User:Perezks/sandbox

In a study done by Roland Fryer, Steven Levitt and Kevin Murphy, a crack index was calculated using information on cocaine-related arrests, deaths, and drug raids, along with low birth rates and media coverage in the United States. The crack index aimed to create a proxy for the percentage of cocaine related incidents that involved crack cocaine. Crack cocaine was a virtually unknown drug until 1985. This abrupt introductory date allows for the estimation and use of the index with the knowledge that values prior to 1985 are zero. This index showed that the Northeast U.S. was most affected by the crack epidemic. The U.S. cities with the highest crack index were New York, Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Atlanta.

The same index used by Fryer, Levitt and Murphy was then implemented in a study that investigated the impacts of crack cocaine across the United States. In cities with populations over 350,000 the instances of crack cocaine were twice as high as those in cities with a population less than 350,000. These indicators show that the use of crack cocaine was most impactful in urban areas.

States and regions with concentrated urban populations were affected at a much higher rate, while states comprised of primarily rural populations were least affected. Maryland, New York and New México had the highest instances of crack cocaine, while Idaho, Minnesota and Vermont had the lowest instances of crack cocaine use. Figure [x] shows the rise and decline of crack cocaine use in states with the highest instances of crack cocaine.