Crack Addiction Research Paper

Then, in the 1980s, a smokable form of cocaine was introduced to Americans. It was sold in “28 states and the District of Columbia”. Crack was very accessible to everyone as it was sold for only $1-3 dollars each. The cheapness of crack was another strong incentive for people to buy crack. By 1994, “about 1.4 million Americans” used cocaine, and the number of those who used too much cocaine was 500,000. Kids “as young as 10 years old” smoked cocaine. These kids were way too young to do drugs as they were only 4th graders. Kids were even the drug dealers. Cocaine’s irresistibility as a popular drug that could give kids huge profits had made kids go into an illegal business, thus becoming criminals at a very young age. Cocaine took away a child’s

For example, crack increased the risk of contracting STDS. Crack made people engage in “high-risk sexual behaviors”. It makes sense that crack has this effect on people as crack impairs a person’s judgement. Studies showed that the number of HIV infections was 2.4 times higher for smokers than for non-smokers. Once a person has HIVs, it was incurable and sometimes led to death. The use of crack also put users at higher risk for seizures, strokes, and trouble with breathing. Very successful people also suffered from the consequences of using cocaine. “Two popular young athletes” died from taking too much cocaine. One was a basketball player who was just drafted into an NBA team. He had a basketball career ahead of him, possibly a successful one too as he was the 2nd draft pick, yet he threw away his life by succumbing to the attractions of cocaine. Hospitals were not able to do anything for the cocaine abusers. From the moment a person abused cocaine, there was nothing that could be done for the person, showing the foolishness to abuse cocaine in the first place. Not only do smokers harm themselves, they also harm others. Children born to smoking mothers were found to have “low birth weight”, behavioral, and neurological problems. These children would struggle throughout their lives with their problems caused by the smoking of their

“From 1982 to 1989”, the percentage of “drug-related murders” out of all types of murders went up “2 to 7.4 percent”. This can be attributed to the introduction of crack into society because crack was introduced during that time frame. One person said that the innocents killed in these were the casualties of fights between drug dealers who are fighting for their spot within the drug industry. The fact that innocent people were caught in the fights of drug dealers would cause people to feel unsafe where they live, scared of being the next victims of drug dealers’ violence. These fights between crack drug dealers would not have occurred had the demand for crack not been so high, thus Americans brought these fights, although unintentionally, on themselves by giving rise to a crack