War on drugs: Difference between revisions
edit/copyedit to "in recent decades decriminalized or legalized in the majority of states" better reflects the reality of medical and recreational use, and conveying in a summary way the degree of adoption by states |
Changed the cannabis statement in the lead. There are plenty of sources supporting the recommendations against the Schedule I, and the phrase "decriminalized or legalized in the majority of states" adds some confusion (legal in a majority?) when we can simply give the real and current number in the same amount of text. - As another side comment; the lead could be significantly bigger to include more information, since per WP:MOSLEAD: " may be the only portion of the article that they read." |
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The term "war on drugs" was popularized by the media shortly after a press conference, given on June 17, 1971, during which [[President of the United States|President]] [[Richard Nixon]] declared drug abuse "public enemy number one".<ref name=":1" /> He stated, "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.{{nbs}}[...] This will be a worldwide offensive.{{nbs}}[...] It will be government-wide{{nbs}}[...] and it will be nationwide." Earlier that day, Nixon had presented a special message to [[United States Congress|Congress]] on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control, which included text about devoting more federal resources to the "prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted", but that aspect did not receive the same public attention as the term "war on drugs".<ref name=":16">{{cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240245|title=Richard Nixon: Special Message to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control|access-date=December 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212201341/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=3048|archive-date=December 12, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Mann |first=Brian |date=Jun 17, 2021 |title=After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?' |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1006495476/after-50-years-of-the-war-on-drugs-what-good-is-it-doing-for-us |access-date=Dec 8, 2023 |website=[[NPR]]}}</ref><ref name="Nixon Calls War on Drugs">{{Cite web |date=June 18, 1971 |title=Nixon Calls War on Drugs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/129670863/ |access-date=Dec 8, 2023 |website=[[Palm Beach Post]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Dufton|first=Emily|title=The War on Drugs: How President Nixon Tied Addiction to Crime|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-war-on-drugs-how-president-nixon-tied-addiction-to-crime/254319/|access-date=October 13, 2012|newspaper=The Atlantic|date=March 26, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105093614/http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-war-on-drugs-how-president-nixon-tied-addiction-to-crime/254319/|archive-date=November 5, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> |
The term "war on drugs" was popularized by the media shortly after a press conference, given on June 17, 1971, during which [[President of the United States|President]] [[Richard Nixon]] declared drug abuse "public enemy number one".<ref name=":1" /> He stated, "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.{{nbs}}[...] This will be a worldwide offensive.{{nbs}}[...] It will be government-wide{{nbs}}[...] and it will be nationwide." Earlier that day, Nixon had presented a special message to [[United States Congress|Congress]] on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control, which included text about devoting more federal resources to the "prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted", but that aspect did not receive the same public attention as the term "war on drugs".<ref name=":16">{{cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240245|title=Richard Nixon: Special Message to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control|access-date=December 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212201341/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=3048|archive-date=December 12, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Mann |first=Brian |date=Jun 17, 2021 |title=After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?' |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1006495476/after-50-years-of-the-war-on-drugs-what-good-is-it-doing-for-us |access-date=Dec 8, 2023 |website=[[NPR]]}}</ref><ref name="Nixon Calls War on Drugs">{{Cite web |date=June 18, 1971 |title=Nixon Calls War on Drugs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/129670863/ |access-date=Dec 8, 2023 |website=[[Palm Beach Post]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Dufton|first=Emily|title=The War on Drugs: How President Nixon Tied Addiction to Crime|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-war-on-drugs-how-president-nixon-tied-addiction-to-crime/254319/|access-date=October 13, 2012|newspaper=The Atlantic|date=March 26, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105093614/http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-war-on-drugs-how-president-nixon-tied-addiction-to-crime/254319/|archive-date=November 5, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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In the years since, presidential administrations have generally maintained or expanded Nixon's original initiatives, with the emphasis on law enforcement and interdiction over public health and treatment. [[Cannabis (drug)|Cannabis]] presents a special case, |
