European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 15, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cocaine it flowing into the United staff i like wafer through to Sieve Here peat Antt cultivate coca Shrub on a terraced hit tide in Bolivia the crack epidemic most addictive narcotic in America by Ric Hampson associated press t hey Call it crack on the East coastal the a mind  and Rock out  its . This refined Smoka Beform of cocaine May Baths most addictive narcotic fiver sold on the streets of the United states Strong enough Tor i he Rich Man cheap enough Tor the poor Man. Crack is becoming the nation s drug of Choice from suburban High schools 1o the to Lief Aling Urban drug Dens known As base  1 ii you re interested in epidemics this be quit a  said Mark Benvengo a drug abuse specialist with the Philadelphia depart Mart of Public health. In 13 years in this work. I be never seen anything like  a year ago. A National Telephone service thai receives More than 700 reports a Day of cocaine abuse had not gotten one about crack. Now. Aimos a third of its cars Are prompted by the drug. Police say crack accounts Tor a growing percentage of cocaine sales including More than half of new Yorks two to feds of Dallas and More than three quarters of Detroit s n Philadelphia aficionados Are making crack with equipment and ingredients found in any Kitchen Crick to coca ii Towl has been distilled from its Tamsa powder form cocaine hydrochloride. Although crack is no purer than the powder which generally is snorted through Biol Rhi Colic production and marketing at $10 to $20. It can entice i Hose who Coli Al never a lord powder  re $100 a Gram. Cocaine powder r. Guide into crack by putting it into a mixture that is he ipod. Allowed to Harden and Hen broken into Small pieces and sold in Liny vials. By making cocaine Smo Kable and by Selling it in Small Allor Dable amounts dealers vastly increase the demand for heir product or. Arnold Washton. Research director far the cocaine Telephone service said i he dealers marketing strategy is Mare of Lclive than that of most advertisers for legitimate products. Crack is thought to have first appeared in the Early 1960s on he West coast. In Sale 1983 it turned up in the Bronx a new York City Borough and by 1985 the Washington Heights Section of upper Manhattan was known As the City s crack capital since then said Sterling Johnson the City s special narcotics prosecutor in has spread quickly. Crack is King in the Liberty Coly Section of Miami in Philadelphia s Hunting Park and in Central South los Angeles. On some Corners of Manhattan s scruffy Tower East Side where Young men used to sell marijuana teen agers now sell crack. An estimated 200.000 people in metropolitan new York and several million around the nation have used he drug. Most clinics and Revenal services new say a majority of reported drug problems involve crack. But crack s reputation As the drug of the Young Lisl time user has been exaggerated experts say. Daniel Langdon of Phoenix House a new York drug rehab Dialion censer says i hat almost everyone has taken other drugs before using crack. Most Are aged 20 to 30, he said. All too much has been made of teen  agreed Washton who says crack s primary harm is that it often turns cocaine users into cocaine addicts within months. Chronic users complain of paranoia and 40 percent in one Holline Survey reported stealing to buy crack. Sunday june 15, 1986 r. The people gel involved in linings they would t do  ranging from skipping work to pros Lizul i Pangdan said. They re horrified Lalor when they Wiliie what they did Whilo they wore on a Binge " the most conspicuous sign of the crack Boom i proliferation of places where it can be bought and used. The houses Are  popular in Southern Florida and Grealer now York where hundreds have sprung up. There Are More base houses in some neighbourhoods than there Are churches or liquor  Johnson said. At Many base houses users buy the processed crack rent a pipe and smoke it there. Because the drug tends itself to binges some people stay for Hou s or Days. Although such houses have been compared la opium Dens. Langdon says a Moro Apt comparison is to the heroin shooting gallery. But the houses apparently Appeal to hos with no other place to smoke crack including teen agers Situ living at Home. In Ubarri Many base houses Are staffed by Young people paid several Hundred dollars a Day. Secu tily measures May include a steel plated front Doo. Guards with automatic weapons and a vat of acid for destroying the evidence. Ang the polio have used an armoured personnel Carrier with a steel plate mounted on a Boom to punch holes through the Walls of fortified Rock  and new York mayor Edward Koch has announced creation of a 10 a office police unit to crack Down on the houses. But prospects for crack s control seem dim. Anybody can make it in their Kitchen said Robert Slang of the . Drug enforcement Agency. Ii can be converted at such a Low level there s no major organization for us to go  the government s Basic strategy to seize cocaine at he Border is widely viewed As hopeless. I just got Back from South America and they say cocaine is allowing into the United slates like water through a  Johnson said. The stars and stripes Page 13