So here’s a question for you: urban culture seems to have taken a downturn around 1985 after the introduction of crack. A number of songs reference this as a turning point, the moment when things got really bad. So I’m wondering how the timeline might have changed, how things might have been different, if crack-cocaine hadn’t been introduced back then.
Thoughts?
–CiaTH
Hadn’t been introduced THEN or EVER? If it hadn’t been introduced then, it probably would have just come later. If it was NEVER invented I’d imagine the downturn would have come, but probably wouldn’t have spread quite as fast. My guess is that it would have been caused by either mixing heroin and coke* or by heroin alone.
*coke all day long and the heroin to take the edge off when it was time to crash.
Total WAG.
Let’s not forget crystal meth. It has a lot of the oomph of crack with the added benefit of urban meth labs burning down entire apartment complexes.
Let’s try this in In My Humble Opinion. Moved from General Questions.
Gfactor
General Questions Moderator
It can also be manufactured locally, without the need to smuggle in exotic plant material from South America, which makes it harder for law enforcement to stop.
I’m not sure how you’d go about not inventing it, unless you change the laws of basic chemistry. Crack was a natural offshoot of Freebasing, of which many were trying (see Richard Pryor) well before crack hit the scene. Crack like freebasing makes cocaine smokeable which allows for faster absorption and an intense rush. The primary difference being that Crack eliminates the danger of freebasing.
That said, our most harshest drug laws were started in response to the crack epidemic. So, in theory, the crack cocaine/cocaine disparity wouldn’t exist. The drug free school zones, mandantory minimums and asset seizure laws would all probably be different. There would also be approx. 35-50% less people in federal and state prisons.