WEBVTT - Cracktoberfest Part One: Constructing the Crack "Epidemic" 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:09.520 Oh, prop Sophie. Ye, Hey, what's the word, homie? You 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.680 know I'm a big fall guy. I love pumpkin spice. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.800 I love walking through falling leaves. You know, the colors 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.799 start to change. What do you say this fall? We 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:23.920 all get together as buddies and we spend like seven 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.520 or eight hours talking about the crack epidemic, the c 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.600 I A Iran contra, the Gary Webb story that broke 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.320 it all that then had him hounded into self destruction 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:35.839 by the CIA and the New York Times. What do 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.400 we just did that for the first entire week of October? 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.200 Wouldn't that be a hoot? I feel like I feel 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:43.879 like this would be a good time because it kind 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.120 of matches all the stuff that kind of happens when 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:51.760 we sit around the table anyway, talk about crack. What 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.560 should we what should we call? What should we call this? Well, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.240 you know, the Germans have a holiday during this period 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:01.000 in time, and I feel like if it's German, were 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.840 allowed to co opt it, So why don't we call 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.640 it cractober Fest. Listen, I'm waiting. You know what I'm 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.880 saying October crack October because october Fest to me is 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.200 it's a little too late a hose it for my Yes, 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.080 yes there will there will be no leader housing, but 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.480 there will be whatever CIA agents where. Honestly, probably like 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:29.080 Patagonia vs. Khaki Slacks. Yeah, yeah, hell of a lot 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.160 of those. Um Well, this is serving as a general 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:36.040 introduction to the series. Prop you have done a blistering 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.560 two parter on the Iran Contra scandal. I am covering 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.959 the crack epidemic and the CIA and all sorts of 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.920 good stuff and um but I think people are gonna 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:47.520 be happy. I think you're all gonna have a good 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.920 eight ish hours learning about everything there is to know 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:55.000 about how the CIA actually because like that's like the 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.560 thing everybody like says, joking, like jokingly says, like the 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.680 CIA brought crack to the inner cities. Like there's an 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.960 actual story there, and it's actually kind of worse than 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.679 than than just like the quick summaries people give. It's 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.400 worse than the street lower. It really is what you 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.880 get into it. And I've really felt like, you know, 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:16.720 we're always looking for ways to collapse, you know what 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.600 I'm saying. There's obviously there's a lot of mutual friendship, 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:26.280 symbiotic nous between our two uh podcast, but it was like, 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.160 so there's that we share a Sophie. Uh, but I 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:38.280 feel like finding that perfect then diagram that perfect you 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:43.320 know meme of the two guys holding hands. What movie 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.320 is that' from Rambo? Right, Commando? What movie is that from? 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.440 That's from Predator? Actually it's from Predator. I knew it 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.840 was one of him, but Arnold is from Commando, so 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.799 it's understanding. Okay, so it's from Predator. Yeah, when they 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:01.600 that perfect like where both our stories meet and it 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.560 couldn't have met better than the crack epidemics he was 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:09.200 having right now and how we even got there perfect 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.120 perfect storm and uh so this so so so this 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.919 is episode one of five because we're gonna be doing 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.919 Cracktoberfest all week and you can listen to all five 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.240 episodes either and they're available in the Hood, Politics, Speed, 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.799 in the Behind the Bastards. We listened to them wherever 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:30.840 you get your podcast. So I officially, uh apologize to 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.160 all the other podcasts you listen to. You can go 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.640 ahead and uh go to those fees now and tell 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.400 them you can subscribe them. Just burn them off of 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.000 your phone. In fact, throw that old phone away. Get 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:46.360 a new phone, keep it pure, just yeah, exactly, all right, 0:03:46.680 --> 0:04:07.280 all right, here's what's mandatory, my minimums. I'm Robert Evans, 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:18.880 host of Behind the Bastards per Wow. Wow, that was powerful, powerful, prop. 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.360 So man, how are you doing? How are you doing? Buddy? 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.479 Hey homie? You know what I'm saying. Trickling down quick 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.400 and ther Reaganomics over here. You feel me? Beautiful now, 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.440 prop this is our special week. We had it. We 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.080 we did this introduction, the last one. I'm not sure 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.159 which of these episodes will introduce it on, but you 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.080 and I are tackling the crack epidemic, the c I 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:42.120 A Iran contra, all of which are individual stories that 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.159 are fucking wild, and all of which also kind of 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:48.280 deserved to be told together because they they're interwoven. Just 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.800 a bowl of gumbo of bastards man, Yeah, which I 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:56.279 feel like it's like the perfect, uh perfect analogy, because 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.280 everything in gumbo is great by itself. Yeah, then when 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.440 you get together, it's still amazing. Yeah, that's what I think. 