"Street-Wise Crack Research"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"Street-Wise Crack Research"

Science (12/15/89) Vol. 246, No. 4936, P. 1376
Holden,

Abstract: A new breed of ethnographer lives with "crack families"in crack-ridden neighborhoods to study the problems caused and aggravated by drugs. The discoveries these "street ethnographers" make can have direct implications for public policy, especially as it affects AIDS policy. Philippe Bourgois,who is on leave from the University of California at San Francisco to study in Spanish Harlem, participated in the discovery that crack users often burn their lips when they smoke the drug, leaving lesions that make them susceptible to HIV transmission during oral sex. University of Colorado researcher Stephen Koester was sitting in a heroin shooting gallery in San Francisco when he learned that needle users who were using Cloroxto clean their needles were also injecting "pink water" into their veins from a common dish of water they shared to dilute thedrug and rinse their needles. Koester shared his information with the Centers for Disease Control. As a result, several communities revised their needle exchange policies.

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