Supporting the habit: income generation activities of frequent crack userscompared with frequent users of other hard drugs

US Federal sentencing guidelines punish possession of crack cocaine very di fferently from powder cocaine, based partially upon the assumption that cra ck users engage more frequently in criminal behavior to pay for their habit . This article analyzed frequent users (those who have used at least 15 of the last 30 days) of crack with subgroups of less frequent hard drug users in terms of various income generation activities reported during the past 3 0 days. The sample consists of 602 African-Americans who were current (in p ast 30 days) users or sellers of cocaine powder, crack, and heroin. They we re carefully recruited from randomly selected blocks in the Central Harlem area of New York City and interviewed extensively in 1998-1999. Their IGAs were classified into six categories. Compared with not-frequent (less than 15 days) hard drug users, frequent crack and multiple hard drug users were equally likely to be involved in drug distribution activities, but were sig nificantly less likely to have full-time jobs, part-time jobs, aid to famil ies with dependent children or welfare support. They had much higher odds r atios for non-drug related illegal (theft mainly) income generation activit ies and sex work among women. Often, gender and birth cohort variables had higher odds ratios with specific income generation activities than the freq uent use of the primary drug(s). This evidence suggests that very frequent crack users have been stigmatized by, are largely excluded from, and perfor m very marginal economic roles in the legal economic system (jobs and welfa re), the illegal economic system, and even in the hard drug distribution sy stem. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.