The Era of Crack Cocaine
In the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s America suffered one of the worse epidemics known to man. I am referring of course to the infamous Crack Cocaine Epidemic. In major areas all across this country this little white stimulant rock rained on this country like a never ending hail storm and the aftermath of the Crack Storm is still being felt today.
Crack Caught On
According to the DEA and the US Department of Justice Cocaine was landing in the Miami area and the island nations of the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas in large quantities from every port of call by way of every means of transport imaginable. Because of the sudden influx of the drug in these areas the price of Cocaine plummeted to an all time low. Reports say the price of Cocaine fell to as much as eighty percent below the normal cost of the drug. Drug dealers, in search of a way to move the stockpile of illegal product (it is believed) converted the drug into the easily produced infamously cheaper priced rock form in order to turn a profit. From a business perspective, it was an ingenious and inventive idea. It worked like a charm and they (drug dealers) made a “killing” literally. But the aftermath of the Crack Epidemic has left a legacy reminiscent of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (1502 and 1853) when hundreds of millions of African descendents were displaced and sacrificed for profit.
Crack Around the Country
In cities like Los Angeles, Houston, New York, New Orleans, Baltimore and Miami business was booming. Crack was an instant hit literally and from a business marketing standpoint. Crack originally had an 80 percent per gram purity level and sold in some areas for as little as $2 and, just one taste of it and the customer was hooked (addicted).
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Crack Distribution
According to the US Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Agency in 1884 Crack cocaine began to show up in (LA) Los Angeles around 1984. The drug began to be aggressively distributed because of cheap cost of production, sale and usage and within just 2 years in 1986 Crack had made its way across the country and was available in 28 cities and in the nation’s capital Washington DC. The District of Columbia, despite it being the seat of the American government, was a major hub for the Crack distributions, sale and murderous gang activity. Well known dealers like the infamous Crack King Rafel Edmonds would testify at trial to making upwards of a million dollars a day from the sale of Crack Cocaine. He (Edmonds) would later confess at trial and tell of how he was helped in his illicit business by several police and government officials to whom he made large payments cash payments to.
This type of “illicit business” collaboration would later become a recurring theme in cities Across America. The National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee Report listed the many cities Crack Cocaine infiltrated by 1985 and 1986. Cities like Boston, New Orleans, Baltimore Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Atlanta, Newark, Dallas, St. Louis, Oakland, Kansas City, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, San Francisco, Buffalo, Philadelphia, New York City, Houston, San Diego, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Chicago to name a few became crack war zones seemingly overnight.
Crack 911
In was if the entire country was under siege from this deadly drug. Hospitals around the country reported emergency after emergency attributed in one way or another to the Crack. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services emergencies attributed to cocaine climbed by twelve percent in 1985 from 23,500 to 26,300. And in just in the following year in 1986, they rose a disturbing from 26,300 to 55,200. 94,000 incidents involving cocaine were reported from 1984 and 1987. The DEA reported that by 1987, crack was available in all but four states in America and in the nation’s capital Washington DC.
Crack Babies
The Crack Epidemic also brought a brand new emergency, the “Crack Baby”. The very first “Crack Babies” were reportedly born in 1984 between September and December. In Los Angeles in 1984 fetal deaths and low birth-weight babies to mothers who were using crack cocaine rose and this sad reality repeated it’s self over and over in major cities around the country.
Impact by region
Studies have found that the Northeastern Region and the South Atlantic Area states got hit worst of all in America. According to DEA reports approximately seventy percent of the Crack epidemic was felt by the larger cities. Per capita the larger areas Crack Stats were about ‘ten times” higher than the rest of the country. According to studies New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle. However, according to the DEA, the states hit the absolute worst by Crack were Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland.
Crime
In these areas and around the country, crime was high. Crack brought with it a serious increase in crime and violence. According to the University of Chicago professor Steven Levitt and Kevin Murphy the “most prominent factor” contributing to the rise and fall of social ills in the African American and Latino communities between 1980 and 2000 was Crack Cocaine. The homicide rate for black males aged 14 to 17 between 1984 and 1994, more than doubled. The homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 increased almost as much. Other areas of negative increase attributed to the Crack Epidemics impact on urban communities were “arrests for weapons, the number of children in foster care, fetal death rates and low birth-weight babies”.
Researchers’ reported the increases in crime, addiction and child and family welfare was mainly attributed the distribution of Crack in these urban inner-city areas. Crack was considered an economic boom for some while still considered an evil entity to most people. For many in these areas who had little opportunity, Crack and Cocaine were considered a “blessing in disguise”. With few jobs those didn’t use the drug Crack was the answer to poverty. With Reaganomics missing the inner-city Crack, for many in these areas, was considered Reagan-Ebonics so to speak.
Still, Crack was more of a far more a deadly detriment than it was help. Hundreds have died and millions have been displaced. Crack cocaine will go down in history as one of the most terrible periods in American history.
