Essay

Introduction:

On September fifth, 1989, President George W.H. Bush addressed the nation¹. He showed a bag of crack cocaine which had been bought at Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House. Crack cocaine had become the drug of choice of many people in many cities across the United States and Washington DC was no exception. President Bush went on to say that although casual drug use had dropped by one third, habitual crack use had actually doubled. President Bush declared that crack users were the most pressing drug problem that the country had. Crack cocaine was the drug of choice for many residents of Washington DC in the 1980s. It steadily increased throughout the decade. As the sale and consumption of crack increased, so did the crime rate in DC. Tens of thousands were arrested. In researching crack cocaine in Washington DC, I hope to learn why crack cocaine became so popular and the impact that it had on the community. This is important to study because by learning the impact that the crack epidemic had on the community, information can be acquired in order to find solutions to the lasting impact.

Who Was Addicted?

The majority of crack cocaine users were Black and Hispanic, and they came from all walks of life². An interview on WAMU.org reveals how a man named Ruben lived a double life as a reporter for the Washington Post, and as a crack addict³. He describes his fear of being discovered when he was called to report in the same neighborhoods he was buying. His story shows how pervasive crack had become in the community. Milloy⁴ wrote an article for the Washington Post where he describes the depths to which many men had fallen because of their crack addiction. They were homeless, and had lost what they had to their addiction, and yet crack was all they could really talk and think about. Milloy demonstrates in his article that it is hard to quit a drug that you are surrounded by every day. People who took crack cocaine were chasing a high, and their status in society did not help them in overcoming the vice. Furthermore, the mayor of DC, Mayor Marion Barry, was using crack himself, unbeknownst to his constituents. He would be investigated several times in the late 1980s before finally being arrested in a sting operation⁵.

The Attraction of Selling Crack Cocaine

Selling crack cocaine in Washington DC was not only easy, but lucrative because there was easy money to be made. Crack became so popular that there were open air drug markets in the distric; Hanover Place is a good example. It was also home to one of the most notorious crack cocaine dealers in Washington DC, Rayful Edmonds⁶. Edmonds was the son of two petty drug dealers who taught him how to sell narcotics at an early age. Although he was an A-student, he eventually dropped out of college; this was because cutting cocaine was an easy source of money. Making key connections, he was soon importing hundreds of kilos of crack cocaine every month and controlled the majority of the DC area. Within a few years of dropping out of school, Edmonds was making millions of dollars. In fact, at its peak, his network was making over two million dollars a week⁶. Rayful Edmonds was an example to his neighbors and his community of how much easy money there was to be made selling crack. Rayful, and other dealers, were examples of how easy crack was  to sell, and make money off of.

Crime and Crack Cocaine

Many people believe that the rise in crime was directly related with the rise in crack cocaine use. Ayers ⁷ reported that three quarters of the homicides committed were connected to the increase of drug trafficking in the District, particularly crack cocaine. Ayers⁸ reports that two women were shot and two other women were stabbed in front of their children. When the police arrived, the children, all toddlers, were crawling over the bodies of the women who had been killed.

The mayor at the time, Mayor Marion Barry, attempted to battle against the increasing crack cocaine use through various programs, namely “Operation Fight Back,” and “Operation Clean Sweep.”⁸ Ayers reports that “Operation Clean Sweep” had cost over 6 million dollars in overtime hours in just two years. Although “Operation Clean Sweep” had resulted in over 44,000 narcotic arrests, including the arrests of 60 drug dealers, crack sales continued to rise, and so did the crime rate⁸. There were so many people being arrested that many prisoners were sent to out of state penitentiaries due to severe overcrowding⁹.  No matter how many dealers were arrested, there were always someone waiting to take their place. 

Meanwhile, murders linked to the sale of crack cocaine continued to rise. According to Horrock⁹, there were 372 murders in 1988. This number rose to well over 400 murders in 1989. It seemed that the police and the government could not stop, or even slow down the crimes taking place.

Crack Addicted Mothers and Their Children

Children often suffered due to their crack addicted mothers. Many children were born to crack addicted mothers. In an interview with WAMU.org, Lynda Waters describes how crack was a priority in her life, above her children. She describes how she left her kids with a sitter to go buy crack and ended up staying at the house for days. Her kids were left alone by the sitter and had to fend for themselves. Lynda has spent most of her children’s lives in jail¹⁰. Her story is not unique. Many children were abandoned by their mothers because of their addiction to crack.

