ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the media coverage of the "crack crisis" and summarizes the core claims made about the destructiveness of the cocaine and crack "plague". It shows that a gap existed between the official statistical evidence and the prevalence claims of the media and politicians. The chapter maintains that the media and politicians misrepresented or ignored the evidence and instead provided propaganda for the drug war. It provides the crack scare's causes and logic in the conservative political and economic context of the Reagan and Bush eras. The chapter emphasizes that even though illicit alcohol use was far more prevalent than cocaine or crack use, and even though it held substantial risk for alcohol dependence, addiction, drinking-driving deaths, and other alcohol-related problems, the media and politicians did not campaign against teen drunkenness. It suggests that understanding antidrug campaigns requires more than evidence of drug abuse and drug-related problems; such evidence can be found in almost any period.
