Crack: new directions in drug research. Part 2. Factors determining the current functioning of the crack economy--a program for ethnographic research.

Factors which hypothetically influence rates, volumes, and methods of income generation in crack distribution, use, and misuse are indicated, and a research program to investigate them is suggested. This research will contribute significantly to the development of a theoretical framework which adequately relates substance using/abusing and trafficking populations to the wider community and will explain why crack use and distribution have had such different outcomes than marijuana. Factors to be researched include: polyethnicity, crack-related deculturation, gender differentiation in crack use and effects, neighborhood effects, vertically organized crack-distributing organizations, crack-related violence and crime, and replacement of previous drug markets by crack.