I also enjoy the attitude projected in most surveys which depict blacks being disproportionately convicted of drug crimes and put in prison. This article even went so far as to say that the blacks were sentenced to longer sentences because of their choice of drug to abuse (federal law about 5 grammes of cocaine powder being a max sentence of one year while crack cocaine has a mandatory five year sentence; with blacks being more likely to smoke crack cocaine than whites.)

And yet, in the following paragraph, it is stated that the federal minimum sentence for possession of a small amount of LSD is ten years; LSD is much likelier to be used by whites...; right? I believe the real issue that was missed or left out is the public reaction to these drugs caused by economics. Cocaine powder has been a classic choice of drug for rich people (when it was expensive). LSD, crack cocaine have become more popular with the poor people. Granted, cocaine power eventually made it to the poor man’s hit parade of drugs.

What I am saying is the poor man’s drug abuse is more apparent because of the symptomatic crimes that bring so much of their drug abuse to the public eye. I say economics not only in the sense of dollars and cents, but also in the economic ramifications of crime costs of and for people, places, and things. Television in particular has been an important factor in determining the public attitude about different drugs. I don’t remember near as many examples of drug abuse leading to atrocious crimes for cocaine powder as I have with LSD in the past (1960’s thru the 1970’s) and crack cocaine in the last decade.

I can remember watching the young LSD users getting confused and putting a diaper on the roast for the evening meal and putting the baby in the oven. Then with crack cocaine, we’ve been shown young mothers who have sold their babies to get some more "rocks." The horror themes are as numerous as the leaves on the trees. Heroine was another drug which seems (like all the other drugs) to be an equal opportunity addict-maker, was related to the viewing public as the vehicle for murderous behavior by "dope fiends."

Coming back to the concern of determining the "causes, rather than simply the effects," my thinking was influenced deeply by an article in the Kansas City Star, Tuesday June 12, 1990, "Terror Takes Its Toll On Brain’s Chemistry" Post-trauma Stress Has Biological Basis (by Daniel Goleman/New York Times). Check this out:

A single instance of overwhelming terror can alter the chemistry of the brain, making people more sensitive to adrenaline surges even decades later, scientists are finding.

This sensitivity to adrenaline surges is a key factor to post-traumatic stress disorder, in which people can experience normal events as repetitions of the original trauma.

The new findings are the first direct evidence that the condition, which affects combat veterans, crime victims and millions of other people, has biological basis.

New studies in animals and humans suggest that specific sites in the brain undergo these changes.

Scientists say the findings may allow development of medications to blunt the biological changes in post-traumatic stress disorder.

For the brain changes to occur, scientists now say, people usually have to experience the stress as catastrophic, an overwhelming threat to life or safety and one over which they have no control.

Less severe stress, such as the death of a loved one or relentless financial problems, do not seem to trigger the biological changes.

"Victims of a devastating trauma may never be the same biologically." said Dr. Dennis Charney, a psychiatrist at Yale University and director of clinical neuroscience at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"It does not matter if it was the incessant terror of combat, torture or repeated abuse in childhood, or a one-time experience like being trapped in a hurricane or almost dying in an auto accident."

The more intense the trauma, the longer it lasts, the more likely it is to result in post-traumatic stress. But researchers are trying to discover why some people exposed to the identical catastrophy develop post-traumatic stress symptoms, while others do not. And though the symptoms can last 40 years, or longer, they clear up in some people, either spontaneously or through therapy.

Evidence for the biological changes has been growing over the last ten years from laboratory experiments on animals who were subjected to stress--often electric shocks they could not escape--while their brain activity was studied.

The main changes observed have been the way and rate in which the brain secretes chemicals it normally produces under stress. Now the effects seen in animals have been directly confirmed in people.

Changes Occur In Three Ways

*Some of the main changes are in the Locus ceruleus, a structure which regulates the brain’s secretion of catecholamines, two hormones that mobilize the body for an emergency. This structure becomes "hyper-reactive," secreting too much of these brain chemicals, even in situations that hold little or no threat.

factor, or CRF, one of the main hormones that mobilize the body for an emergency. This hormone is regulated by the circuit linking the hypothalamus, a structure in the brain’s emotional center, and the pituitary gland. The increased secretions alert the body for emergencies that are not there in reality.

*The opioid system of the brain, which can blunt the feeling of pain, is hyperactive. This may account for the emotional numbing, an inability to experience tender feelings, that often accompanies post-traumatic stress.

"You find irregularities and abnormalities in all three of these brain systems," said Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Researchers say the findings may hold a promise of relief for those who suffer the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including being startled at the most innocuous surprise, troubled sleep, irritability and rages, and recurrent nightmares and frightening flashbacks.

Some of those who treat post-traumatic stress hesitate to see it as being entirely due to brain changes.

"The idea that these people reset their central nervous system is intriguing," said Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University. "But I’m troubled reducing everything to biology. It’s a human experience, and when you help people with it in psychotherapy, you can help them get over it that way, too."

The article mentioned post-traumatic stress as relating to combat veterans, crime victims and millions of other people. I think this research is relevant to the deviant or maladaptive behavior acted-out by the criminal. Even Adolph Hitler (as well as many other monsters in human history) was somebody’s bouncing baby boy at one time. Chemicals triggered out of and beyond the established norms could well be responsible for some of the seemingly inappropriate reactions to events, real and/or imagined.

When psychologists in the past have told me that I possessed a "fearful" personality, I would get angry because I thought they meant that I was cowardly. To me at that time, both were the same. I thought fear was being used in the context of my being someone who couldn’t face up to the trials and tribulations of life’s daily hassles. I had internalized thinking such as "Do unto others.. .before they do unto you;" "The best defense is a good offense;" "If it don’t work, smash it!"