am not Dominican until I speak to them.

Where are all these drug addicts hiding? Not that I desire a run in or anything, but when I lived in Baltimore there was no doubt about the crack and heroine addicts everywhere. The same goes for Washington D.C.

While I do not doubt that crack and other hard drugs can be found here, it just does not seem to me that the penetration is to the level that the people need to fear for their lives because "crack heads" are running wild. If anything, alcohol seems to be the drug of choice among young Dominican jovenes.

Moreover, if I remember correctly, when I lived in B-more and the D.C. area, crack did not seem to be a major factor in making people homicidal. Sure, people committed robberies in order to get money to buy the drug, but I don't remember hearing anything about crack or heroine making people more violent while under the influence (I am sure that there are websites that say crack makes you violent, but after having lived around them - it has not been my experience that people become HOMICIDAL.) I could be wrong about that - but one thing I DO know - alcohol is proven to cause some people to take on a very violent nature.
Click to expand...

I have a question for you. Do you know what crack is? It is a very good reason why you do not see crack on the streets of DR compared to cities like D.C. and Baltimore.

I will ask you again do you know what crack is? If a barrio is infected with a crack epidemic YOU WILL KNOW IT!!!!
 
D

DominicanQuest

New member
Oct 22, 2012
148
0
0
JMB773 said:
I have a question for you. Do you know what crack is? It is a very good reason why you do not see crack on the streets of DR compared to cities like D.C. and Baltimore.

I will ask you again do you know what crack is? If a barrio is infected with a crack epidemic YOU WILL KNOW IT!!!!
Click to expand...

I do know what crack is. When I was growing up in a D.C. suburb I used to find little packets of the stuff laying on the ground on a regular basis. The guys used to stash bags of it in the bushes right outside my apartment building. This was back in the lat 80s and early 90s when crack was really crazy. This was when Rayful Edmond was running D.C. We moved from that apartment building when a big fat guy was killed right on the steps - and the paramedics knocked on my door in the middle of the night to ask my parents for towels in order to help stop the bleeding.

In my experience, CRACK DEALERS kill. DRUG DEALERS kill. But, generally, crack addicts do not kill people. Also, crack addicts do not know how to hide themselves. Sure, it is under cover for a while, but - as you say - a crack infested barrio is obvious. I have not seen any signs that the DR has an OBVIOUS drug problem - especially as it relates to places where the ricos and ex-pats hang out.
 
M

mbgmike

New member
Jan 17, 2012
475
4
0
i have been in convienance stores and they come in to buy "glass rose" they don't even care who is in line. they just blurt it out
 
P

pelaut

Bronze
Aug 5, 2007
1,089
33
48
www.ThornlessPath.com
Don't know about crack, but for illegal drug use in general, consider the following.


The S.A.-to-U.S. drug bridge shifted to the DR since 2006. Since the traffickers pay local help in product, a growing secondary local market has been created. While socially destructive, it has not bloomed commercially to the extent it has in the U.S., simply because most Dominicans don't have the money to buy. DR is not the shippers' retail destination, so the Domincans are left to scramble for the crumbs that fall off the transports. Ergo: it exists, but not rampant.
 
D

DominicanQuest

New member
Oct 22, 2012
148
0
0
pelaut said:
has not bloomed commercially to the extent it has in the U.S., simply because most Dominicans don't have the money to buy. DR is not the shippers' retail destination, so the Domincans are left to scramble for the crumbs that fall off the transports. Ergo: it exists, but not rampant.
Click to expand...

This is what I suspect - especially the part about the low quality and the average Dominican not having the money to buy even that.
But, there seems to be a popular conception here that drug use is a big problem. I don't think narco trafficking leads to rampant attacks on women and 80 year old people. I know there is a drug problem, but it seems to a problem of trafficking more than usage. I don't deny drug use happens here. But, anyone who has seen a true "open air" drug market will be able to confirm that the DR is a long way from that.

I have literally seen people standing in line at Baltimore's oldest and most popular market - standing in line in the middle of the day in order to purchase illegal prescription pills.

I do not deny for a minute that this country has an amazing amount of violence. It seems that women get the worst of it. But, overall, I would like to hear more about why some people think that drug addicts are routinely going around killing people in the DR.

For those that don't know Crack Heads
Heroine Addict
 
Last edited:
C

Chip

Platinum
Jul 25, 2007
16,772
429
0
Santiago
Regarding trafficking here in the DR reports released by the US government that tracks drug trafficking from South to the US have shown a significant decrease in trafficking through the DR no doubt to the airplanes the DR gov't bought. This is fact.

Furthermore, the same report states that the trafficking has shifted significantly to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (and maybe Jamaica). Anyway the link is here on DR1 for all to see. Also, as a direct consequence violent crimes are on an increase in the aforementioned countries and in fact they have a higher murder rate than the DR.
 
caribmike

caribmike

Gold
Jul 9, 2009
6,808
202
63
I also don't understand to whom all these "punto de drogas" cater if nobody has the money to purchase much or regularly...

Or do they "fiao" like a colmado? I mean seeing how many are busted by police every week one must ask himself why so many are there and if they make enough if it is worth the risk...

If you count all these "puntos" and count an average of customers they have this island must be full of drug addicts, which is not the case...
 
