---
category: Private Organization
location: Los Angeles, California
start: 1919
summary: UCLA was where researcher Dr. Ronald K. Siegel traced the discovery of freebasing
  cocaine and studied the drug's effects, providing scientific context for the crack
  epidemic.
tags:
- organization
- university
- contra-war
---

UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) was where researcher Dr. Ronald K. Siegel traced the discovery of freebasing [cocaine](/concepts/cocaine/) and studied the drug's effects, providing scientific context for the [crack](/concepts/crack-cocaine/) epidemic. Siegel's research at UCLA documented the pharmacological mechanisms that made smokable cocaine so addictive.[^1]

### Cocaine Research

Siegel traced the discovery of freebasing to the [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) Bay Area in the early 1970s, where experimenters learned to convert cocaine hydrochloride back into its base form for smoking. His research at UCLA documented how smoking cocaine produced blood levels far higher than those achieved through nasal ingestion, explaining the drug's extraordinary addictive potential. The scientific understanding developed at UCLA helped explain why the crack epidemic that followed the flooding of [South Central L.A.](/places/south-central-los-angeles/) with cheap cocaine by [Danilo Blandón](/people/danilo-blandon/)'s network was so devastating.[^2]

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 3.
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 3.