According2Sam #69

The United States started seeing cocaine on it's streets in the early 1970's. It was smuggled into the county through South Florida by Cuban exiles working with Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel. In those days cocaine was an expensive luxury drug enjoyed by rich and middle-class Americans; the stockbroker who does a few bumps to ease the pressure of the job, or the socialite that liked doing a few lines and dancing all night at the disco. In the 1980's that started to changed. The supply of cocaine on American streets started to increase exponentially, and the price dropped drastically. When crack came on the scene in 1985 it made it possible for common Americans to enjoy the high of cocaine. It was epidemic! The community that was hit hardest by this epidemic was Black America, which was still recovering from generations of poverty and oppression. The crack cocaine epidemic led to a crime epidemic in poor Black communities, which led to an outcry for law and order. In 1986 Congress answered those cries with legislation that was meant to fix the problem. It ended up creating even more problems for Black America. What was the source of the massaive increase of cocaine in the United States in the 1980's, and how did it lead to "The New Jim Crow"? Join the conversation and get answers to these questions and more on According2Sam episode #69.