The Crack Cocaine Epidemic

The U.S. has faced significant drug trafficking issues since the 19th-century Chinese Opium trade. This trafficking surged by the 1960s with the rise of Latin American cartels which specialized heavily in one drug, cocaine.

Crack is a solid, primarily-smoked form of cocaine. During the 1980s, crack rapidly swept across the country because of its low cost and addictive nature, causing death, crime, and addictions in the millions.

The crack epidemic predominantly affected impoverished urban communities, disproportionately impacting low-income African American neighborhoods throughout cities like L.A. due to inadequate social programs. Overdoses, incarcerations, and violence skyrocketed, devastating countless already-underprivileged minorities.

The Reagan Administration's Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 mandated minimum sentences for drug offences and created the 100:1 crack-to-powder cocaine sentencing ratio. This legislation imposed far harsher penalties on African American communities than on the predominantly white, affluent users of powder cocaine.