American Notes NARCOTICS

Among the 105 beds at a shelter for the homeless in downtown Detroit, a downtrodden woman starts to tell a story that at first seems all too familiar. But in this case neither hunger nor cold drove her to the facility. The woman fled her neighborhood because of the local crack epidemic. "Every other house has turned into a cocaine house," she explains. "I decided to move out so I wouldn't get addicted."

Displacing such people from impoverished, drug-ridden areas is only one example of crack's nefarious impact on a city where roughly two-thirds of the criminal cases and half of its murders are said to be linked to the potent, cocaine-based drug.

Last week Mayor Coleman Young declared an all-out war on crack, promising to beef up the city's narcotics squads and shut down at least twelve crack houses a day. Said Young: "We're going to hit them and hit them hard. If we can establish a probable cause, we're prepared to break down doors." With an estimated 10,000 crack houses now operating in the city, the mayor and his men have their work cut out for them.