Children were often raised in a toxic environment. They saw drug dealers and drug users on a day to day basis. According to WAMU¹⁰, dealers were often looked up to by the children in the community. Drug dealers had money, dressed nice, and often gave away small things to the children. Children witnessed drug deals. They could quickly spot the difference between a drug dealer and a drug users. They also lured children to become dealers. Lemont Carey describes how he became a drug dealer in DC as a child in an interview with WAMY. He describes how at first, children are used as look outs to warn when police are approaching, slowly progressing until the children themselves are selling drugs.¹⁰

According to Tim Moore on WAMU, the crack epidemic is partly responsible for the black/white education gap. Up until the 1980s, the gap was closing. In 1990, the progress stopped. Researchers believe that this was because children saw so much violence, that they didn’t expect to live past the age of 30¹⁰. This would not motivate children to study for the future, if they saw no future. In fact, Fryer et al. conducted research attempt to analyze data about the crack epidemic which took place across the country. They also concluded that the crack epidemic had a lasting negative impact on the black community. ¹¹

Conclusion

Crack cocaine affected many communities in DC. It seems like its popularity and sale were interlinked. That is to say, as more people used the drug, more dealers were enticed to sell it as a quick and easy way to make money. The more dealers that were present, the more that was available to flood the streets. Selling crack was an easy way to make money fast, as highlighted by Rayful Edmonds. Crack cocaine wreaked havoc on the District of Columbia. Thousands were addicted, leading them to live lives that no one would ever want, and hundreds were murdered. Children were forced to grow up surrounded by crime, violence, and neglect. By 1989, crack use was still rising, as well as the crime rate. Many believe that this began the cycle of incarceration for many families and communities. Children had parents who were in jail, mothers and fathers who were addicted, and saw little future for themselves. Education was not a priority in their world. Washington DC was in such a state of perpetual violence that it became known as the murder capital, and many were calling for the federal government to intervene. This was a dark, little talked about, time in the history of DC is one that likely has had a large negative impact on the black community in the neighborhoods that were often devastated.

(1) Bush, George W.H. “Address to the Nation on the National Drug Control Strategy.” Speech, Washington, DC, September 05, 1989. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=17472

(2) James, Frank. “House Votes to Narrow Crack, Powder Cocaine Penalties.” NPR website, http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/07/28/128830131/house-votes-to-narrow-crack-powder-cocaine-penalties (accessed 01 May 2014)

(3) WAMU. “Crack, The Drug That Consumed the Nation’s Capital.”n.d. http://wamu.org/crack_the_drug_that_consumed_the_nations_capital

(4) Milloy, Courtland. "The Call of the Rock." The Washington Post (1974-Current File), Jun 11, 1989, http://search.proquest.com/docview/140007532?accountid=14541 (accessed May 8, 2014).

(5) Horrock, Nicholas. “This Could Be Us Capital of Crime.” Chicago Tribune News website, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-02-08/news/8903030823_1_pistols-washington-mayor-marion-barry-grand-jury

(6) "Rayful Edmond III," The Biography.com website, http://www.biography.com/people/rayful-edmond-iii-547286 (accessed May 09 2014).

(7) Ayers, Drummond. “Surge of Violence in Capital Linked by Police to Narcotics.” New York Times website, http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/23/us/surge-of-violence-in-capital-linked-by-police-to-narcotics.html

(8) Ayers, Drummond. “Washington Finds Drug War Is Hardest at Home.” New York Times website, http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/09/us/washington-finds-drug-war-is-hardest-at-home.html  (accessed 29 April 2014)

(9) Horrock, Nicholas. “This Could Be Us Capital of Crime.” Chicago Tribune News website, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-02-08/news/8903030823_1_pistols-washington-mayor-marion-barry-grand-jury

(10) WAMU. “Crack, The Drug That Consumed the Nation’s Capital.”n.d. http://wamu.org/crack_the_drug_that_consumed_the_nations_capital

 

(11) Fryer, Roland, Paul Heaton, Steven Levitt, and Kevin Murphy. "MEASURING THE IMPACT OF CRACK COCAINE." Emily Berman 1 (2005). http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/FryerHeatonLevittMurphy2005.pdf  (accessed May 1, 2014).