The crack market began to break in the mid 1990s. Dealers noticed that fewer new customers were showing up at the drug corners. In New York City, business started to slow as early as mid 1991.

Willie T., a Harlem dealer, worried about the downturn. He had started as a small-scale crack operator in 1988 with two partners and $200 in cash. Almost immediately, he was netting a solid $1,000 a week. He was able to take weekends off and could keep a low profile. But by May 1991 his profits had dropped to as little as $300 a week. He told a New York Times reporter, “It’s real slow now … instead of ten buyers, there might be three.” The good news, from his perspective, was that his old customers still bought as much crack as they could afford. But new customers were hard to come by.