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.120 When I think about the crack epidemic, I think, wow, 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:11.520 that was great by itself. It's perfectly fine by itself 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.760 without anything else around it. Yes, a plus um proper, Yeah, 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.279 how do you? How do you? How do you feel 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:25.160 about crack? Man? That doesn't seem like the right way 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:31.400 to start this. Um let's let's yeah, it's what crack. 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.920 It's so interesting how it went from like, uh, there 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.800 was a time where it was like hip hop was. 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.320 I feel like it's one of the proof proof of 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.159 concept that if hit hip hop is given the right information, 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.479 it does the right thing, Because it was it was 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.360 the butt of a joke to be like you do crack, 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.599 don't do crack. Crack it's what you know? Uh, and 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.240 then the self destruction and we're all in the same 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.520 game was about like, you know, you should do crack, 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.200 you know, And then all so there was a moment 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.799 where crack was terrible in in our in our culture, 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.760 or the butt of every joke. And then the crack 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.680 sellers became all the rappers, and then it was just 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:17.800 it became the coolest thing to sell crack, right, And 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:19.640 it was like, yeah, but I'm a crack dealer, Like 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:24.400 oh wait, so it's cool again. Yeah, but you supposed 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:28.520 to do crack, You're supposed to sell it. Yeah. I 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.360 think maybe a place I might want to start here is. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.400 Do you recall the first time you learned Like, is 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.160 that about like crack? The first time you remember the 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:40.520 first time, Yeah, you're you had to talk about it 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.440 with anyone. I do remember the time. I do remember 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.279 all the after school specials. I remember all of the 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.960 like you know, sort of the Dare program, all this 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:55.599 stuff around crack. But I think really it was whether 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:57.800 it was the movie Knew Jack Swing. I mean I 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.720 Knew Jack Swing, New Jack City, uh um, but really 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:06.520 it was like being in Los Angeles and like what 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.280 is wrong with that guy? Like and just like seeing 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:15.520 what a crackhead was and being like, yo, this is different, 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:17.640 you know what I'm saying. So I mean as young 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:19.960 as young of a child as I was, like a 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.360 very young child during this time, like really really like baby, 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:28.760 but just being like this is this is different? You know? 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.280 Uh So I think my and then just somebody explaining 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:34.440 all that's crack you you know, you smoke it like 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:35.960 this or you shoot it up. You know what I'm saying. 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:38.880 It's just people figuring out like what that was. I 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.280 remember my first syringe. You're stepping over my first syringe, 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.600 which isn't crack per se, but like a crack pipe, 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:49.400 and just knowing what all that stuff was was like, Yo, 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.119 this is bad a matter of fact, now that i'm talking, 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:55.840 I know there's a lot, but now that I'm talking, 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.440 my neighbor, dang, I haven't thought about this. And so 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.000 we grew up, you know, in the part of town 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:08.840 I was in my my neighbor you know. Um, like 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:10.680 I said, I grew up in total neighborhood. So like 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:14.679 my neighbor, they were you know, in the life hardcore 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:16.280 or whatever, but they were just they were just some 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.000 of the most loving like people whatever. Right, So anyway, 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:23.440 they moved right and when they moved, um, for whatever reason, 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:30.400 the next family that came in, I remember didn't turn 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:34.640 the electricity on and like they never turned on any 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.559 of the like utilities, and I just remember being like, oh, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.080 that's weird. And then the two little boys who were 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.200 a little bit younger than me used to always come over, 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.200 like right at dinner time, like you know what I'm saying, 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.040 and just all the like, they always smelled a little 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.480 bit like they weren't clean or whatever, and my parents 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:52.760 would like my parents knew was going on. I don't 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.240 know what's going on, but my parents knew was going on. 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.000 They would let him in. They'd be like dang, okay, 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.080 they feed them no more, you know. And then once 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.000 they put it all together, it and then you know 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.800 again people all hours at a night going in and 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.680 out the house. And then finally I realized I lived 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.000 next door to a crack house. It it was like 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:16.400 it was this slow roll of like wait, what, like 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.040 why do you why do they why do they have 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:20.920 so many candles? It's like, oh, it's kind of camping. 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.160 They cook with candles, you know, and just and then 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:28.160 just realized power, yeah, like no, it's crack. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.520 I mean, And obviously for me, it was a much 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:32.839 more distant thing, right, it was a thing that like 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:37.040 number one, crack was before anything else for me, like 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.960 a euphemism, yeah, for like something is addictive or also 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:46.600 someone is silly, like you're cracked out, Yeah exactly. And 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.160 it was the adults talked about crack like it was 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.400 a plague, like it was a disease that it hits 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.520 certain areas, and the kids talked about crack like it 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.040 was a euphemism. Right, it was like yeah, just kind 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:01.400 of an explanative term that you could throw in. Oh yeah, yeah, like, yeah, 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.200 you're smoking crack, bro. We're gonna talk today about the 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.760 crack epidemic and how it happened and what happened as 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:12.320 a result of it. All cocaine type drugs, all cocaine 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.600 derived drugs, which include crack, good old fashioned blow, also 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.240 tinctures of cocaine, which is how people used to take 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.040 it back in the past, come from the leaves of 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.679 the cocould tree um and the co could tree grows 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:28.319 mostly in Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru on their own. Naturally, 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.960 the leaves can be chewed generally with something like potash 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.120 for a mild to moderate stimulating effect, with a little 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.760 bit of euphoria thrown in for good measure. I've gotten 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:38.640 to chew coca leaves in a couple of occasions and 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.080 it's very nice. It's a really pleasant and it's also 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.800 pretty hard to have be a problematic drug. You you 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.480 should think about coca the way we think about pot 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.040 or the way we think about like opium poppies, right 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.040 um opium poppies on their own. Some people do have 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.160 problems with that is a more serious drug, but it's 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.520 nothing compared to what happens when you start making heroin 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:03.960 or morphaga marijuana as it grows naturally almost impossible to 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.160 hurt yourself with. Then now people start making it into 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.439 shatter and stuff and they're blowing up trailer parks and 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.760 burning their brains out and ship right. Um, you know, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:15.640 that's kind of the way to think about the way. 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.600 And this is the way in which indigenous people used 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:21.400 coca one of them for probably thousands of years. Right um. 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.719 I know what we have evidence of coca used going 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.080 back and as as long pretty much as long as 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.280 there have been people in the area. It's it's it's 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.280 it's got to be the most like naive thing to 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:38.600 think that like, you know, these just plants that just 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:43.760 grew outside, that somebody didn't chew it and go oh 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.320 you know, and and and that that was just a 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.760 normal part of life. And maybe the rolls of shamons 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:56.160 and profits and they've probably been chewing wild plants forever. Yeah. 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.360 It's the same thing with you know, the coffee which 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.120 which comes from Ethiopia. The Romo people were kind of 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.839 the first people using the coffee plant. A big part 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:05.760 of what a major way it was used is for 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:07.760 like hunters, right to keep you going during the hunt. 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:10.360 That's probably a big part of how coca leaf was 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:12.080 used early on. It's like, right, we're out in the 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:13.640 we're out in the woods or the jungle or whatever 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:15.439 for a couple of weeks. You know, this should will 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.240 will keep us moving. Um. And also this is interesting. 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.280 Most people don't know this coca leaf is an oral anesthetic. 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.079 It numbs your mouth, so we One of the things 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:26.560 that's always been kind of interesting is that in a 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.280 lot of kind of Latin American areas you have early 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.079 history of pretty advanced dental work being done in some areas, 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:35.800 and maybe that had an impact on it, the fact 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:40.280 that they had access to a really effective oral an aesthetic. Yeah, 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.880 it's it's actually a really it's a fucking amazing plant. Obviously. Yeah, 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.280 it gets a bad fucking wrap. Well, novacane from the 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.760 coca leaf. That's where it comes from. Yeah, novacane and cocaine. 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.839 But he didn't get the song reference. It's okay, okay, 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.840 I didn't get the song reference. But I'm glad that 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.319 you brought up no vocane because we get novocane from 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.480 the coca leaf. See. Um, Yeah, it's just it's a 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:09.000 baffling lye useful plant. Um, and it's the root of 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:13.040 novocane and light a cane and crack cocaine. Um, they 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.199 all come from the same thing, right, Um, what kind 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:21.600 of Yeah, well it all sorts of canes. Yeah. Um. 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.640 Europeans really figured out what was up with coca in 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.840 eighteen fifty five. They'd noticed people in the areas they 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.480 were colonizing using it for a while. Um, But it 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.080 wasn't until eighteen fifty five that pure cocaine was extracted 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.240 from the leaps for the first time. Again, you've got 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.400 this bafflingly useful plant that's doing great stuff, and then 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:42.080 some white people come in and are like, you know 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.640 what we could do make a drug that makes people 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.960 insufferable at parties out of this let's we're gonna ruin 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:54.920 a lot of rabes. Like, yeah, now you already you 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.360 nailed the joke already. There's a way that's exactly a Yeah, 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.240 if you're going to snore a drug in a party, kids, 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.160 kinta means a lot better anyway. Uh So, obviously, the 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:09.120 fact that they're not co signed officially, Yeah, legally, no 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:11.960 one is co signing there. So this is a huge 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.640 moment in medical science. Obviously, like I joked about them 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:16.880 ruining it, but actually a lot of really cool number 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.040 one cocaine. There are some were some early medical uses 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.640 for it. We get anesthetics like novacaine and lightacne. This 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.640 is a big deal, and we don't talk again, this 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:27.080 is something that people don't think about, but it was 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:29.440 not We're we're we're at about like a hundred and 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:34.600 fifty years or so of effective anesthetics being widespread available, right, 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.320 that is not a thing in surgery prior to this. 