Last edited:
M

mbgmike

New member
Jan 17, 2012
475
4
0
DominicanQuest said:
This is what I suspect - especially the part about the low quality and the average Dominican not having the money to buy even that.
But, there seems to be a popular conception here that drug use is a big problem. I don't think narco trafficking leads to rampant attacks on women and 80 year old people. I know there is a drug problem, but it seems to a problem of trafficking more than usage. I don't deny drug use happens here. But, anyone who has seen a true "open air" drug market will be able to confirm that the DR is a long way from that.

I have literally seen people standing in line at Baltimore's oldest and most popular market - standing in line in the middle of the day in order to purchase illegal prescription pills.

I do not deny for a minute that this country has an amazing amount of violence. It seems that women get the worst of it. But, overall, I would like to hear more about why some people think that drug addicts are routinely going around killing people in the DR.
Click to expand...
I THINK some of this is because of mexico, i might be wrong, i am amazed how many north americans know so very little about DR . I just thing many countries just get included into the drug violence mainly because people think that all the countries to the south have drug problems and violence. Much of it is the silly news media. They are known to always blow a story out of wack. The think they need to make it more interesting.Might be one drug related killing and a big drug bust and they act like it is rampant.
 
G

Givadogahome

Silver
Sep 27, 2011
4,397
2
0
You will usually only ever be offered drugs in a tourist area, because of the implications in DR people are not hanging on every street corner obviously supplying punters, but it is easy to find. In DR you will find that there are more women who use rather than men, women can always find money on the streets, men find it a little harder.
There is no epidemic in DR but if you really want to find neighbourhood where you can literally walk down the street and find it, you can in 10 seconds, you just need to know where to go. These places even the police don't go unless on a heavily armed raid.
There is a casual scene around the clubs, but you'll not see many strung out young people on the stuff, there are loads of rich kids on cocaine as anywhere in the world, but they arent robbing anyone, and only attaicking each other.
Cocaine is so cheap in DR if an epidemic did kick off people could get very fkd up, very quickly, fortunately most interested in the escapism high don't have the money for it, with the exception of those women I mentioned.

Why does an attacker have to be high or drunk to attack someone? I don't think people are often robbed by crack heads, when a crack head is strung out a mouse could drop them before they knew what day it was. I think alcohol is more responsible for violence and robberies, if drugs are involved then maybe uncooked cocaine is involved as uncooked cocaine is very popular, again soooo cheap.

The high from crack doesn't last long enough to get your sh1t together to tie your shoe laces, never mind attack someone. As mentioned crack addicts are not an issue in muggings or attacks, coke head alcoholics probably more so, but I'd guess the majority are simply bad people.
 
B

boknows

New member
Oct 15, 2012
360
0
0
I was "fortunate" to have an interaction with a young local crack head in Arroyo Hondo about 7 years ago. After the intial Ladron alarm (people screaming, dogs barking) went off the entire neighborhood ran outside to protect their belonging while others chased him over a wall of someone/s home where he was stealing anything he and his partner could carry. When they caught one, his bag was searched, the crack and pipe were thrown in the dumpster, and he was stripped to his underwear, hogtied and whipped with a tree branch in the middle of the street while 3 other locals wrestled over a very nice American made Stainless Colt 45 and who was going to have the "Oppurtunity" to shoot him. If it wasnt for a local woman screaming "what if that was your brother" I believe he would have been shot right in the street of an upper middle class neighborhood. The first locals on the scene felt if he was not shot than the local theif union would feel that their neighborhood would be an easy target. The locals were split on whether to shoot him or not and to my surprise, the police questioned why he was not shot. Moral of the story is crack is here and thriving and whether it is the Crack head, crack dealer, victim of the thief, police, or the people of the neighborhood, Drugs will bring violence in one way or another.
 
P

pollogringo

Gold
Dec 26, 2011
8,071
0
0
It's there. Cocaine. Weed. Large amounts. More than I would have imagined and I have a good imagination. I've seen it with my eyes. And the people moving that stuff are involved in some ugly things. We'll leave it go at that. There are more "puntos" around than you realize.

Crack and heroin? Never personally saw them or even heard about them in RD.
 
frank recktenwald

frank recktenwald

Platinum
Jun 18, 2007
14,280
503
113
www.rentalmetrocountry.com
I live right at the end of a barrio, I hang out in this barrio, my daughter plays with all the local kids so we are considered part of the community. I know the puntos and having lived in several other countries I can honestly say that compared to those countries there's little drug use here.
 
D

DominicanQuest

New member
Oct 22, 2012
148
0
0
The question really is not HOW MUCH drugs are here. Neither is it whether crack heads, heroine addicts, etc. steal. The question is 1) Are there significant numbers of jovenes on crack that people should be worried about it? 2) Does crack make a person more violent than usual - especially to the point of being homicidal.

I had a former crackhead once tell me that he approached a dealer during his using days - but the dealer refused to sell to him - thinking he was a cop. The guy then pulled a gun on the dealer and forced him to SELL him crack. He did not rob the dealer. He made the guy sell him some crack. This is just one story, but it does fit the mold of what I have seen more than crackheads riding 2 deep on motorcycles and expertly driving around town and pulling off amazingly violent armed robberies and murders.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom