L.A. Crack Chronology
1974
UCLA drug researchers first learn from interviews with drug traffickers of a recipe to produce crack cocaine by mixing baking soda with cocaine powder. The recipe was circulating in the San Francisco Bay area as early as 1970.
1976
Los Angeles’ most prominent black drug dealer, Thomas (Tootie) Reese is introduced to crack cocaine by friends in the San Francisco area. The crack recipe is published for the first time in the book, “Pleasures of Cocaine.”
1978
Residents of the Nickerson Gardens public housing project in South Central Los Angeles are seen by researchers smoking what is now called crack cocaine.