![]() ![]() At the county morgue, a trickle of cocaine-related drug deaths swelled more than tenfold as crack’s popularity grew. Crack users by the thousands have poured into hospitals, often hyper-stimulated, in seizures or having heart attacks. * Because of crack’s powerful side effects, health care costs have soared. It has permeated the criminal underworld so extensively that about half of the arrestees passing through the jail system test positive for cocaine-most of it crack. Among other things, the highly addictive stimulant created more street violence and gang warfare, contributing to a sharp jump in shootings, assaults and juvenile homicides. It has been among the engines driving the outlay of hundreds of millions of dollars for law enforcement and jail expansion. * Crack dramatically changed the cost and character of crime across the county, helping fuel widespread fear about public safety. ![]() “The child welfare system was turned upside-down by crack cocaine,” says county children’s services chief Peter Digre. About 20,000 to 30,000 babies in the county have been exposed to crack during pregnancy, and thousands more arrive each year, adding millions to public hospital costs and special care programs. The number of abused and neglected children required to live apart from their parents has doubled since crack’s arrival to nearly 40,000. * Children of the crisis have been flooding public agencies-and pushing up costs-on a scale never before seen. Amid signs that crack’s grip on the region has loosened, the full cost and scope of the institutional havoc remain largely untallied and intangible. ![]()
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