Some experts call it the most addictive drug … Some users say they were addicted the first time they put their lips to a pipe. ibid.
‘32 years of addiction. It’s time to graduate. It’s almost time to die.’ ibid.
In the face of addiction the desire for substance overtakes the desire for life. ibid.
‘This is the world of crack: you ain’t scared, is you?’ ibid.
In the face of addiction, feeling fulfilled is only for a moment. What happens when that moment is over and there’s nothing left to go back to? ibid.
‘Ain’t no motherfucka going back; it’s a one-way street.’ ibid.
In the face of addiction the only promise is death. ibid.
‘The United States is a slave state … It’s all set up for destruction, man.’ Crack House USA, opening scene, 2010
‘There’s only two things that’ll happen to a young man that decides he wants to be a drug dealer: he’s going to prison, or he’s going to the graveyard: those are his only two options.’ ibid.
‘I never was a good drug dealer.’ ibid.
‘Putting video and audio in a living and breathing drug house and turning the keys over to the gang when you wanted to turn them over, that had never been done before.’ ibid. rozzer
‘The defendants here received lengthy sentences.’ ibid.
Under these new sentencing guidelines five grams of crack cocaine, often sold by and to African Americans, carried a mandatory five-year sentence; for powdered cocaine, often sold by and to white Americans, it would take one hundred times that amount for the same sentence. Secret War on Drugs II: Cocaine, Cartels & Crackdowns, History 2017
‘The high on crack cocaine was better than sex … I made millions and millions of dollars. I wasn’t afraid of nothing and nobody. I wasn’t afraid to die. So they made me queen-pin.’ Drug Lords s1e2: Jemeker Thompson: Crack Queen of LA, Netflix 2018
The crack business is booming and Jameker’s lifestyle shows it. One of the richest and most feared drug lords in LA. ibid.
‘I just never got enough of it.’ ibid. Jameker
‘Within two weeks I was going like two, three K [a day].’ ibid.
Cheap to make and even easier to distribute. ibid.
One of the most powerful, wealthiest drug lords in the United States. ibid.
But the DEA agents aren’t the only ones monitoring Jemeker. ibid.
‘More kids are being handed Crack than are handed diplomas.’ Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head VI Are We a Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? ***** Tupac, BBCiplayer 2021
By the 1980s it was clear that the promises of the civil rights’ movement had not been kept in America. And the idealism of black politics fell away. And the communities divided into gangs then turned on each other. Then Crack swept through the black communities in America. And a fading Shakur finally gave up: she became addicted to Crack, and Tupac found himself alone. ibid.
A major drug-dealing scandal on some of Britain’s meanest streets. There are claims that a serving police officer was drug trafficking. And it’s alleged other officers planted drugs on innocent people. No officer has been charged with drug offences despite growing evidence at a major police inquiry. World in Action: The Crack Connection, ITV 1992
After sunset the dark nooks and crannies of our inner city comes suddenly alive … [with] the ritual of a crack deal in the street. Panorama: Crack UK, Tom Mangold reporting, BBC 1992
Crack is made from almost pure cocaine … 80% of pure cocaine rushes to the skull in ten seconds … An instant rush of pleasure hormones into the bloodstream. ibid.
The use of Crack in Britain is now being linked to a resurgence of heroin addiction because heroin helps control the painful comedown after Crack smoking. ibid.
Whatever happened to Crack? How come we don’t hear about it on the news any more? Better Call Saul s6e12: Waterworks, ladies’ small talk at work, AMC 2022