HIS 130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Price Drop, White Privilege
Document Summary
How and why did crack cocaine replace heroin as america"s most feared drug in the 1980"s and. In the 1970"s, cocaine was seen as safe: 1980"s: beginning of backlash and a new idea of addiction, crack helps backlash vs. all drugs, demonization of crack mothers . Cocaine is super expensive in powder form. Moderate doses of cocaine were seen as okay. 2-3 doses a week was known as moderate. In the 70"s/80"s, cocaine was for the wealthy because it was so expensive. Late 70"s, early 80"s, cocaine use increased. Cocaine was seen to have very little health concerns and wasn"t seen as addictive. Cocaine was seen as no big deal; only considered bad if consumed too much. Physicians said that cocaine was bad for the body. People found themselves becoming addicted to cocaine, even though they were told it wasn"t addictive. People still weren"t believing that cocaine was bad. People kept using cocaine, which resulted in overdoses and death.