Cheaper, More Addictive, and Highly Profitable: How Crack Took Over NYC in the '80s

[hrmjustin]

Albert Samaha

Crack popped up in Miami and Los Angeles in the 1970s. The Drug Enforcement Agency didn't pay it much mind then. It was nothing more than a different version of cocaine, the agency figured. Crack arrived in New York City in the early 1980s, before most of the public had heard anything about it. And as we noted in last week's cover story, which explored how the crack era shaped policing strategies, the NYPD was ill-prepared for the crime wave the drug would bring.

The department was understaffed. Budget cuts of the 1970s, when the city was almost bankrupt, had forced the NYPD to lay off nearly a third of its officers from 1975 to 1982.

Meanwhile, crack began its spread across New York. It was cheaper than cocaine. Anybody could afford it, and anybody could sell it--anybody could buy a gram of coke, chop it up, cook it, and flip it for double the money.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/08/nyc_role_crack_era.php

[unrepentant progress]

1. Oh jeez.

[blm]

2. "Poppy" Bush.

.