Andrew Knox

HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #4

October 27th, 2010

Crack Rock and You Don't Stop

In the 1970's, Disco was fueled by cocaine and excess. Many Americans, from celebrities to

upper-middle class whites, continued their 1960's hippie drug experimentation. Since weed had

become taken for granted and hallucinogenics were becoming harder and harder to find, Disco heads

found a white powder you can sniff that makes you feel good, good enough to dance all night, and

worry about the consequences later.1 Cocaine was glamorous, but only because it was expensive: the

cheapest basic amount of cocaine (an “eight ball”2) in New York City cost at least eighty to one

hundred dollars.3 In the mid-1980's, a cheaper, smoke-able derivative of cocaine was home-fried with

baking soda, the resulting product was called “crack.”

But Cocaine was around way before the 1970's. The Coca Plant, from which Cocaine is

derived, was worshiped by indigenous South Americans as far back as 5000 years ago. Powder cocaine

was first isolated in 1860 and was hailed as a wonder drug. Cocaine extracts were used as supplements

in products from wine, to cigarettes, from cough syrup to Coca-Cola. It was renowned for its supposed

efficacy in curing hangovers and opiate addictions. It became so widely available without restriction

that it took a while for medical authorities to recognize that unregulated cocaine was a public health

concern.4 Cocaine was first made illegal in the United States in 1914 with the passage of the Harrison

Narcotics Act. Like with many other illegal drugs, the banning of cocaine was ushered through

Congress by invoking racial prejudice: one Pennsylvania doctor testified that “most of the attacks upon

1 Perry, (2:08)
2 Urban Dictionary
3 Perry, (11:38)
4 A1B2C3

1
Andrew Knox
HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #4
October 27th, 2010

the white women of the South are the direct result of a cocaine-crazed Negro brain.”5 Cocaine didn't

completely disappear, however, it simply fell to the wayside and the turn of the century cocaine scourge

faded from popular memory. At least until Disco found it again. Disco may have been an era, but

crack was an urban disease.

Crack's business model was extremely profitable due to its simplicity. The process for

manufacturing crack was discovered in 1983 and it spread quickly. By 1986, the Federal Government

believed the nation was in the midst of a crack epidemic. The fall in cocaine prices caused by crack

was also accompanied by another trend. By the mid-80's, the wealthy whites who had previously

basked in their cocaine culture began to become jaded, especially after Richard Pryor's freebase

incident and John Belushi's overdose death from a “speedball” (mix of cocaine and heroin).6 Cocaine,

like Disco, fell out of vogue in the early 80's, and crack became a poor people's drug. One Los Angeles

Times article in 1986 stated, “the economics of cocaine have changed so radically that it is no longer

restricted to the well-to-do. The processing of crystallized cocaine as 'rock' or 'crack' has so lowered the

price--and increased the availability--that junior high school students are pooling their lunch money...

to buy cocaine from schoolyard dealers.”7

“Crack rocks” were a hit, one hit was typically ten dollars, but in times of crack surplus, prices

could drop to as low as three dollars a vial.8 Crack quickly became extremely popular due to the

efficacy of smoking over snorting (the official term is “insufflating”) in terms of delivering the drug to

your brain. Insufflated powder cocaine gave a more rounded high that would last between 20 and 40

minutes per dose because it had to travel through your bloodstream before reaching your brain. Crack,
5 Wilson
6 Perry, (3:30)
7 Montague
8 Perry, (11:50)

2
Andrew Knox
HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #4
October 27th, 2010

on the other hand, gave a much more intense high in exchange for a much shorter 5-10 minute trip.

Crack smoke could get from your lungs to your brain in only 19 seconds.9 Once the crack high

subsides, a user is plagued with a strong desire to consume more. Many Americans have been trapped

in crack cocaine addiction or dependence; some of them crave the drug so much that they will steal

things or sell their sexual services in order to buy their next hit.

