FCYU-Feature Story

Looking Back on the Crack Epidemic
'Crack Babies' All Grown Up

Crack cocaine first hit the streets twenty years ago, in 1983. No one had seen anything like it. The drug was cheap, easy to get and incredibly addictive. It destroyed families, even whole neighborhoods.

Soon the foster care system was overwhelmed by what the media named "crack babies"-children whose mothers had used the drug while pregnant. The terms "crackhead" and "crack baby" became common schoolyard put-downs.

Many of us grew up hearing these put-downs and feeling the pain of knowing they were talking about our very own families.

In the early '90s, many children who had gone into foster care because of crack became teenagers. Many were still in foster care. The system wasn't prepared for so many adolescents.

By then, research showed there was no such thing as a "crack baby." Kids exposed to crack in the womb did not have more trouble learning than other kids. They were not more likely to be criminals.

Today we know that many of the former "crack babies" are doing positive things with their lives, like getting an education, holding jobs and strengthening relationships with their families. Ten years ago, some even started this magazine to reach out to others going through what they'd been through, and to make their experiences known. Since then, a handful of other organizations across the country have started their own magazines written by and for foster youth.

In this issue, we want to bust the stigma and the pain of having been called a "crack baby." We want to hear from parents who struggled with the drug (pp. 6 and 30). We want to show that crack wasn't a death sentence for every parent or family. And we want to show, from the inside, the devastating affect crack had on our lives and our families.

So to mark Represent's 10th anniversary, we bring you this issue devoted entirely to exploring the drug that brought so many of us into care and that even, in a strange and sad way, was responsible for the birth of this magazine.