THE CRACK COCAINE EPIDEMIC OF THE 1980s

To some, the 1980s is hailed as the glory days: a simpler time. Many people look back on their permed hair, shoulder-padded blazers, and acid wash jeans with fondness. While some people may have been clothes shopping for their senior year prom, the boy or girl next door (whatever that looks like to you) may have received their next supply of crack cocaine from their dealer.

The crack cocaine epidemic shook the foundation of political and social conservatism. The election of President Ronald Reagan ushered in a resurgence of traditional values heavily promoted by the Republican Party. You would never think that the President of the United States, let alone a president who shouted passionately “Let’s make America great again,” in his 1980 presidential campaign, would be partially responsible for so much destruction across the streets of America. Ironically the United States (US) government, more specifically the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), propelled the declivity of crack cocaine into the hands of the American people. By turning a blind eye and providing aid to Nicaraguan drug traffickers, the CIA damned millions of people to the clutches of crack cocaine.

Across the pond, the CIA was helping to manipulate political affairs in Nicaragua. The Cold War (1979 -1985) was raging on, and Nicaragua was one of many countries fighting against the spread of communism perpetrated by the Soviet Union. In 1979 the Nicaraguan government was seized by a group called the Sandinistas. In retaliation, another group called the Contras engaged in violent tactics to fight the socialist revolutionaries. When Ronald Reagan discovered the Contras' fight to overthrow the Sandinistas, he was immediately fascinated. Ronald Reagan once compared the Contras to the US founding fathers “They are the moral equal of our founding fathers" (Boyd). He wanted to help them. For a time, the US government offered financial aid, and the CIA impeded the transfer of weapons to the Sandinistas. However, Congress was opposed to inferring in foreign affairs. The Boland Amendment passed in 1984. The US government resigned its assistance. Without aid, the Contras resorted to the fastest money-making scheme: drug tracking. With the help of Ronald Reagan and the CIA, the Contras smuggled crack cocaine into the US.

The CIA formed a group called the Fuerza Demcoratica Nicaraguense (FDN). This group consisted of Nicuragana refugees that migrated to the US. Most of these people either fled or got exiled from Nicaragua for opposing the Sandinistas. The FDN worked with the Contras to smuggle and sell crack cocaine in the US. The Contras sold dope to drug rings. Then the FDN would collect the profits and deposit them to the government officials. However, most of the money fell into the hands of the Contras. Former FDN member Oscar Danilo Blandon Reyes said in an AP News interview that he sold “almost a ton of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods, notorious Los Angeles gangs for $54 million” (“Newspaper Alleges”).

Unlike in the US, cocaine was not as accessible to the average person in Nicaragua. According to an article written by Dennis Rodgers called “Drug booms and busts,” many people who used drugs usually smoked marijuana, sniffed glue, or took hallucinogenics. The domestic cocaine trade was localized to neighborhoods as opposed to the big drug rings in the US; it was more common for drug traffickers to sell their products to individual drug dealers.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, crack cocaine was a hot commodity. Drug Traffickers sold cocaine to high-profile gangs like the Crips and Bloods. Those gangs would sell to both the rich and poor. Cocaine was reserved for the wealthy, whereas crack was taken primarily by the poor because it was cheaper. That is how the city of Los Angeles earned the title of the “crack capital" of the world. Crack cocaine tended to be more popular amongst new adults and 20-somethings. In a research report conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse called “The Epidemiology,” the majority of people interviewed between the ages of 18 and 25 reported having used or abused crack cocaine. Many of these people were from low-income areas and often got exposed to drugs like tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol in their teens. Despite the racist rhetoric the CIA and Ronald Reagan were spouting about Black people (Ex: when he called UN African delegates “monkeys”). The Black community was not the dominant buyer of the drug. In reality, Whites reported higher rates of crack cocaine use, “The striking finding is that blacks consistently reported lower rates of cocaine use than white, with Hispanics in between these two groups” (153). The same report also concluded that Hispanic and Black women reported lower rates of addiction. Interestingly the report did say that Black people who lived in urban areas were more likely to develop a lifelong addiction than White people (155, 156). The higher rates of addiction amongst Black people may be due to racism, social discrimination, and economic inequality. A report about employment and unemployment in the 1980s written by Diana N. Westcott and Roger W. Bednarzk had this to say about the unemployment rate in 1980: “proportionally, blacks were hit harder, and the downturn began earlier” (6). This information indicates that Black committees were more likely to be unemployed. The lack of funds in low-income and high-poverty areas hinders many Black people's access to adequate resources and necessary rehabilitation treatments.

