By the early 1990’s, despite its criminalization,
crack use continued to increase, and thousands of
people were incarcerated. As the use of crack started
to stabilize and decline by the mid-1990’s, marijuana
became widely popular, particularly in inner cities.
Similarly, many former crack users and a younger
middle-class generation began to use heroin in in-
creasing numbers. Many youth and young adults
also began using “designer drugs” such as Ecstasy
(methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA),
GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), and ketamine.
Through the 1990’s, the use of methamphetamine,
commonly known as crystal meth, surged across the
nation.
Impact By the close of the decade, the Drug En-
forcement Administration (DEA) was engaged in
one of many cyclical “war on drugs” targeting users
and sellers of methamphetamine, marijuana, her-
oin, crack, and increasingly popular designer drugs.
In 1999, state prisons held 251,200 drug offenders,
about 21 percent of state prison inmates. Minorities
were drastically overrepresented among the incar-
cerated population. In the last two years of the de-
cade, the incidence of fatal drug overdose skyrock-
eted to rates not previously seen, due in part to the
high purity of heroin.
Further Reading
Gahlinger, Paul M.Illegal Drugs: A Complete Guide to
Their Histor y, Chemistr y, Use, and Abuse.Las Vegas:
Sagebrush Press, 2001.
Goode, Erich.Drugs in American Society. 7th ed. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
Johnson, Bruce, et al. “The Rise and Decline of Hard
Drugs, Drug Markets, and Violence in Inner-City
New York.” InThe Crime Drop in America, edited by
Alfred Blumstein and Joel Wallman. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Alexander S. Bennett
See also AIDS epidemic; Burning Man festivals;
Crime; Drive-by shootings; Ecstasy; Heroin chic;
Medicine; Nirvana; Pharmaceutical industry; Phoe-
nix, River;Pulp Fiction; Woodstock concerts.
Dubroff, Jessica
Identification Seven-year-old pilot trainee killed
in a plane crash while attempting to become
the youngest person to pilot a cross-country
flight
Born May 5, 1988; Hercules, California
Died April 11, 1996; Cheyenne, Wyoming
With her “Women Fly” baseball cap, Dubroff charmed the
nation as she set out on the second leg of her cross-countr y
flight from Cheyenne Airport. Moments after takeoff, her
plane lay crumpled in a driveway, with Dubroff, her father,
and her instructor dead on impact.
On the morning of April 11, 1996, in Cheyenne, Wy-
oming, Jessica Dubroff, her father, Lloyd, and her
flight instructor, Joe Reid, attempted to outrun a
worsening hail storm and to meet media obligations
along the route. Witnesses said that the plane failed
to achieve altitude, may have stalled, and plunged
straight down in a residential neighborhood near
the airport. The National Transportation Safety276 Dubroff, Jessica The Nineties in America
The wreckage of the airplane in which Jessica Dubroff, her father,
and her flight instructor were killed is loaded onto a trailer in
Cheyenne on April 11, 1996.(AP/Wide World Photos)