By the 1980s, many urban neighborhoods in the United States became seriously debilitated by the departure of middle-class residents to the suburbs, the influx of illegal immigrants, growing unemployment rates, weak family structures, and a host of other under-class problems. In the mid-1980s, the proliferation of cheap CRACK cocaine, used mainly by inner-city adolescents and young adults, transformed a bad situation into a desperate one. For some residents, this new upsurge in drug use was the last straw, they got angry and began looking for ways to reclaim their neighborhoods and their children.

The Citizens' Drug Prevention Movement

The drug-prevention movement led by private citizens and nonprofit organizations began in the mid-1970s with parents who were concerned about the health and safety of their children. During this decade, drug use among American adolescents escalated from relatively low levels to the highest levels in the history of...