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

CRACKHEADS

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

 

… as evidenced by the chronic urban-decay in ST.
LOUIS, CLEVELAND, DETROIT, FLINT, PHILLY, BOSTON, DENVER, CHICAGO, ATLANTA,
DOUGLASVILLE, MEMPHIS, NEW ORLEANS, JACKSON, JACKSONVILLE, BIRMINGHAM, MONTGOMERY,
BATON ROUGE, SHREVEPORT, MONROE, MIAMI, HUNTSVILLE, PITTBURG, ATLANTIC CITY,
JERSEY CITY, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, WATTS, OAKLAND, TULSA, WASHINGTON D.C.,
CHARLOTTE, CHARLESTON, etc …



 



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.



 



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