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What Is Crack Cocaine And How Did It Become So Prevalent In The 1980s

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1. What is the history of crack cocaine and how did it become so prevalent in the 1980s?
Crack cocaine is a free base form of cocaine that gained popular attention in the 1980s because it was much cheaper than cocaine, which was considered a drug for rich people. Because crack was cheaper, it was easier to obtain and spread rapidly in inner city and urban communities. As a result, crack cocaine became regarded as an epidemic that needed to be eliminated in American society during the 1980s when it was at its peak.

2. How did the crack epidemic of the 1980s affect American communities, especially Black communities in the United States, and what were the long-term consequences? What is being done to address this legacy today?
The crack epidemic …show more content…

How did the media portray crack cocaine and its users during the epidemic, and what impact did this have on public perceptions of the drug?
The media portrayed crack cocaine as evil and worse than “regular” cocaine, and it portrayed its users as evil and a lost cause that will ultimately destroy America. This impacted the public perception of crack cocaine use and the social and legal factors that surrounded it. Many people were stigmatized and shunned by society based on false information that the media was spreading. On top of that, the government was openly declaring a war on the people and communities that were being affected by crack cocaine, rather than seeking ways to help …show more content…

Instead, the government focused on enforcement and meager approaches such as the “just say no” movement. The government also followed the hype of the media and looked down upon communities infiltrated with drugs as being problematic to the rest of society. The government did little to address the real issues of drug abuse and how to effectively help those impacted. This resulted in legislation being passed, such as the crack vs cocaine discrepancy, that has unfairly punished drug abuse and spread false information about these types of drugs and their users.

6. What were the political and social factors that contributed to the crack epidemic, and how did they shape the government's response to the crisis?
The political and social factors of American society, such as wealth, power, and stereotypes, contributed to crack being labeled as an epidemic and its users being shunned by society. These factors resulted in the government treating crack cocaine addiction as a poor, black community epidemic that would spread and ruin the rest of society. These false implications have prolonged the crack epidemic and treatment for its victims and tremendously and unfairly hurt those communities that were

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