Then we'll just drug ourselves!

On a TikTok video discussing how marginal drug dealers and users are often used to justify gentrification policies—while the root causes are ignored—we also proposed case studies where it is possible to turn these groups into trust bridges that help new neighbourhood development. There are ways to bring them on board and make them ambassadors of improvement.

In this respect, @SigfridoElErguido posted the following awesome comment.

Here is the full, unmodified comment.

Besides the lack of nuance, as you say, we should consider the root cause of drug dealing/drug consumption. There's a photo from a place in Spain where there's a sign up on a wall that says "No playing with balls here, no skateboarding, no yelling, no running" etc. and next to of somoeone graffiti'd "Well then we'll drug ourselves". Gentrification creates spaces that are neat and orderly and that don't disturb the process of capital extraction. Kids playing and being loud and messy is considered a nuisance, they are less than an afterthought in most gentrified spaces. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, because gentrification also has knock on effects of not having spaces for people to socialize and be part of a community, because capital cannot be readily extracted from such spaces, at least not without resistance and complucations due to common investment in the space.