[mhurron]

Crack Cocaine and Cocaine are not quite the same thing. Cocaine is known and used in the US as well. Crack was a US ghetto phenomenon, it is not used as some code-word for blacks.

The results are surprising in the sense that what was said, and generally believed even by professionals in the field, at the height of the issue was that it would be impossible for these children to develop at all. Poverty has a known affect on development, it was believed that these crack babies wouldn't even have the chance to hit that level.

The surprise comes from that the previous belief couldn't be more wrong. The actual effect was basically non-existent.

[ams6110]

Crack Cocaine and Cocaine are not quite the same thing.

Do you have any links to support this? I had always heard that chemically, they are both "cocaine" and the "crack" preparation simply allows quicker intake and thus a faster high.

[mhurron]

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

Crack is the freebase form of Cocaine. It is preferred for smoking (quicker intake ,less needed) because of the change in the evaporation point.

Oddly, Crack Cocaine is just the active ingredient (cocaine), powder cocaine is cocaine hydrochloride.

My original point is that no, calling it crack cocaine is not codeword for poor [insert racial slur for black people] doing stupid things, an assertion that the OP tried to make by implying bias in the article and saying the rest of the world just calls it cocaine.

[bodyfour]

More specifically, they're equivalent if you were going to freebase the cocaine. Freebasing powdered cocaine is possible, but its complicated and dangerous -- for instance Richard Pryor famously almost died from burns received while doing it: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20076864,00....

Crack is basically freebasing in kit form.