Ethnographic

Crack and the Social, Moral, and Economic Decay of the Inner City

Societal and ethnographic reports have link the arrival of crack to gang violence, high murder rates, poverty, and family disruption. Popular opinion seemed to indicate that the introduction of crack cocaine has led to increases in central-city crime and accelerated trends toward overall inner-city decay in America.. This manuscript will established (1) briefly what crack cocaine is (2) when it was introduced (3) if there is a direct link between the introduction of crack cocaine and an increase decadence in the social and economic life of the American community (4) and why this drug had such a significant influence.

Crack could be known as "the poor man's drug" because it provided an alternative to a more expensive drug, cocaine. The introduction of crack cocaine amounts to a technological innovation in the market for cocaine intoxication. Crack cocaine is a derivative of powered cocaine, made by dissolving cocaine powder in water, adding baking soda, and boiling the mixture until a solid base separates from the solution. This process does not change the chemical composition of the active cocaine alkaloid, but it does change the manner by which it may be ingested. Once converted into crack, the cocaine can be smoked, which allows the cocaine molecules to concentrate in the brain much more rapidly than is possible by taking powdered cocaine intranasally (Stein,1992). Because the euphoric effects of cocaine have more to do with the speed at which the alkaloid concentrates in the brain than with the level of the drug in the body, crack is the more intoxicating form of the drug. This fast delivery to the brain is cause by the large pulmonary area available for diffusion and absorption due to cocaine smoking (Ellwood and Gawin, 1988). Crack cocaine produces feelings of well-being, mental exhilaration, reduced appetite and great physical strength in the short term. The after-effects can include tiredness, depression, panic, anxiety and death. Long term users may believe to have develop tolerance, and therefore, are tempted to increase doses for a more intense effect which can lead to overdose. With continued use of this drug, paranoid psychosis can be seen (Cook and Laub, 1990). Since our course (MCB 165) deals much with the chemical effects of cocaine/crack, there is no need for much explanation on that particular topic.

Crack has become widespread phenomenon because of the user's strong physical dependency to it. Moreover, the price of crack is the same as powdered cocaine when measured on a molecule-for-molecule basis (Charles, 1993). Thus the process of synthesizing crack from powdered cocaine reduces the unit cost of cocaine intoxication, which defines the meaning of a "technological innovation" (Stein, 1992). Hence, we can observe the motivation in the birth of this particular "poor man's drug" in a chemical and economic point of view.

The next question we must answer in order to provide a possible correlation between crack cocaine and inner-city decay is when this drug was introduced. The following research was conducted by the Jay Roffy from the school of public policy at the University of California at Los Angeles. Crack cocaine introduction was dated in three ways; (1) police data, (2) emergency room admissions data, and (3) data from Congressional Testimony. First, in 1991 various police departments (where crack was an epidemic problem) were surveyed about the effect that crack had on their city. The surveys were addressed to the chief of police in each city, and included a question about the date when they had first encountered crack. From this data, the reported introduction dates range from 1983 in Atlanta to 1991 in Milwaukee. The majority of the cities, including Los Angeles and New York, had 1986 (Cork, 1996).

Next, crack introduction dates were inferred from data provided by hospital emergency room admissions that are published by NIDA as part of the Drug Awareness Warning Network. DAWN reports the number of drug-related emergency room admissions in a given metropolitan area by the type of drug involved in the event. In addition, DAWN also reports how the drug is administered among cocaine-related ER events. This is important because a discrete jump in the fraction of cocaine-related ER events attributed to smoked cocaine could be use as evidence that crack has been introduced. Data provided from emergency room admissions range from 1982 in Atlanta to 1987 in Dallas, New Orleans. Like the police data, this data also had a majority of it's date falling in 1986 (Cork, 1996)

For a few of the largest cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, additional information is available from a number of congressional hearings held between 1985 and 1990. Based on the testimony of police chiefs from the respective cities, congressional hearings place introduction date at 1986 for New York, late 1985 for Detroit, 1986 for Dallas and 1988 for Chicago. This information nearly matches the information from the survey of police departments due to the similar sources. Nevertheless, it is reassuring that the information provided in 1991, when crack problem had become endemic in many cities, was the same as that provided to the Congressional committees in the mid- 1980's when the problem was an urgent matter for the surveyed police departments (Cork, 1996)

The relative decline of the inner-city is not only the result of crack introduction but could be the reason for it's introduction. It is important to note that the introduction of crack cocaine coincidence with the further widening of the social and economic classes in America's communities. Structural shifts within the economy during this time under Ronald Reagan's reign resulted in the relocation of manufacturing industries to locations outside the central city causing further competition in the work force. Innovations in technology also contribute to a larger cleft in the two opposing economic sectors residing in the central cities. These economic factors weigh heavily in the introduction of crack cocaine by an economic deprived sector in the community- poor, young males.

To determine the link between crack cocaine and community decay, we must understand why this particular drug became so popular in inner-city life. We've already talked