The Story of Crack: Towards a Theory of Illicit Drug Trends

Abstract

Ongoing work with two heroin epidemics in Baltimore produced a "trend theory," a way to explain illicit drug use tends. In this article, the case of the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s is analyzed to challenge the theory. Two of the key parameters of the theory - the drug production system and the linking networks - apply directly and generate useful explanatory material. A third parameter - historical conditions of the impacted population - does apply, but it reveals explanatory material based more on economic need than subjective effects of the drug. In the end the theory is modified to account for the new material.

• Drug Trends
• Crack Cocaine
• Epidemiology
• Anthropology
• Baltimore