From Ganja to crack: Caribbean participation in the underground economy in Brooklyn, 1976-1986. Part 2. Establishment of the cocaine (and crack) economy

ABSTRACT

Shortages in the supply of marijuana, which became acute around 1981, caused Rastafari marijuana distributors very reluctantly to disregard religious injunctions against the use of any psychoactive substance except marijuana, and to experiment with the use and distribution of cocaine hydrochloride powder for intranasal administration and, later, for smoking (freebase and crack). This experimentation became ruinous, and many were retired ignominiously from drug distribution. In the crack era they have been succeeded by completely new social, cultural, and economic arrangements. (AU)