The other a friend told me � there are plenty of safe places to take your first hit of crack but no place is safe enough to take the next one!!!� I am a 24-year-old Caucasian female and I smoke crack. No, I am not a prostitute (well, haven�t been one for a few years now) and I don�t hang out with tons of old black men for �free� hits of crack. (It�s OK; everyone else that read this was thinking the same thing�.) But seriously, there are so many myths and stereotypes surrounding crack you would think someone�s trying to keep it a secret. I was in Fresno, CA (the no-no California) and a woman came up to my friend and me while we were panhandling and invited us out for pizza and beer. Never one to pass up my favorite meal, we went with her to a small, crowded pizza joint where we were the only white people. The woman was rambling carelessly loud about what drugs she did and which ones she didn�t like. My friend and I could tell the whole room was pretending not to listen but we didn�t care. Thinking we could talk her into getting us high, we asked her if she smoked crack. She looked shocked and then smiled and said �white people don�t smoke crack� we freebase cocaine�! EVERYBODY (I am not exaggerating) stopped talking and looked over at the three of us. Thinking we were about to get into a large brawl my friend and I started chugging our beers. Lucky for us there was no fight but we were roughly escorted to the door by a highly offended black man. The woman blamed us somehow and decided she didn�t want to hang out anymore so she took off in a hurry. I didn�t even have time to tell her that smoking crack and freebasing cocaine is NOT the same thing� (Or that white people most certainly DO smoke crack) oh, well� The other day I was sitting with a group of 12 or so people on Market Street, keeping my eyes peeled for cops while they all smoked crack. (It just so happened that they all were while, so HA, lady!!!) Just then, three young black boys walked by and the youngest looked over and said� hey, there smoking crack!� It reminded me of the lady in Fresno so I said, �White people don�t smoke crack!� That got them all laughing and it turned out OK. For some reason, stories involving crack are so much funnier then they would be if they were about any other drug. Why is that? Is it because it is the only drug named after part of your ass? (Thank you MARY) Or is it because it has so many stereotypes associated with it? Maybe it�s because it is so rarely discussed in any serious context. The only time I hear it mentioned by non-users is in jest. �What? Are you on crack� or I got so cracked out on coffee� or even �stop looking at me like I'm some sort of crack head or something�� I don�t get why it�s so funny. Maybe I�m stupid. Or maybe I�ve just smoked too muck crack. But for the record: crack rocks. (Hahaha, get it? Crack� oh, never mind).