Crack hit the inner city hard. It led to a wave of addictions, overdoses and crack-related

burglary and even the disintegration of the African-American matriarchal family structure. Many black

youths saw their career options limited, the best job they could strive towards was drug kingpin. Ice T

spelled out some of the job benefits of being a crack dealer, claiming that “drugs were the number one

employer of ghetto youth! The cool thing about selling drugs is you don't need an application, you

don't need insurance, social security, there's no dress code, you're your own boss, you're self employed,

you set your own hours, and there's a demand! Cocaine brought more money into the inner city than

any other drug or hustle... talking 'bout money up to your knees!”10

Some say that the “crack epidemic” was merely public hysteria incited by the mainstream media

to embarrass black people. With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, we can see that the statistics clearly

show that the crack epidemic was overblown, “illicit drug use [in the United States] had reached its

peak in 1979 to 1981 and then begun falling before the Crack Hysteria began. Crack-use rates also

began to decline -- almost as soon as they could be measured. As early as 1986, survey data showed

that more than three out of four people who tried the drug that newspapers and television shows had

said caused 'instant addiction' never used it again.”11 Author Robert Sabbag further diminished the

9 Sentencing Commission
10 Perry, (12:30)
11 Szalavitz

3
Andrew Knox
HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #4
October 27th, 2010

crack epidemic rumors by quoting a shocking statistic: “the fact of the matter is that all the years that

crack was making headlines, 75% of cocaine users in the United States were white.”12

As a reaction to this supposed national drug epidemic, in 1983 First Lady Nancy Reagan began

the “Just Say No” campaign. Spreading the gospel of unadorned peer pressure denial, Reagan parlayed

what started as an off-the-cuff answer into one of the most successful anti-drug campaigns ever,

including cameo appearances on popular sitcoms like Diff'rent Strokes and Punky Brewster. “Just Say

No” became somewhat of a popular catchphrase and the flagship meme of the Reagan Administration's

wider War on Drugs.13

Socially conservative politicians used the Crack Hysteria to push extremely strict sentencing

guidelines, with stiff mandatory minimum sentences, through Congress. The biggest problem with

such sentencing legislation is that it codified radically different punishments for similar weights of rock

and powder cocaine. Until very recently (August 2010), the sentencing length disparity between crack

and powder cocaine was one hundred to one (100:1), meaning that a crack dealer caught with ten grams

of product (about $100) by law must receive the same length prison term as a professional smuggler

caught with an entire kilo of powder cocaine. Through the wonders of bipartisan compromise, this

disparity was recently lowered to only 18:1.14 The very existence of a sentencing disparity seems

rooted in racism, since crack is less pure per gram compared to powder cocaine due to dilution from

baking soda. Its perceived higher potency is derived from the method of consumption, not from any

existent chemical superiority over powder cocaine.

Mandatory minimum sentences, coupled with law enforcement “crackdowns” and judicial

12 Perry, (16:20)
13 Reagan
14 ACLU

4
Andrew Knox
HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #4
October 27th, 2010

discrimination against minorities led to many young African-American men being branded with

criminal records, “In 1993, blacks were seven times more likely to be incarcerated than whites; an

estimated 1471 blacks per 100,000 black residents vs. 207 whites per 100,000 white residents were

imprisoned at the end of 1993... Between 1980 and 1993, the U.S. prison population tripled (from

329,821 to 1,053,738).”15 These harsh sentencing guidelines were extremely destructive to the black

community, but there was one industry that saw growth potential: Prisons. In the 1980's, State Penal

Systems began the process of privatization. They contracted out prison operations to for-profit

corporations, a cycle of consolidations that gave rise to what is now called the “Prison-Industrial

complex”. One article I found detailed the perverse growth of prisons-for-hire, “former defense

contractors are now getting into the lucrative incarceration business... Prisons are now the fastest-

growing item in almost all state budgets. California spends more on prisons than it does on colleges and

universities.”16

The Reagan Administration's War on Drugs seems hypocritical when you consider that cocaine

was a pawn in the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Central Intelligence Agency was accused of backing the

guerrilla army that fund-raised with cocaine distribution in South Central Los Angeles. The story goes

that financiers of a Nicaraguan anti-Communist rebel group, Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense

