THE CRACK EPIDEMIC DIDN’T end the way some expected. The drug warriors didn’t gallop in on white horses and ride the bad guys out of town. Nor did federal law enforcement disrupt the flow of illegal substances into the United States, creating the long-promised drug-free America. What happened instead was more subtle: the drug trend ended as most trends do, because a new generation of young people simply refused to pick it up. Rates of crack use in most cities hit their peak around 1989, plateaued, and started to decline soon after. Researchers are reluctant to declare an end to any epidemic.
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