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.640 If you don't live in a place where there's a 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.120 good natural oral anesthetic, um and there's a couple of cocaine, 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.240 coca is not the only one. Also, um cava, which 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:49.840 Hawaiian people I believe have been using, Polynesian people using 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:51.680 for a long time, works really well for that purpose. 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:53.640 But if you don't live somewhere with that plant and 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.400 you need a tooth taken out, you're probably downing half 0:14:57.400 --> 0:14:59.720 a handle a liquor and then someone's ripping a bone 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.120 out your skull, right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, then 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.280 you're then you're looking like a medieval movie, really real gnarly. Yeah. 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:10.920 I was listening to a h I think what was that, uh, 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.600 what kind of pot was that radio lapped the science 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.000 one from w might see what anyway, they were talking 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:23.280 about like figuring out molecules for new medicines and stuff. Right, 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.680 so if you figure this thing out, um, you know, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.800 you're also looking at like side effects, so like the 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.160 difference between like a poison, like a narcotic or a medicine, 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.480 you know what I'm saying, or poison. And one of 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:39.400 the researchers from China was like, well, they're just molecules, 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.400 like you know, and that that bifurcation, the difference between 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:45.440 like a good molecule and a bad molecule is like 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.280 it's a very new and sort of Western way to 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.840 look at this. It's like they all have strengths and weaknesses, 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.520 you know what I'm saying, and ways to abuse and 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.320 not abuse, you know. So even the way the way 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:02.000 that you're talking about, you know, the coca leaf is like, yeah, 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.720 I'm pretty sure somebody you know, in the ancient past 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.680 like chew that thing. And then his buddy was like, hey, bro, 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.000 you gotta chill man, you know what I'm saying, and uh, 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:14.760 you know, and it was like, yeah, man, that was 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:17.600 too far. You know what I'm saying, like there has 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.200 to have been because again, I feel like the point 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.760 you're making at this stage in the story is you 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.680 can't stress enough. It's just a plant. It's just a plant. 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.200 And and at some point some people figure out how 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.840 to like supercharge it, right, And so at the same 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:37.080 time as you get these early anesthetics, you start getting 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:41.200 pure cocaine, right, usually sold as a tincture. So you 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.760 just get a fucking dropper of cocaine water sheeese right, 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.600 you can know you can shoot that stuff up. A 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.040 lot of people injected it. I believe Sherlock Holmes injected cocaine. 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.080 I think with heroin. Um, this is what guys like 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.880 Freud are doing. Right. Most of them are not doing lines, 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.480 you know, um they are. They are taking it as 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.640 a pure like distilled tincture. You can pick this ship 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.159 up at the at the drug store. Um. Now, this 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:10.760 causes problems because cocaine is incredibly addictive, um, and also 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:13.919 not great for your body, especially if you're taking it 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.359 a lot of it every single day because the doctor 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.800 told you it's good for you. That actually hurts you 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.920 a lot. Right, You can choo coca leafs all day long, 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:23.840 and it's you're probably not well, not all day long. 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.000 When you can choot coca leaves on a regular basis 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.800 and you're not dealing with too huge of a problem. 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.440 You're doing cocaine every day. People are gonna notice because 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.680 it's going to destroy you. Yeah, I think they're government. 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:36.879 You're just gonna be like, hey man, you know, I 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:41.680 mean just doing Yeah, you're gonna get really into White 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.600 Snake and yeah, then your heart's going to explode. Hey, bro, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.040 so make an album. Hey man, we should make album. 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.320 You want to make an album of night Let's cut 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.600 we we we gotta bring back fucking prog rock. Man, 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.200 that's what I want to fucking hear right? Yeah? Um 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:58.400 so Europeans eighteen fifty five we get cocaine. Nineteen fourteen 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.040 is when the US government decides, right, that's enough, that's 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.359 enough cocaine being available. We gotta we gotta, we gotta 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.040 lock this one up. So we get the Harrison act 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:11.040 Um and and that makes it that's that restricts the 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:13.399 sale of cocaine, right, It makes it a lot harder 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:15.960 to get. People aren't buying it over the counter anymore. 