Narcotics: A Deadly New Hit

A Deadly New Hit

On the mean streets of New York City, where the drug entered the marketplace last year, it is known as "crack." Dealers sell pellet-size "rocks" of the highly purified cocaine in small plastic vials for prices starting at about $10. Crack is smoked rather than snorted, and a single hit provides a short but intense and practically instantaneous rush. The drug of the moment, it has been reported in at least 13 states, and police in New York and California have been busy busting the "base houses," or "rock houses," where the stuff is sold and smoked. Said William Hopkins of...

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