(Nicaraguan Democratic Force, FDN), were actually CIA agents who raised gun money for the rebels

through cocaine distribution. They found a good patsy in “Freeway” Ricky Ross, and they sold his

cocaine for dirt cheap, so cheap that he was able to cook and wholesale crack to street gangs across the

country.17 While he occasionally made two to three million dollars a day, Ross's time at the top was

15 Montague
16 Montague
17 Webb

5
Andrew Knox
HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #4
October 27th, 2010

short-lived. Eventually, he was arrested and the prosecution's star witness was his boss/primary

supplier, Danilo Blandon. The establishment went to lengths to conceal and downplay the CIA's role in

the drug trade, even forcing Blandon to release a statement admitting “that he was a large-scale dealer

in cocaine, and there is no additional benefit to any defendant to inquire as to the Central Intelligence

Agency.”18 Today, Ross is in prison while Blandon is free; his whereabouts are unknown.

The scapegoating of Ricky Ross is yet another example of the United States Federal

Government's inherently flawed approach to regulating illicit substances. The approach used

throughout much of the twentieth century to the present day has been “starting from the ground up,”

treating drugs as a criminal issue instead of a medical issue. This simply does not work; those at the

bottom, from Ross to any other street-level drug dealer or drug user, are the victims. Locking them up

for life only ensures a vacant position on the streets for the drug dealer that takes their place.19 Those at

the bottom should not be treated as criminals, but instead as patients, in need of rehab and treatment.

There will always be a widespread criminal drug industry thriving in this country unless we target those

at the top, the Nicaraguan Contras, or the Colombian and Mexican Cartels. There will never be social

justice on this issue if we value political convenience over people's lives.

18 Webb
19 Szalavitz

6
Andrew Knox
HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #4
October 27th, 2010

Works Cited:

• A1B2C3. "The History Of Cocaine." A1B2C3, 15 Oct 2010. Web. 27 Oct 2010.
<http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/coc01.htm>.
• ACLU. "President Obama Signs Bill Reducing Cocaine Sentencing Disparity ." American
Civil Liberties Union, 3 Aug 2010. Web. 27 Oct 2010. <http://www.aclu.org/drug-law-
reform/president-obama-signs-bill-reducing-cocaine-sentencing-disparity>.
• Montague, Peter. "America's Secret War." Third World Traveler, 8 May 2002. Web. 27 Oct
2010. <http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/secret_war.html>.
• Perry, Hart. "The Drug Years: 'Just Say No'." VH1, 15 Jun 2006. Web. 27 Oct 2010.
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2301358680823774057>.
• Reagan, Nancy. "Nancy Reagan - Her Causes." Reagan Presidential Library Foundation, 28
Feb 2010. Web. 27 Oct 2010. <http://www.reaganfoundation.org/her-causes.aspx/>.
• Sentencing Commission, United States. "Report on Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy."
Department of Justice, 30 Apr 2007. Web. 27 Oct 2010.
<http://www.ussc.gov/crack/CHAP2.HTM>.
• Szalavitz, Maia. "Cracked Up - Ronald Reagan." Salon, 11 May 1999. Web. 27 Oct 2010.
<http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/05/11/crack_media/index1.html>.
• Urban Dictionary, . "Eight Ball." Urban Dictionary, 22 Sep 2003. Web. 27 Oct 2010.
<http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=eight%20ball>.
• Webb, Gary. "America's 'crack' plague has roots in Nicaragua war." San Jose Mercury
News, 18 Aug 1996. Web. 27 Oct 2010.
<http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/drugs/day1main.htm>.
• Wilson, Woodrow. "The Harrison Narcotics Act (1914)." Erowid, 17 Dec 1914. Web. 27 Oct
2010. <http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/law/law_fed_harrison_narcotics_act.shtml>.