Crack house

Crack house

Crack house is a term mainly used in the United States used to describe an old, often abandoned or burnt-out building often in an inner-city neighborhood where drug dealers and drug users buy, sell, produce, and use illegal drugs, including, but not limited to, crack cocaine.[1][2][3]

In the 1980s, inner city neighborhoods were subject to a number of forces, including white flight, redlining, planned shrinkage, and withdrawal of city services such as garbage collection. Police and fire protection of the housing stock in these areas dwindled both in size and quality. In areas such as North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, the South Bronx, Brownsville, Brooklyn, South Jamaica, Queens and Flushing, Queens thousands of fires left entire blocks blighted.[4]

City agencies picked these same neighborhoods as sites for drug rehabilitation centers, homeless shelters, and public housing, leading to an increase in the proportion of poor and needy people in areas with dwindling middle-class populations.

The strongest economy in some neighborhoods became the Illegal drug trade, much to the chagrin of the few remaining community organizations. Abandoned buildings ravaged by arson or neglect formed perfect outposts for drug dealers since they were free, obscure, secluded and there would be no paper trail in the form of rent receipts. The sale of illegal drugs drew other kinds of violent crime to these neighborhoods further exacerbating the exodus of residents.

In some cases enraged citizens have burned crack houses to the ground, in hopes that by destroying the sites for drug operations they might also drive the problematic illegal industries from their neighborhoods.[5]

Many major American inner cities contain crack houses.[6][7][8]

Contents

In the United Kingdom

Main article: Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003
See also: Misuse of Drugs Act 1971

Strong legislation in England and Wales provides a mechanism for police and local authorities to close crack houses which have been associated with disorder or serious nuisance.[9][10] Often, these crack houses have been found in social housing, which has been taken over by drug dealers and users.[11]

Laws such as the crack house closure order were designed to disrupt Class A drug dealing and anecdotal evidence suggests that it mainly affects socially housed tenants. The effect is that once an order is made, the premises are boarded up, and no one may enter the premises, initially for a period of three months, but this can be extended to six months on the application of the police.[12]

In popular culture

Crack houses have been a subject widely used in hip hop music[13][14] and films such as Crack House[15] and the Taj Mahal sequence in Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever.[16][17]

References

  1. ^ New York Times
  2. ^ New York Times
  3. ^ New York Times
  4. ^ New York Times
  5. ^ New York Times
  6. ^ New York Times
  7. ^ Chicago Tribune
  8. ^ Highbeam.com
  9. ^ Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, s.2(3)(b)
  10. ^ Cumbria Constabulary v Wright (2006) EWHC 3574 (Admin); [2007] 1 WLR 1407
  11. ^ Mack, Jon (2008), "Anti-social behaviour: Part 1A closure orders", Journal of Housing Law 11 (4): 71–74, http://www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/Catalogue/ProductDetails.aspx?recordid=348&productid=6655 
  12. ^ Mack, Jon (2008), "Antisocial Behaviour Closure Orders, Injunctions, and Possession: Refining the Law", Landlord & Tenant Review 12 (5): 169–171 
  13. ^ New York Times
  14. ^ McDonnell, John (28 July 2009). "Scene and heard: Crack house". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/jul/28/scene-and-heard-crack-house. Retrieved 1 May 2010. 
  15. ^ New York Times
  16. ^ New York Times
  17. ^ New York Times

See also

External links

v · d · eRegulation of therapeutic goods
Americas
Brazil · Canada · United States (drug schedules: I - II - III - IV - V)
Eurasia
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