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

by Donovan X. Ramsey

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 drew criticism no sooner than it was signed. Analysts kicking the tires found it didn’t exactly live up to its promises regarding drug education and treatment, or the president’s vow that the law wasn’t intended to fill prisons and jails with drug users. Just 12 percent of the $1.7 billion provided by the law was allocated to drug education programs. In fact, most of the funds were set aside for criminal justice efforts—$1.1 billion for local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and $96.5 million for new federal prisons, for example. Behind the scenes, the Reagan administration was unsure of how to dole out the money. After the bill had been signed, all the pens had been handed out, and the midterms were over, the logistics of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act were left to bean counters in the Office of Management and Budget. “It was an administration without adult supervision,” Deborah Steelman, a former associate director of the OMB, told The New York Times. “Overall, the details were left to implement themselves.”