THE COCAINE CRISIS

A Drug Epidemic

During the 1980s few subjects were in the news as consistently as the widespread and increasing use of cocaine in the United States. There were two main stages in this growing problem. In the first stage, during the early 1980s, many considered co-caine a harmless, even glamorous, "recreational" drug; it was the drug of choice of the famous and successful—professional athletes, celebrities in the arts and entertainment, lawyers, university professors, and Wall Street brokers—who were among the few who could afford the high black-market price of cocaine. In 1982 the National Survey on Drug Abuse found that 22 million Americans had used cocaine at one time or another. Experts debated the significance of this number; but none disputed that cocaine use was spreading rapidly, and health officials began to speak openly about a cocaine "epidemic." Even the cocaine-related death of the comedian John Belushí in 1982 tailed to dim many users' enthusiasm for the drug, and cocaine use, which had risen dramatically since the late 1970s, continued to increase. Because of its high price, it was sometimes called the "champagne of drugs," and the white powder became a sort of status symbol at yuppie parties. Such users persisted in the misconception that cocaine was nonaddictive. At this stage cocaine use seemed to be an adjunct to the "life-in-the-fast-lane" syndrome prevalent among the yuppies.

Growing Public Alarm

The sense of a crisis built steadily in the public mind. In the early 1980s medical experts produced study after study that countered what they called the "myth" that cocaine was harmless and nonaddictive. A growing body of scientific literature demonstrated the destructive, addictive, and potentially fatal effects of cocaine use. Yuppies' casual cocaine use—and their subsequent serious drug abuse and addiction—were portrayed in Jay Mclnerney's highly successful 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City, and in the 1985 movie St. Elmo's Fire. Even as treatment centers for cocaine problems grew in number, however, there were reports of increasing cocaine use in American high schools. Mean-while, reports from law-enforcement authorities showed not only that the availability of cocaine was growing but also that the retail price of the drug was falling. If these trends continued, the National Institute on Drug Abuse warned in 1985, "this society may experience an epidemic of cocaine use without historical equal in terms of magnitude and coverage.…the tentacles of the cocaine epidemic in the United States may have considerably more capacity for expansion." Such reports fueled public alarm—as did other reports about the power of the Colombian drug cartels, the source of most cocaine in the United States—and the unsuccessful efforts of law enforcement to keep drug dealers from smuggling cocaine into the country. In 1983 the first cocaine hotline, 1-800-COCAINE, was started, and it soon became a twenty-four-hour service, gathering clinical data and making referrals for professional help. The first survey of its callers showed that most users were well educated, had good incomes, and had been using cocaine for about five years; the average user was spending $640 per week on cocaine. By 1985, 12 million people in the United States were estimated to be frequent cocaine users.

The First Peak

Also alarming were statistics showing that large cities were experiencing dramatically rising crime rates, which were attributed to the drug gangs, or "posses," that sold cocaine on the streets. Most cocaine trafficking inside the United States was controlled by these gangs, whose members were from the inner cities. As more cocaine flowed into the country and profits from its distribution soared, the drug gangs fought each other for control of territories: drug-related homicides sky-rocketed, and the emergency rooms of urban hospitals were filled with the maimed victims of the drug wars. Then, on 21 June 1986, University of Maryland basket-ball star Len Bias died suddenly after taking cocaine. His death made national headlines, shocking the public not only because it was caused by cocaine but also because the reports indicated that he had died from his first use of the drug. Bias's tragic death raised public awareness to new heights. By middecade polls showed that many Americans regarded drug abuse as the most serious problem facing the nation. Responding to the growing sense of urgency, President Reagan called for a "national crusade" against drugs, and Congress began considering new, comprehensive antidrug laws.