Additionally, from 1980 to 1982, the American people experienced a recession. The recession is said to have rivaled the Great Depression of the 1940s. The University of California, Berkeley, cited the Iranian Revolution (1979) as the cause. The implementation of Ronald Reagan’s policy, Reaganomics, discontinued programs like Medicaid, student lunches, and food stamps. Countless citizens relegated to low-income and high-poverty areas depended on those programs. In many places selling cocaine or crack cocaine became a means of survival for people without job security.

Contrarily, large cooperations benefited from Reaganomics. The policy instated a tax cut and reduced government regulation for these corporations. While the average Joe struggled to make a living, the rich continued to get richer. The rich were determined to show off their wealth. Hair grew fluffier, blush got pinker, and trips more lavish. The rich, including Ronald Reagan and his friends, decided that the only thing they were paying too much for was taxes. In 1981 he signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act. The act lowered taxes for everyone, especially those in the highest tax bracket (taxes reduced by 20% for the highest tax bracket). Eventually, taxes decreased to an insanely low rate; people who earned $100,000 or more went from paying a 70% tax rate to 28% by 1989 (Federal Individual 6, 8).

With a net increase and more freedom, those who could afford it would take lavish trips to party in places like Manhattan. Experimenting with drugs was the cool thing to do in the 1970s; musicians like Elton John and the Beatles openly glowed about how drugs opened their third eye. Of course, when cocaine became the drug of choice for the rich and famous, some people hopped aboard the metaphorical “Crazy Train”. By the 1980s, cocaine became the symbol of a glamorous fast-paced lifestyle. In an interview, writer Jay Mclnerney spoke about the social climate surrounding cocaine in the 1980s. He said it best "In the space of a few years, cocaine went from being something that was surreptitiously snorted off of toilet stalls in these kind of grimy clubs to something that was being done on table tops in chic restaurants by investment bankers" (“How Americans”).

After using crack cocaine or cocaine, people found themselves experiencing withdrawal symptoms. The feelings of depression, anxiety, and possibly psychosis drove some to continue using. Researchers have studied the link between cocaine use and mental illness. In 2021 researchers know there is a link between the two, but in a study conducted from 1980 to 1984, the data came back inconclusive. The results showed some correlation between cocaine use and mental illness, but the quantity of research was too insufficient to develop a conclusive link.

The popularization of drug experimentation may have been a reaction to the stress of the time. The fear of communism and the threat of nuclear warfare plagued the 1980s. The fear was so permeating that even schools would hold drills about precautionary techniques students could use should a bomb explode. The American people grew weary of the constant political and physical threats looming over them. On the other hand, the next generation of 20 and 30-something-year-olds worried about succeeding in a materialistic world. The conservative politics that the Reagan Administration ushered in was in direct opposition to the progressive social movements of the 1960s and 70s. The next generation focused more on upholding conservative values by obtaining a college education and a well-paying job. To some people, crack cocaine or cocaine seemed like a mood enhancer that would give them the energy they needed to accomplish their goals.

Naturally, the crack cocaine epidemic destroyed countless people’s lives. The epidemic was so rampant that the Reagan Administration started the “Just say No” campaign. Schools introduced areas called Drug free Zones to protect the school children. In an article about his experience growing up in the 1980s, writer D. Watkins said that he and his classmates laughed when a police offer told them to run away from Drug-Free Zones. Turns out the entire area was considered a drug-free zone. Watkins also talked about his home city, stating that “There’s never been a hiring boom from inner city black Baltimore." For some people selling crack cocaine was their only source of income. The distribution of crack cocaine and the War on Drugs got utilized as a weapon against Black people and other minority groups. For example, the government and media publications created propaganda saying that Black and Brown women were doing cocaine instead of caring for their children. That is how the idea of the crack baby got seared into mainstream media. According to an article called “How the ‘Crack Baby,” only 5% of babies born to mothers addicted to cocaine were born with cocaine in the system. Thousands of Black and Brown women were incarcerated instead of receiving help.