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:18.879 And then in nineteen twenty two, another law gets passed, 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.320 which is one of the very first anti drug laws 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:25.280 in the United States that effectively stops legal US extraction 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.439 of cocaine. But of course the drug in various forms 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.840 continued to flow into the United States from Latin America 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.639 up through its land and sea borders. In the nineteen seventies, 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.919 cocaine caught on big time as a drug for the 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.280 rich and the upwardly mobile party set sometime in the 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.240 late seventies, and obviously there's a lot of history in 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.359 other countries, especially in Europe outside of the US. I'm 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.960 focusing on the US here. Sometime in the late nineteen 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.960 seventies are very early nineteen eighties. We don't exactly know 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:54.960 when this happens because it's happening illegally, right, and there's 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.119 no If we had the internet, then you would have 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.560 a fucking Reddit post the day people figured out how 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:01.720 to make fun and crest. But we don't know exactly 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:05.080 when it happened. But sometime between the very end of 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.439 the nineteen seventies and the start of the nineteen eighties, 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.920 some drug chemists figure out that you can take powdered 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.000 cocaine and you can dissolve it in water and then 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.359 mix in baking powder and cook it down into rock 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.240 like chunks. Now, this is easy to smoke, which makes 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.280 it convenient. Right, it's easier to take, but it's also 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:28.479 much purer than powder cocaine, right, which is often filler 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:33.199 or more. Crack is around pure and it's significantly cheaper 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.840 because of the way you're manufacturing the per exactly, the 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.280 per dose cost is a lot less than it is 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.720 with cocaine. So from kind of similar amounts of raw product, 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:46.480 more people can get high, more often for less money. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:48.680 So here's where I fill in pop culture for you. 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:55.359 Uh So, the the legend is that it was a 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.760 dude in Oakland that figured it out. Oh yeah, that's 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.760 that's the legend. Don't know that, but that's that's the legend. Right. 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.600 And once uh you know, once it hit Callie with 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.760 through like freeway Rick and and just some it starts 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.439 to hit and it starts it's hits hard and ruins 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.040 the crips and bloods. But that's but we'll get to that. Um. 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.600 But I think what you're talking about, as far as 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.600 how to make crack all of half of the slang 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:28.200 that gets appropriated from hip hop into the Zeigeister comes 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.520 out of black culture. Is actually it's crack slang. So 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:36.560 like cooking in the kitchen, you know, chef, you know 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:38.840 a chef spin, look at the flick of the wrist. 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:43.240 All of that is about spinning. Crack over, you know 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:45.840 what I'm saying. Yeah, it's all crack slang. You know. 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.520 A huge piece of internet slang right now that Garrison 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.560 and I say, probably more than is good for our 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.560 health is based right, it's crack. The term it's it 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.200 comes from free base right, like the origin and briefly 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.280 the right wing tried to take it in what I 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.520 mean like ideologically pure, and now it's just a general 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:07.320 term for cool, yes, and will be being the bad, yeah, 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.720 it will be being the base God like all these things, 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:12.880 Like I think it's gonna happen as this is going, 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.520 like I'm gonna keep pointing out rap lyrics to you 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:19.359 to be or just slang and being like that's about crack. Yeah, 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:21.560 it is great. And I really love that you point 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:26.080 this out because from a from a from a cultural standpoint, 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.400 crack is like on the level of the Simpsons in 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:33.359 terms of how it's influenced the way people talk, yes, 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.639 we're rappers. Where people called it rappers athletes, they call 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:41.960 themselves chefs because they're cooking in the kitchen, which is 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:46.680 where you make crack, right, right. So I want to 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:48.280 quote from the New York Times here to kind of 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:50.359 go over the economics of this new drug as it 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.240 starts to hit the market. Quote, the ten dollar sale 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.880 price made crack accessible to poor people who could never 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:57.960 have come up with two hundred or more that affluent 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.840 users paid for a gram of powder. Crack produced an 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:03.440 intense but fleeting high that pushed many users to buy 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:05.760 again and again until they ran out of money. And 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:07.479 that is one of the things about crack is that 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.200 like it hits harder and faster as generally the case 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.360 when you free base something than railing it or insufflating, 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:15.960 to use the scientist insufflation as the scientific term for 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:20.600 snorting something um like. So, for example, if you're taking 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.600 like a powdered hallucino generous psychedelic like a two C 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:26.399