Dream City by Harry Jaffe Tom Sherwood

Author:Harry Jaffe, Tom Sherwood
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786755936
Publisher: David Black Literary Agency

Len Bias was a local hero of another sort in the spring and summer of 1986.

The six-foot-eleven-inch basketball star had just finished his senior year at the University of Maryland, a few miles northeast of the District line in College Park. With great fanfare, the Boston Celtics signed him to a multimillion-dollar contract and turned him into a national attraction. At twenty-two, he promised to be a franchise player, a role model, and a man made wealthy from contracts and endorsements.

On the night of June 18, Bias met his friend Brian Tribble and began a night of celebration. They made a few stops, including one at Montana Terrace, one of the city's most downtrodden and drug-infested public housing projects. Along the way they bought a few grams of powdered cocaine and returned to Bias's dorm. The basketball star consumed massive amounts of white powder, possibly more than a gram, dissolved in a Coke. His system went into shock. A few hours later, Len Bias lay dead on the floor from an overdose.

That a hearty athlete in peak physical shape could be felled by cocaine sent shock waves across the country. White yuppies who'd used cocaine on weekends quit abruptly. The press used Bias's death to whip the country into a froth over drug abuse. The politicians responded to the press and the public opinion polls with an avalanche of legislation and a gale of speeches. The frenzy grew to such a pitch that the next few months became known as "Drug War Fall."

A week after Bias died, Congressman Charles Rangel introduced a package of legislation designed to get tough on drug dealers and fund education programs. The price tag: $1 billion. The proximity to Bias's death was coincidental. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat, was trying to outgun the White House in a struggle over the antidrug high ground that would rage for months.

"Even though the administration claims to have declared war on drugs," Rangel declared from his office, a mere mile from Rayful Edmond's headquarters, "the only evidence I find of this war are the casualties."

Back in May, it first dawned on official Washington that cocaine and drug abuse in general were becoming a problem. Republican pollster Richard Wirthlin detected the anxiety levels rising among the voters and suggested in a memo that President Reagan could seize the antidrug issue. It was a perfect opportunity for the president to rally the nation against a common evil. The president agreed, and the "war on drugs" was joined.

First Lady Nancy Reagan had carried on the small-scale skirmishes against drugs during the administration's first six years. In dewy-eyed chats and demure speeches she had implored audiences to "say no to drugs." But while she talked about her great concern, the Reagan administration was cutting drug treatment and prevention programs 40 percent, from $333 million in 1980 to $235 million in 1986.

The media discovered cocaine around the same time. The New York Times was first out of the box with a report on crack and crime in Manhattan.

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