As it says on the tin. Make crack cocaine trafficking and use much more common in the United States than it is IOTL.
AHC: Wank the US crack epidemic
- Thread starter RonaldReagram
- Start date
The CIA realizes that it would be tasked with investigating itself should it be suspected of trafficking cocaine, and decides to make the allegations true.
Do the same as was done with oxycontin and other prescription pain killers get doctors to prescribe it.
In AH, saying "Wank X" doesn't neccessarily mean that you think X is a good thing. It's more like "create a fictional scenario where X becomes much more signigicant than it was in the real world".
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It was a legitimate question. Feel free to answer OP’s request if you want.
Okay.
Answer: Because it's interesting to discuss various social phenomena, and look at what factors made them possible, as well as what factors limited their growth IOTL.
Would the scheme presented in the 1973 film Live and Let Die -- i.e. manufacture a massive stockpile of cocaine, then release it all to the market at the same time to drive prices down and get new addicts -- work in real life?
Just for the record, the drug in that movie was opium. But assuming the same basic scheme...
I'm not an expert on crack cocaine, but wasn't it already pretty cheap to begin with? I know things can always be cheaper, but I have to wonder how many otherwise reluctant people would be tempted to try an illegal drug, by a drop in price that wouldn't amount to much in absolute terms.
(And I'm totally open to correction on the price of crack.)
That would likely give you a crack epidemic, but also a USA unrecognizable from the one we know.
And actually, it would have to be unrecognizable even BEFORE legalization, in order to give us the political alignment neccessary to attain legalization in the first place.
Drugs are rather price inelastic. Regardless of how cheap or expensive it is the demand won’t change.
Essentially this, if you could get some sort of alt-Perdue Pharma to get medical professionals all over the country to start selling it under the guise of ‘non-addictive pain relief’ or other nonsense, you could probably get a parallel to the OxyContin craze and current opioid epidemic but earlier and with crack cocaine.
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Wank the crack epidemic, or in street lingo, "A Crack epidemic on crack"...
Probably find some medical use for it is the best idea for making this possible.
Probably find some medical use for it is the best idea for making this possible.
Could crack cocaine rendered into pharmaceutical form still contain whatever properties make it crack cocaine?
I honestly don't know much about what makes crack crack, beyond that it's cheaper and usually smoked.
Kill off Upton Sinclair and other muckrakers in the early Progressive movement and we could easily postpone the formation of FDA (Food and Drug Administration).
If that's not possible have a Democrat in charge from 1928 to 1932 so that Republicans control the country during the Great Depression. Without FDR's support for certain reforms in the late 30's, there would probably be no standardization of prescription drugs.
With these pods, corporations and undereducated doctors would continue to use and sell cocaine infused medical products well into the 50s.
Another idea would be to put it in soldiers rations in small doses alongside cigarettes during WW1 and WW2 to be used as a temporary stimulant during extended periods of combat.
If that's not possible have a Democrat in charge from 1928 to 1932 so that Republicans control the country during the Great Depression. Without FDR's support for certain reforms in the late 30's, there would probably be no standardization of prescription drugs.
With these pods, corporations and undereducated doctors would continue to use and sell cocaine infused medical products well into the 50s.
Another idea would be to put it in soldiers rations in small doses alongside cigarettes during WW1 and WW2 to be used as a temporary stimulant during extended periods of combat.
The advantage "crack cocaine" had was it could be inhaled directly and reached a higher concentration in the blood faster.
It was easier to use and less dangerous than the other inhaled forms, Cocaine paste or freebasing.
Cocaine paste - Wikipedia
Free base - Wikipedia
Crack cocaine was like the drugs equivalent of fast food.
And is sold like fast food.
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