Sad to go all conspiracy theory here, but...<p>The crack epidemic was a supply and demand issue. During the 1980s, the CIA enabled the flow of cocaine to help fund the Contras and other right-wing revolutionary groups in Central America. The new routes led to new manufacturing practices, and supply skyrocketed. This in turn dropped the price drastically, making cocaine suddenly available and affordable for a lot of people who couldn&#x27;t get it before. Crack was another technical&#x2F;marketing innovation, taking the old practice of freebasing and industrializing it. A quick, intense high got down into the $10-20 range, something even the desperately poor could afford. And since mainstream society doesn&#x27;t usually care much about the troubles of the desperately poor, the cocaine industry had a relatively untroubled new market.<p>The end of this era wasn&#x27;t so much due to draconian laws as to the end of the cheap supply.