* The west side remains the center of open-air drug selling and enforcement, as it has been for decades. Fourteen of the 15 police beats with the most drug arrests were on the west side. Almost all of them are along the expressway, which provides ready access for customers from the suburbs and across the Midwest.
* The hard drug of choice for these consumers is heroin. Arrests for heroin went up 9 percent in 2012.
* On the upside, arrests for crack and powder cocaine continued a decade-long decline, reflecting decreased popularity of the drugs. Arrests for crack—thought to be at the center of the gang wars of the 1990s—are down more than 75 percent since 2002.
* You can see a year-by-year breakdown of specific offenses here. To see where your police beat ranks, click here.
Speaking in Chicago last week, President Obama made welcome news by announcing plans to promote investment and create jobs in distressed areas. Mayor Emanuel then said he’s going to launch his own violence prevention programs by leveraging businesses for funding. Neither mentioned the drug policies pulling so many young people into the criminal justice system.
Article Appeared @http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/02/22/drug-arrests-drop-in-chicago-but-still-snare-thousands-in-black-neighborhoods