Because of its chemistry, crack is easy and inexpensive to produce, and it will likely remain so, regardless of its legal status. A benefit of its current criminalization is that since it is against the law, it doesn't have widespread availability, and proportionately few people use it. The research literature on the criminal careers of heroin and other drug users have convincingly documented that while drug use tends to intensify and perpetuate criminal behavior, it usually does not initiate criminal careers. In fact, the evidence suggests that among the majority of street drug users who are involved in crime, their criminal careers were well established prior to the onset of either narcotics or cocaine use. There is a large body of work suggesting that drug abuse is overdetermined behavior.
Drug abuse is a disorder of the whole person, affecting some or all areas of functioning.
In the vast majority of drug offenders, there are cognitive problems, psychological dysfunction is common, thinking may be unrealistic or disorganized, values are misshapen, and frequently there are deficits in educational and employment skills. As such, drug abuse is a response to a series of social and psychological disturbances. Whereas rehabilitation emphasizes the return to a way of life previously known and perhaps forgotten or rejected, habilitation involves the client's initial socialization into a productive and responsible way of life. The focus of the war on drugs can be shifted. I believe that we do indeed need drug enforcement, but it is stressed far too much in current policy.