The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

changes in U.S. drug policy and a renewed focus on
fighting a “War on Drugs.” The Anti-Drug Abuse Act
of 1986 specifically allocated money to reduce the
supply of cocaine entering the United States. By the
end of the 1980’s, drug abuse was considered to be
one of the most important problems facing the
United States. It was more prominent in urban cen-
ters, and there was a significant surge in crack use in
New York, Los Angeles, and Houston. The ravages of
the drug in U.S. cities took on added significance in
the late 1980’s, when Senator John Kerry held hear-
ings into the connections between the Iran-Contra
affair and the importation of cocaine into the
United States. Kerry’s hearings established that the
federal government had, either knowingly or un-
knowingly, facilitated the importation of thousands
of pounds of cocaine into the country and had paid
hundreds of thousands of dollars to known drug
traffickers to transport humanitarian assistance to
the Contras.
For the last two years of the 1980’s, national me-
dia attention concerning the crack epidemic fo-
cused on women, primarily pregnant crack users.
Part of the crack epidemic involved the term “crack
babies,” the children born to crack-addicted moth-
ers, who themselves became addicted to the drug
while still in the womb. Crack babies were portrayed
as future violent criminals who, upon birth, exhib-
ited a number of different developmental problems,
low birth weight, hyperactivity, poor concentration,
neurological problems, birth defects, brain damage,
and cocaine withdrawal symptoms. Another out-
come of the crack epidemic was an increase in turf
wars among rival gangs in urban areas where crack
was introduced. With the new lucrative drug addi-
tion to the market, individuals and gangs fought for
the right to sell crack, and violence increased.

Impact The crack epidemic was itself a widely dis-
cussed issue, but it also focused several larger issues
central to the 1980’s. Fictional and nonfictional me-
dia portrayals prevalent during the decade ensured
that crack cocaine was associated in the public mind
with desperate, impoverished racial minorities com-
mitting violent crimes, while powder cocaine was
seen as the drug of rich white stockbrokers and
movie stars. While neither stereotype was completely
accurate, the news media were criticized for their
tendency to focus on the form of cocaine associated
with inner-city crime rather than the form abused by

affluent white Americans. Crack addicts were also at

the center of the 1980’s debate over whether the

proper response to drug addiction was treatment or

punishment. These criticisms from the Left were dis-

missed by conservatives, who accused critics of sim-

ply being “weak on crime.” Liberals for their part

were quick to seize on the revelations of the Iran-

Contra affair, which seemed to provide evidence

that people employed by the Central Intelligence

Agency were also involved in drug running.

Further Reading

Humphries, Drew.Crack Mothers: Pregnancy, Drugs,

and the Media. Columbus: Ohio State University

Press, 1999.

Reinarman, Craig, and Harry G. Levine, eds.Crack

in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice. Los An-

geles: University of California Press, 1997.

Williams, Terry.Crackhouse: Notes from the End of the

Line. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

Sher yl L. Van Horne

See also Conservatism in U.S. politics; Crime;

Gangs; Iran-Contra affair; Journalism; Liberalism in

U.S. politics.

Craft, Christine

Identification Television news anchor whose sex-

discrimination lawsuit received national

attention

Born 1944; Canton, Ohio

Craft made broadcast histor y when she won a $500,000

verdict against a Kansas City TV station for sex discrimi-

nation. Her lawsuit challenged the different standards by

which male and female on-air broadcast news anchors were

judged in the U.S. media industries, and the jur y verdict,

though eventually overturned on appeal, was considered a

victor y for women’s rights.

On January 5, 1981, Christine Craft made her debut

as co-anchor on the evening news on KMBC-TV in

Kansas City, Missouri. Concerned about her appear-

ance, the station wanted Craft to have a makeup and

clothing makeover, but she refused to change. She

criticized the station’s policy on appearance for an-

chors and reporters as being based on stereotyped

characterizations of women.

Nine months after her debut, the station removed

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