No Crack Cocaine

[MerryPrankster]

What if crack cocaine had never been invented or had never become popular?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_epidemic

One butterfly might be that the African-American and Hispanic communities are better off. Perhaps someone who could have done something major with their lives got shot in a drive-by or something--here's where some "Great Men" could be inserted.

Another butterfly might be that Gary Webb is still alive. After the "Dark Alliance" snafu, he became depressed he couldn't get a comparable newspaper job and shot himself.

(Yes, to head off the conspiracy theories, multi-shot suicides are possible.)

A much smaller US prison population is another possibly butterfly.

 

[DCC]

Less drug money flowing into Central America. This affects everything from the Contras to the Communist rebels in Colombia.

 

[AmIndHistoryAuthor]

A much smaller prison population also means smaller numbers of Blacks and Latinos barred from voting. The most dramatic change might be in Florida, where a majority of Black males are unable to vote. So FL goes to Gore in 2000, unambiguously...and all that leads to.

Hip hop would have far less gangster themes. Could go more political, or stay simple party music.

 

[Goldstein]

A much smaller prison population also means smaller numbers of Blacks and Latinos barred from voting. The most dramatic change might be in Florida, where a majority of Black males are unable to vote. So FL goes to Gore in 2000, unambiguously...and all that leads to.

Hip hop would have far less gangster themes. Could go more political, or stay simple party music.

Not to tell a lot of the darkier and edgier themes of the nineties were influenced by a perceived urban decay, so popular culture would be somewhat different... to point out a solid example, the movie Se7en wouldn't exist ITTL, for it was directly influenced by the screenwriter's stay in NYC during the crack epidemics, in the late 80s.

I personally think the US politics would be so different that it's not clear enough if a Dubya VS Gore campaign in 2000 would come into being in first place. For a start, Ross Perot would do much worse in 1992 (assuming he still makes a presidential bid ITTL), and that election would be substantially changed, and the impact on the racial tensions could alter or even prevent the 1992 LA riots. It's also important to considerate that Rudy Giuliani probably would have had a different personal trajectory ITTL. Perhaps George Bush Sr makes a closer call in '92, or even becomes a two-termer? I don't know American politics enough to tell, but I would like to know if this is possible.

 

[grdja83]

Minor change. There is still a universe of illegal drugs to be sold and produced.

 

[MerryPrankster]

Minor change. There is still a universe of illegal drugs to be sold and produced.

Potheads generally don't rob people to get their next hit and pot gangs don't machine-gun each other.

 

[Goldstein]

Potheads generally don't rob people to get their next hit and pot gangs don't machine-gun each other.

Exactly. The point of crack is that it's cheap, very harmful and very addictive, and that comes as a substitute of cocaine in a time in which cocaine's popularity is at its height. The other cheap alternatives to cocaine, such as amphetamine, are not nearly as destructive or addictive in comparison.