It’s also different when you live in a country where the government was responsible for getting its poorest urban black citizens addicted to crack and then punishing them for possession at a much higher rate and more severely than affluent white citizens for powdered cocaine.
Discussion
That means you have two problems (well, many more than two).
Here our law enforcement "greenlight" drug dealers who also happen to be informers. These stay in business as long as they provide a steady stream of warm bodies to the prison system (smaller, junior dealers), and until they get rich enough for law enforcement to rob.
That's not quite the same as Crack-For-Contras, but its a lot closer than most ppl admit.