Crack. The most terrifying word during the 80s besides Hammer pants. It destroyed families, friends, marriages, churches, pimps, prostitutes, Mayors and Senators and the life of one inner city kid from a middle-class family, Russell Tolson, Jr. In this unflinching memoir, Russell takes us where no one has ever dared to go before - inside the mind of a crackhead. With vivid, first-hand accounts of his sordid adventures in 'Crack-ington DC' during the 80s and 90s, the peak of the crack epidemic, Russell recounts how the powerful little white rocks almost sent him to the grave. His stories are so poignant, funny, ridiculous and downright entertaining, they'll make you shake your head and... wanna smoke some crack. BUT DON'T SMOKE CRACK! Just read this book instead and you will be catapulted into the dark, steamy, seductive, sell-a-door-knob-for-a-hit world that Russell and his wife, Kathy, found themselves trapped in. They reveal their week-long binge sessions, near-death experiences, shocking 'come to Jesus' moments, and how God healed and delivered them in an instant. Now a church minister, Russell's prison-to-the-pulpit story proves not even crack is too powerful for God. "You can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens you."

Lisa Lennox transports readers to the heart of the crack era—the South Bronx, New York City, 1989. In the late 1980s and early 90s, the crack epidemic swept through inner city communities like the plague. Mothers abandoned their children and took to the street for a hit. Fathers sold everything they owned to get a taste. The crackhead was rampant. Some neighborhoods were never the same. Enter Laci Johnson, a beautiful, smart, privileged teenage girl from across town, who teams up with The South Bronx Bitches—an infamous girl group known for chasing men and money. When the SBB becomes envious of Laci they devise a plan to destroy her life. Finding love in the most unexpected of places, Laci turns to a local drug dealer to help save her and heal the wounds of her new addiction. Through Laci and a host of entertaining characters, Crackhead vividly captures the essence of an era and the devastating, sometimes fatal, consequences of addiction.

In the follow-up to the bestselling urban novel Crackhead, a new boss takes over the South Bronx as Laci and Dink try to make a life away from crime. In Crackhead, the South Bronx Bitches, an infamous drug ring, promoted lies, betrayal, and disloyalty resulting in drama and death. Nobody’s lives were ever the same. Dink and Laci are adjusting to life as college students at Boston University. But with Laci fighting the demons of her past addiction at the hands of the South Bronx Bitches and Dink struggling to adapt to the legit life away from his former drug empire, will their pasts keep them from moving forward?​ Smurf has taken over the South Bronx in Dink’s absence. When he joins up with the mysterious Dirty, who comes to town with a new product and plans to take over the state, can they avoid the reach of a detective hell-bent on solving the mysterious deaths of Dame, Marco, and Crystal? Or will Smurf’s own strained relationship with his mother play a part in the demise of newly acquired empire? Lisa Lennox delivers in this fast-paced, emotional sequel to her bestselling first novel, Crackhead. With an ending so unexpected, and revenge so cold, fans will be talking about this book for years to come.

The book is a memoir about my childhood

Hunter Biden recounts his descent into substance abuse and his tortuous path to sobriety. The story ends with where Hunter is today

David Carr was an addict for more than twenty years -- first dope, then coke, then finally crack -- before the prospect of losing his newborn twins made him sober up in a bid to win custody from their crack-dealer mother. Once recovered, he found that his recollection of his 'lost' years differed -- sometimes radically -- from that of his family and friends. The night, for example, his best friend pulled a gun on him. 'No,' said the friend (to David's horror, as a lifelong pacifist), 'It was you that had the gun.' Using all his skills as an investigative reporter, he set out to research his own life, interviewing everyone from his parents and his ex-partners to the policemen who arrested him, the doctors who treated him and the lawyers who fought to prove he was fit to have custody of his kids. Unflinchingly honest and beautifully written, the result is both a shocking account of the depths of addiction and a fascinating examination of how -- and why -- our memories deceive us. As David says, we remember the stories we can live with, not the ones that happened.

During the height of the crack epidemic that decimated the streets of D.C., Ruben Castaneda covered the crime beat for the Washington Post. The first in his family to graduate from college, he had landed a job at one of the country's premier newspapers. But his apparent success masked a devastating secret: he was a crack addict. Even as he covered the drug-fueled violence that was destroying the city, he was prowling S Street, a 24/7 open-air crack market, during his off hours, looking for his next fix. Castaneda's remarkable book, S Street Rising, is more than a memoir; it's a portrait of a city in crisis. It's the adrenalin-infused story of the street where Castaneda quickly became a regular, and where a fledgling church led by a charismatic and streetwise pastorwas protected by the local drug kingpin, a dangerous man who followed an old-school code of honor. It's the story of Castaneda's friendship with an exceptional police homicide commander whose career was derailed when he ran afoul of Mayor Marion Barry and his political cronies. And it's a study of the city itself as it tried to rise above the bloody crack epidemic and the corrosive politics of the Barry era. S Street Rising is The Wire meets the Oscar-winning movie Crash. And it's all true.