High Price

caused by smoking crack.
    The first media description of crack cocaine is believed to have appeared in the Los Angeles Times in late 1984. 4 At that same time across the country, 42 percent of arrestees in New York were already testing positive for some form of cocaine. 5 Nationally, 16 percent of all high school seniors reported having snorted cocaine at least once in 1984. 6 Statistics for Miami are not available for that year, but at least in my neighborhood, powder cocaine had definitely become a drug that some of my friends did on special occasions.
    Indeed, smoking freebase cocaine made at home from powder had already become popular years before it started being brilliantly marketed as crack—often, unintentionally, through media scare stories that hyped the intensity of the high—as an entirely new drug. Only a few years earlier, Richard Pryor’s infamous 1980 freebasing accident had drawn national attention to the practice of converting powder cocaine into smokable form. On June 9 of that year, the comedian was severely burned across half his body.
    Initial reports claimed that he’d been set afire when a batch of freebase he was processing with the anesthetic gas ether exploded. That’s quite plausible: ether is highly flammable and this manner of making cocaine base has great risk if people try to smoke near the ether. Then nearing the peak of his popularity, Pryor and his injuries became the subject of intensive media coverage.
    As a result, freebasing instantly moved from being a fringe practice that few people in mainstream America had heard of to one that was seen as extremely dangerous. That helped prompt many freebasers to stop using ether and switch to the far less dangerous “baking soda” technique for making freebase. In this method, cocaine and baking soda are simply dissolved in water and heated until cocaine crystals form, making a distinctive cracking sound. No potentially explosive chemicals are involved. In fact, many believe that the “crack” made when cocaine crystallizes is the source of the name for the drug that is produced.
    And so, crack cocaine began being sold as a ready-made product when dealers realized they could industrialize the freebase production process using this safe and easy baking soda method. The cheaper prices caused by the cocaine glut probably led to experimentation with new products and marketing ideas; the Pryor incident conveniently also raised awareness of the danger of the ether method. Crack may have been the ultimate result. My four years in the air force—from 1984 to 1988—coincided with the introduction and rapid spread of crack cocaine across the country. My home leaves during those years gave me snapshots of how the drug affected my neighborhood, although I first seriously misinterpreted what I saw.
    During my first leave in 1984, I started to hear more and more about freebase. The first time I’d ever heard people talk about it had probably been when I was in high school. There was a set of twins who lived in the projects near me; I didn’t know them well but I’d occasionally smoke reefer with them. Getting high one time, they told me to steer clear of freebase. “It’s too good, man,” one said. “Yeah, you can snort it but don’t smoke it,” his brother concurred. “That shit’s not for rookies; it’s just too powerful.”
    At that time, in line with my desire to always be in control, I had no interest. I didn’t like the idea of not being able to stop doing something. The notion of an experience that overwhelming didn’t sound at all attractive to someone who placed the emphasis I did on self-control. I wasn’t even slightly curious. Back then, though—other than what I’d heard about Richard Pryor—I didn’t see anyone I knew suffering serious negative consequences from cocaine. The guns and the risk of violence related to having a beef with someone were the same as they’d always been. That wasn’t new.
    So, cocaine use was definitely becoming popular by the time of my 1984 Christmas visit, and I heard some talk about it that year. There were rumors about a guy named Ronnie, who had always been known in the neighborhood for having the nicest ride. It was a Monte Carlo, sky blue, with a crystalized paint job that reflected the light just right. He had Trues and Vogues, which were the most coveted rims and tires. Ronnie put everything he had into that car; to say he loved it would be an understatement. Everyone who