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

by Donovan X. Ramsey

Ronald Reagan declared his efforts in the war on drugs “an untold American success story.” The use of illegal drugs had, he said, “already gone out of style in the United States.” It was an assessment completely divorced from reality. Most experts agreed, to the contrary, that Reagan’s anti-drug campaigns had failed. “We’re not winning the war on cocaine,” Coast Guard admiral Paul Yost admitted to The Washington Post in February 1988. Indeed, according to the National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee report, inventories were high, wholesale prices were the lowest ever recorded, cocaine sold on the street had never been purer, and the substance was readily available throughout all areas of the United States. But while Reagan had failed to create a drug-free America, he’d succeeded wildly in drug politics. He did so by conflating the nation’s legitimate fear of rising crime with its anxieties about increased drug use. The undercurrent to both, of course, seemed to be lingering hostility toward people and communities of color.