Thankfully by the 1980s, addiction was starting to be seen as a treatable disease with more frequency. In the 1980s, the American Medical Association (AMA) identified drug dependence as a disease, and the Miami drug court helped nonviolent offenders enroll in treatment programs. An article called "History of Drug Treatment" provides a great rundown of the options available in the 1980s. The article states that by 1985 rehabilitation centers were starting to offer tailored treatment plans.

The compassion for recovering drug addicts was in direct opposition to Ronald Reagan’s conservative views. Ronald Reagan did not support the rehabilitation of drug addicts. Instead, Ronald Reagan created and signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which stated that if a person possessed 5 grams of crack cocaine, they would receive a minimum of 5 years in jail. Statics from “The History” shows that incarceration rates rose from 500,000 people in 1980 to 2.3 million in 2008.

Regardless of drug laws or the Reagan Administration’s war on drugs, the CIA was directly involved in the syndication of drug paraphernalia in the US. Ronald Reagan was at least indirectly involved. Instead of revealing the truth, the Reagan Administration pointed fingers at the Sandinistas as the perpetrators of the crack cocaine epidemic. The truth is most of the crack cocaine sold in the US came from Columbia, and Contras and the FDN were working together to smuggle drugs into the country. While the CIA did not allow agents to sell drugs on the streets, they did conceal the illegal activities of drug traffickers like Norman Meneses, Oscar Danilo Blandon Reyes, and “Freeway” Rick Ross. The CIA revealed this because of the reporter Gary Webb’s story covering the connection between all of these forces. “Freeway” Rick Ross confirmed Gary Webb’s story during his interview following his 1996 arrest that he received his supply from Oscar Danilo Blandon, who was a Contra: the Contras were backed by the CIA.

References

“1980-82 Early 1980s Recession.” 1980-82 Early 1980s Recession - Timeline - Slaying the Dragon of Debt - Regional Oral History Office - University of California, Berkeley, bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/debt/1980srecession.html. 

“Drug Booms and Busts: Poverty and Prosperity in a Nicaraguan Narco-Barrio.” Taylor & Francis, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2017.1334546. 

Editors, ZORA. “How the 'Crack Baby' Myth Criminalized Black Women and Destroyed Families.” Medium, ZORA, 18 Feb. 2021, zora.medium.com/how-the-crack-baby-myth-criminalized-black-women-and-decimated-families-ed4b3f9a8cff. 

Employment and Unemployment: A Report on 1980. www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1981/02/art1full.pdf. 

Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History. files.taxfoundation.org/legacy/docs/fed_individual_rate_history_nominal.pdf. 

'Freeway' Rick Ross: The Jim Norton Show (Part 2) - Youtube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjbQPhduVk. 

Gerald. “Reagan Terms Nicaraguan Rebels 'Moral Equal of Founding Fathers'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Mar. 1985, www.nytimes.com/1985/03/02/world/reagan-terms-nicaraguan-rebels-moral-equal-of-founding-fathers.html. 

“History of Drug Treatment.” Desert Hope, 20 Apr. 2021, deserthopetreatment.com/addiction-guide/substance-abuse/treatment-history/. 

Landmark Recovery. “The History of the War on Drugs: Reagan Era and Beyond.” Landmark Recovery, 27 Sept. 2021, landmarkrecovery.com/history-of-the-war-on-drugs-reagan-beyond/. 

“Nicaragua Facts and Culture.” CountryReports, www.countryreports.org/country/Nicaragua.htm. 

Staff, NPR. “How Americans Said No to Cocaine after Years-Long Addiction.” NPR, NPR, 27 July 2013, www.npr.org/2013/07/27/206148964/how-americans-said-no-to-cocaine-after-years-long-addiction. 

“The Epidemiology of Cocaine Use and Abuse.” Edited by Susan Schober and Charles Schade, National Institute on Drug Abuse RESEARCH, 1991, archives.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/monograph110.pdf. 

Tucker, Eric. “House Committee Raises Prospect of More Impeachment Articles.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 23 Dec. 2019, apnews.com/article/donald-trump-politics-ap-top-news-ukraine-courts-867403d69b0135e020b7d5a1963f2033. 

Watkins, D. “That Racist Reagan Recording Just Confirmed What My Community Already Knew.” Salon, Salon.com, 2 Aug. 2019, www.salon.com/2019/08/01/that-racist-reagan-recording-just-confirmed-what-my-community-already-knew/.