Shiny Objects in the Drug War
In my co-blogger's explanation of shiny object theory, he lists three basic features of the shiny object. The first two features can be seen as happening in "real time," while the third will only become evident over time. This scheme presents a problem for analyzing contemporary news stories, as the societal and political outcomes are often not available when the hysteria is occurring. Thus more solid evidence for the theory may be found in issues from the recent past.
One such issue ripe for investigation is the war on drugs and drug policy. The general characterization of drug use as a problem of "the others," i.e. poor minorities, has been a common theme. The history of marijuana and the connection to Mexicans provides an illustrative example, but similar incidents occurred with opium and Chinese immigrants, as well as crack and inner-city Blacks. The story of crack cocaine, however, provides perhaps one of the most stark examples.
According to Robinson and Schleren's new book on drug war statistics, the first major news coverage of crack came in late 1985 with a NY Times story, and was followed in 1986 by an explosion of coverage: both Time and Newsweek ran five cover stories each (and both named crack the largest issue of the year), CBS aired 48 Hours on the Crack Street (the highest rated news show of this type in the 1980s), and NBC followed with Cocaine Country plus 400 stories on NBC News (more than one per day!). Major legislative changes came quickley with much tougher penalties for crack in 1986 (100 to 1 versus powder cocaine) and the establishment of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in 1988, as well as major "jawboning" changes by President Reagan in August 1986 with a re-declaration of the war on drugs. American citizens followed suit, naming drugs the most important problem facing the nation. For comparison, in 2004 only 1% of Americans thought drugs were the most important problem (don't blame the GWOT, Reagan was using the phrase in 1986 as well).
The data do not show any epidemic of crack use. According to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services (Table 4.3a), first time users of crack did grow at what may be described as "alarming" rates in the early 1980s, increasing from 65,000 in 1980 to 271,000 in 1986. The number did dip in 1987 to 262,000 new users, and maybe this reverse in trend can be attributed to the media/political attention. But the subsequent increases in 1988 and 1989 to the peak of 377,000 new users can not likewise be attributed to the same factors. Whatever the reasons for the changes in these figures, they need to put in perspective. According to the 1990 Census, the U.S. population was over 248 million in 1990, meaning that the new crack users represented 0.15% of the population. For another comparison, according to the same DHHS data from above (Tables 4.14a and 4.15a) there were around 3.4 million and 2.5 million first time users of alcohol and cigarettes during this time period.
And what of the crack babies? This memorable phrase turned out to be a shiny object within a shiny object. In both the number of cases and the medical effects on children, the story was certainly unscientific if not an outright myth. But the myth was reported far and wide.
The narrative of crack is being repeated today with meth. Senator Charles Schumer has stated unironically that "it's 1984 all over again" and furthermore that "if we don't remember our history we will be doomed to repeat it, because crustal meth could become the new crack." Indeed.
