The Crack Epidemic – The Long Term Affects

 

In case you missed it, there was thing called the ”Crack Epidemic” that apparently demolished inner cities and trailer parks across the U.S. and A roughly between the years of 1984 and 1991. The government Some genius came up with the perfect recipe for destruction. The “Epidemic” was documented in movies like New Jack City, and we’ve seen the affects of the drug in people like Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Flavor Flav and your Uncle Lenny. Ironically, the “Crack Epidemic” occurred around the same time that AIDS was running wild amongst the unwanted American minorities. Reagan and Daddy Bush were busy as hell!

The main ingredient in crack is a narcotic called cocaine, which in it’s powder form had previously been very popular with wealthier people and future politicians because of the high price. Unfortunately, most poor people had never tasted this sweet candy because smack was a little cheaper. But yeah, the government and their brilliant scientists and cooks this genius somehow figured a way to make cocaine cheaper for blacks. You see, you mix a little cocaine with some baking soda, water, flour and an egg (the egg holds everything together)…and there you have it…you got crack! Sorry for giving away the recipe, but whatever… All you had to do was put it in a pipe and smoke it. The government genius sold this recipe to upper and mid-level street pharmacists across America, and they cleaned up! Who said that there wasn’t business opportunities in the hood?

Although the take-off of crack put money in the pockets of countless people that had previously been destitute, (and helped the government destroy the black people that hadn’t already been destroyed by Vietnam and/or heroin) it also had its affects (believe it or not). Yes it’s true that crackheads can be entertaining (don’t lie to yourselves folks), and that they come up with some hellified dances, but it also wreaked havoc amongst my people. In addition to making users lose alot of weight, one of the problems with cocaine is that it makes you want to fuck like rabbits, and apparently diluting it with water and eggs didn’t do much to reverse this effect. Addicts didn’t want to use couldn’t afford condoms, so the addicts had babies. And plenty of them! All jokes aside, many of the babies died, and many lived briefly with serious birth defects. Many of the babies turned out to be perfectly healthy…or so we thought.

Now for the more serious part of the post. Fast forward to 2008. The babies that were born to users during the “Crack Epidemic” that turned out perfectly healthy are now what…like 16-23 years old. Think about those ages for a while (uh huh, some of you might see where I’m going with this). I can remember seeing reports of the affects of crack on babies in the 1990’s, but we only saw examples of extreme cases. Well, what about those kids that “initially” showed no affects at all? What about those recreational crack users that had children in the 80’s and 90’s? I don’t know of any studies that followed these children, and I don’t think that there’s any way possible to pull stats on the children whose parents didn’t make it into the system. All I’m saying is that there were alot of people smoking crack (especially in the early and mid 80’s) because it was cool…kinda like weed. There were probably more people smoking crack then you may think…

All of these facts bring me to this…..These youngins (16-23 year olds) out here are lunchin (buggin, trippin or whatever you say in your hood)! Everyday on the news, we hear stories of teenagers and young adults committing pointless acts of violence. Not to say that dudes weren’t getting shot up when I was growing up. In fact, DC was the murder capital for some time during my adolescent years. But now, the blood running through these kids’ veins is colder than ever. They just don’t give a fuck, whether you are in “the Game” or whether you are an old lady; if they want what you have, they will shoot you in the head for it, even if you don’t put up a struggle. No questions asked; no remorse. Just reckless shit man! And while I’m not a fan of the mainstream media because I know that they allow you hear what they want you to hear, but all you have to do is go outside and see that these youngins are lost (I don’t need Fox to tell me that). Just ride the train between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Or listen to what they call music (Shit, I must be getting old. I sound like my mother). Remember D4L? Don’t get me wrong, most of the youngins are doing fine, but those bad apples are more rotten and prevalent then ever.

But really, is it that hard out here? Is it harder than slavery was? Is it harder than the Jim Crow era? I think not. So folks, what’s going on? Is it harder than it’s ever been out here, or are these youngins spoiled as shit? Or maybe we haven’t really looked into the long term affects of crack on the user’s offspring? Whatever it is, as my boy Black Thought says, “It don’t feel right.” Discuss…I’m sure I’ll get cursed out before Friday about this one.