![]() ![]() The money and illegal nature of the business attracted guns, which attracted violence, which attracted newspapers, which attracted the office of the President of the United States. Between 19, cocaine incidents increased fourfold.” According to The Department of Justice, from 1984 to 1985, “The number of people who admitted using cocaine on a routine basis increased from 4.2 million to 5.8 million … cocaine-related hospital emergencies rose by 12 percent, from 23,500 to 26,300 and in 1986, they increased 110 percent, from 26,300 to 55,200. What followed has been called an epidemic, as crack spread from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city like a virulent disease. ![]() The exact moment of inspiration is lost to history, but by 1981 crack cocaine had made its debut. The full innovative force of Capitalism was brought to bear on the problem, and a solution was found: a new manufacturing process that allowed the drug to be profitably sold for a couple of dollars per dose. In this sense, cocaine is better, with wonderful profit margins, but the problem throughout the ’70s was that you had to know rich, white people if you wanted to sell your product at a premium. There just isn’t a lot of money in selling weed, especially at the lower levels of the trade. You see, while marijuana is relatively popular, the price that consumers are willing to pay for it is only a little higher than the production costs. Let’s talk about a technological disruption, a bit of engineering ingenuity that solved a problem for drug dealers. This week, Wren Graves looks back at how N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton changed the direction of hip-hop forever. Dusting ‘Em Off is a rotating, free-form feature that revisits a classic album, film, or moment in pop-culture history.
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