Show Notes Episode 491: You Want A NEW Drug?

Part 1 of the Crack Epidemic

This week Host Dave Bledsoe found himself unexpectedly in a serious situation when we staggered into an Irish wake and had to pretend he was cousin Eamon from Cork. (He was quickly figured out because his fake Irish accent kept sounding more Jamaican.) On the show this week we unexpectedly found ourselves tackling a topic way more serious than this dumb show should be allowed, the Crack Epidemic.

Along the way we discover that Dave was a tattle tale growing up and then dive right into the backstory of crime in the 70s, 80’s and 90s. (This is where everything started going wrong.) Then we learn how someone (could be kids from Barbados could be kids from Berkeley, or the CIA) learned how to make crack from stuff in your cleaning cabinet. We take a look at the economic and social conditions that made the crack trade so popular in the inner city. (This is where shit got real) before laying out crack’s real top customers. (White people, surprise!) Then we look at the impact of crack on the communities that sold it. That is when the show became a two-parter.

Our Sponsor this week is Clean Cut Baking Soda, don’t step on your product dirty, use Clean Cut! We open with Bette Midler telling kids that crack is whack and close with The Comatose Brothers seeking a second pharmaceutical opinion.

Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense

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Citations Needed:

Crack Cocaine Fast Facts

https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs3/3978/index.htm

Crack: A cheap and deadly cocaine is a fast-spreading menace

https://time.com/archive/6706314/crack-a-cheap-and-deadly-cocaine-is-a-fast-spreading-menace/

The Severely-Distressed African American Family in the Crack Era: Empowerment is not Enough

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2565489/pdf/nihms-66258.pdf

An Era of Drug Destruction: From Heroin to Crack Cocaine

https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/stories/era-drug-destruction-heroin-crack-cocaine

Are the Wages of Sin $30 an Hour? Economic Aspects of Street-Level Drug Dealing

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0011128792038004005?icid=int.sj-full-text.similar-articles.7

Cocaine in the 1980s

https://opentextbooks.clemson.edu/hlth4000holcombtugman/chapter/cocaine-in-the-1980s/

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