When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era

by Donovan X. Ramsey

In prior administrations, White House drug policy had been made by a number of offices handling both enforcement and public-health concerns. Under Reagan, however, all drug policy would be directed by one office, led by a man who believed the federal government could arrest and propagandize its way to a drug-free America. What followed was an all-out offensive the likes of which might have made former president Nixon proud. White House officials were insistent that the anti-drug campaign wasn’t a political issue, but starting in the spring of 1983, a year before the president would be up for reelection, First Lady Nancy Reagan flooded television with anti-drug media appearances. First, she put her experience as a Hollywood actress to use when she guest starred as herself on a March 1983 episode of Diff’rent Strokes that focused on child drug and alcohol abuse. Later that year, Mrs. Reagan sat in as a co-host of Good Morning America, ABC’s two-hour talk show, for an entire program dedicated to the topic. She also acted as narrator for 1983’s “The Chemical People,’’ a two-part special on drug and alcohol abuse shown across three hundred public television stations.