ALL EVENTS ARE THE RESULT of countless others, big and small, coming together at a particular moment. They pile up like logs on a pyre. Then there’s some kindling, a spark fed by the atmosphere, and, suddenly, a fire. That’s how it was with what became known as the crack epidemic: one thing led to the next, and so many things happened at once that it’s impossible to name just a single cause or responsible party. But as it is with fire, there were knowable elements—the substance itself, poverty, violence, grief.
