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Crack
The ordinary version of cocaine, a strong stimulant drug, which is usually taken by insufflation (snorting) into the nose. While it is the same substance as crack, it is usually slower-acting and more expensive, and so perceived as less dangerous. Primo, for instance, considers it a positive turn of events when he gives up smoking crack and begins snorting power cocaine and heroin instead.
Powder Cocaine Quotes in In Search of Respect
The In Search of Respect quotes below are all either spoken by Powder Cocaine or refer to Powder Cocaine. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Introduction
Quotes
Cocaine and crack, in particular during the mid-1980s and through the early 1990s, followed by heroin in the mid-1990s, have been the fastest growing—if not the only—equal opportunity employers of men in Harlem. Retail drug sales easily outcompete other income-generating opportunities, whether legal or illegal.
The street in front of my tenement was not atypical, and within a two block radius I could—and still can, as of this final draft—obtain heroin, crack, powder cocaine, hypodermic needles, methadone, Valium, angel dust, marijuana, mescaline, bootleg alcohol, and tobacco. Within one hundred yards of my stoop there were three competing crackhouses selling vials at two, three, and five dollars.
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Powder Cocaine Term Timeline in In Search of Respect
The timeline below shows where the term Powder Cocaine appears in In Search of Respect. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Introduction
...construction jobs and, of course, selling drugs, the most lucrative of all. “Heroin, crack, powder cocaine, hypodermic needles, methadone, Valium, angel dust, marijuana, mescaline, bootleg alcohol, and tobacco” are all available...
(full context)
Chapter 1: Violating Apartheid In the United States
...Primo invites him inside and, astonishingly, is happy when he turns down an offer of cocaine—ironically, “street ethics […] equates any kind of drug use with the work of the devil,”...
(full context)
Chapter 2: A Street History of El Barrio
Under “The Omnipresence of Heroin and Cocaine,” he notes that these drugs have been a fixation of the literature about East Harlem...
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In the chapter’s last section, “The Free Market for Crack and Cocaine,” Bourgois explains that the Mafia’s decline coincides with the rise of cocaine and crack, which...
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Chapter 3: Crackhouse Management: Addiction, Discipline, and Dignity
...his time at the Game Room Benzie managed to quit crack, replacing it with powder cocaine and occasional heroin. And interestingly, Benzie had a legal job doing boat maintenance, which he...
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...which he tells Primo how great it is to work legally and proclaims (while sniffing cocaine) that he “do[es] not do drugs.” For the first time, he says, he has self-respect.
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Chapter 4: "Goin Legit": Disrespect and Resistance at Work
...himself particularly intoxicated, Primo eagerly “admit[s] his deepest problems and anxieties.” For instance, when doing cocaine and heroin at an elementary school playground that is “one of Manhattan’s most active retail...
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Chapter 6: Redrawing the Gender Line on the Street
...Felix, nobody will mess with her. She is a wildly successful dealer, but starts a cocaine habit.
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Chapter 8: Vulnerable Fathers
...ex-wife’s new husband, and admits that he “called too late” the weekend before. High on cocaine and heroin, he gradually loses his coherency and train of thought.
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Chapter 9: Conclusion
...and hostility of the entry-level legal labor market needs to be transformed.” An ounce of cocaine costs $8 to $10 to make, and sells for at least $2000, and so “decriminalization...
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