The Crisis Spreads

Even as public concern about drug abuse was building to its first peak, the cocaine crisis of the 1980s was entering a sinister new stage that built on and engulfed the first and seized national attention through the end of the decade. In 1985 "crack"—an easily made, smokable form of cocaine that was far more addictive than powder cocaine and much cheaper—suddenly appeared on the streets of American cities. Crack could be purchased in small vials for two or three dollars but was still highly profitable for dealers because of huge increases in the cocaine supply and the resulting fall in the market price. Crack spread quickly and disastrously through inner-city neighborhoods as young, poor minority males saw dealing the drug as a means to escape the ghetto. A severe escalation in drug-related violence followed as rival gangs fought for territory, and new crimes, such as drive-by shootings, entered the national vocabulary. From New York to Detroit, from Chicago to Los Angeles, from Philadelphia to Atlanta, inner-city neighborhoods were ravaged by the spread of crack cocaine. Washington, D.C., was especially hard hit: drug-related deaths in its predominantly black neighborhoods escalated so dramatically that in the late 1980s Washington began to be called the "murder capital of the world." The New York City police commissioner called 1986 "The Year of Crack," and the first elite anticrack police task force began sweeping through the city's neighborhoods, arresting thousands of street dealers. Other cities followed New York City's lead. Meanwhile, as crack devastated inner-city neighborhoods, it was seen as an aggravating cause in the rise of domestic violence, child abuse, homelessness, violence in schools, and dropout rates. Whole neighborhoods became battle zones in which people were afraid to leave their homes; innocent bystanders were killed in the crossfire of gang wars, sometimes in-side their own homes. Communities acquired new nick-names, such as "The Graveyard." Pregnant mothers addicted to crack gave birth to "crack babies," infants with damaged central nervous systems. Cocaine addiction fueled the spread of the AIDS virus, because a major means of transmission was the sharing of unsterile needles used for intravenous injection. Treatment centers for addicts were frequently so overloaded and understaffed that help for many addicts was unavailable. At the end of the decade The New York Times called the crack epidemic a new form of genocide.

New Trends in the Late 1980s

Studies indicating that the use of cocaine in powder form was leveling off in the mid 1980s led some observers to conclude that abuse of the drug had reached a saturation point among the middle and upper-middle classes and that the epidemic was afflicting primarily the inner cities in the form of crack. Yet there was mounting evidence that crack cocaine was spreading to higher-income city neighborhoods, middle-class suburbs, and even the small towns and rural areas that had been thought of as havens from the drug crisis. Drug experts began to estimate that the number of crack users in the middle and upper-middle classes might exceed those in the inner cities. William Hopkins, a leading narcotics expert, estimated in 1989 that 70 percent of the crack users in New York City were upper-income professionals. Dr. Arnold Washton, director of a New York treatment clinic, estimated that by the late 1980s there were more crack addicts among white, middle-class people than among any other population group. He told The New York Times that these new addicts were "business executives and house painters and doctors and receptionists. And if you met them on the street, you wouldn't have a clue they're smoking their brains out on crack back home in the basement."

The Drug Czar

In 1988 President Reagan established the Office of National Drug Control Policy; its director, William Bennett, quickly became known as the nation's "drug czar," Nationwide, the "war on drugs" became a principal topic of discussion and concern. In the budget-cutting climate of the time, people debated how much the federal government should spend on fighting drug abuse. A survey conducted by Newsweek in August 1988 revealed that Americans were more supportive of government spending to fight drugs than of spending for the "Star Wars" defense program. The 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act was a major legislative effort to respond to the crisis; the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act was even stronger, though critics objected to its emphasis on increased law enforcement at the expense of education and drug-treatment programs. Concern about drugs in the workplace grew; controversies arose about whether employers should have the right to test employees for possible drug use. As politicians and editorial writers called for a crack-down on drugs, federal, state, and local governments continued to step up their law-enforcement efforts, imposing stiffer penalties for the sale or purchase of powdered cocaine or crack and putting more police on the streets. The federal government tried harder to prevent the smuggling of cocaine into the country while also looking for ways to destroy the Colombian cocaine cartels; eventually U.S. military forces were employed to capture "drug lords" and to destroy the coca crop in the Colombian fields. With some justification, commentators began to speak of a "drug frenzy" in America. Inheriting the war on drugs from President Reagan, President George Bush told the nation in his inaugural address: "When that first cocaine was smuggled in on a ship, it may as well have been a deadly bacteria, so much has it hurt the body, the soul of our country. There is much to be done and much to be said, but take my word for it: This scourge will stop."