In the introduction to his new book, When Crack was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey recalls how during his childhood in the early 1990s, the term "crackhead" was used as an insult.
"I suppose we made it a slur," he writes, "because we feared what it represented, a rock bottom to which any of us could sink. That's what children do when they're in search of power over things that frighten us. We reduce them to words, bite-size things that can be spat out at a moment's notice."