The problems with crack addiction is another great argument for legalizing cocaine. Crack is more potent and addictive than cocaine, but crucially also usually cheaper. Sometimes people do want the more dangerous version of a drug, but usually they want the cheaper and more accessible version.

If you take the analogy of alcohol, legalization limits the proof of alcohol. When it was illegal people made alcohol that was really strong, like rubbing alcohol or dangerous due to impurities. A legal version of a control substance can be a safer version. And the access to the safer legal version could reduce demand for another version.

The difference between the two is not chemical but speed of effect [0]. This can lead to crack users being much more likely to become junkies than coke users, and thus more likely to result in bad behaviors like stealing to support a habit or losing a job. To use an imperfect analogy, while chemically the same (for at least some of the following examples), there is a large difference between dabs and a joint, straight vodka and beer/wine, injecting opiates vs opiate pills, and smoking meth vs taking adderal, and the stereotypical types of users for each.

[O] “by snorting through nasal passages, the drug appears in the blood three to five minutes after use, with about 30 to 60 percent of the drug being absorbed into the bloodstream. Maximum physiological effects occur within 40 minutes, and maximum psychotropic effects occur within 20 minutes. Physiological and psychotropic effects fade in 45 to 60 minutes. By comparison, crack cocaine is not soluble in water and therefore can only be readily smoked. Smoking the drug produces a quicker onset, shorter duration, and more intense effects than snorting powder cocaine.61 Facilitated by the large surface area of the lungs’ air sacs, smoked crack cocaine is absorbed almost immediately into the bloodstream and reaches the brain in only 19 seconds, with 30 to 60 percent of the drug being absorbed into the bloodstream. Maximum physiological effects from smoking crack cocaine are attained within two minutes; maximum psychotropic effects occur within one minute. These effects are experienced for a shorter period of time than for snorted powder cocaine, i.e. between 10 and 20 minutes, but are similar to injected powder cocaine. In sum, although both powder cocaine and crack cocaine are potentially addictive, administering the drug in a manner that maximizes the effect (e.g., injecting or smoking) increases the risk of addiction. It is this difference in typical methods of administration, not differences in the inherent properties of the two forms of the drugs, that makes crack cocaine more potentially addictive to typical users. Smoking crack cocaine produces quicker onset of, shorter-lasting, and more intense effects than snorting powder cocaine. These factors in turn result in a greater likelihood that the user will administer the drug more frequently to sustain these shorter “highs” and develop an addiction.”