In the years since, presidential administrations have generally maintained or expanded Nixon's original initiatives, with the emphasis on law enforcement and interdiction over public health and treatment. [[Cannabis (drug)|Cannabis]] presents a special case; it came under federal restriction in the 1930s, and since 1970 has been [[Controlled_Substances_Act#Schedule_I|classified]] as having a high potential for abuse and no medical value, with the same level of prohibition as heroin. Multiple mainstream studies and findings since the 1930s have recommended against such a severe classification. Beginning in the 1990s, cannabis has been [[Legality of cannabis by U.S. jurisdiction|decriminalized in 38 states, and legalized in 24]], creating a policy gap with federal law. |
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In June 2011, the [[Global Commission on Drug Policy]] released a critical report, declaring: "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world."<ref name="War on Drugs" /> In 2015, the [[Drug Policy Alliance]], which advocates for an end to the war on drugs, estimated that the [[United States]] spends $51 billion annually on these initiatives; in 2021, after 50 years of the drug war, estimates of cumulative US spending reached a trillion dollars.<ref>{{cite web|title=Drug War Statistics|url=http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics|publisher=Drug Policy Alliance|access-date=February 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705125711/http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics|archive-date=July 5, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1006495476/after-50-years-of-the-war-on-drugs-what-good-is-it-doing-for-us | title=After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?' | last=Mann | first=Brian | newspaper=[[NPR]] | date=2021-06-17 | quote=The campaign {{snd}} which by some estimates cost more than $1 trillion {{snd}} also exacerbated racial divisions and infringed on civil liberties in ways that transformed American society. }}</ref> |
In June 2011, the [[Global Commission on Drug Policy]] released a critical report, declaring: "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world."<ref name="War on Drugs" /> In 2015, the [[Drug Policy Alliance]], which advocates for an end to the war on drugs, estimated that the [[United States]] spends $51 billion annually on these initiatives; in 2021, after 50 years of the drug war, estimates of cumulative US spending reached a trillion dollars.<ref>{{cite web|title=Drug War Statistics|url=http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics|publisher=Drug Policy Alliance|access-date=February 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705125711/http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics|archive-date=July 5, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1006495476/after-50-years-of-the-war-on-drugs-what-good-is-it-doing-for-us | title=After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?' | last=Mann | first=Brian | newspaper=[[NPR]] | date=2021-06-17 | quote=The campaign {{snd}} which by some estimates cost more than $1 trillion {{snd}} also exacerbated racial divisions and infringed on civil liberties in ways that transformed American society. }}</ref> |
Revision as of 06:01, 21 April 2024
War on drugs | |||||||
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![]() A U.S. government PSA from the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration with a photo image of two marijuana cigarettes and a "Just Say No" slogan | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
The war on drugs is the policy of a global campaign,[5] led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.[6][7][8] The initiative includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs that the participating governments, through United Nations treaties, have made illegal.
The term "war on drugs" was popularized by the media shortly after a press conference, given on June 17, 1971, during which President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse "public enemy number one".[9] He stated, "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive. [...] This will be a worldwide offensive. [...] It will be government-wide [...] and it will be nationwide." Earlier that day, Nixon had presented a special message to Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control, which included text about devoting more federal resources to the "prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted", but that aspect did not receive the same public attention as the term "war on drugs".[10][9][11][12]
In the years since, presidential administrations have generally maintained or expanded Nixon's original initiatives, with the emphasis on law enforcement and interdiction over public health and treatment. Cannabis presents a special case; it came under federal restriction in the 1930s, and since 1970 has been classified as having a high potential for abuse and no medical value, with the same level of prohibition as heroin. Multiple mainstream studies and findings since the 1930s have recommended against such a severe classification. Beginning in the 1990s, cannabis has been decriminalized in 38 states, and legalized in 24, creating a policy gap with federal law.
In June 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a critical report, declaring: "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world."[5] In 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for an end to the war on drugs, estimated that the United States spends $51 billion annually on these initiatives; in 2021, after 50 years of the drug war, estimates of cumulative US spending reached a trillion dollars.[13][14]
As of 2024[update], the war on drugs continues, with a focus on fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.
History
Drugs in the US were largely unregulated until the early 20th century. Opium had been used to relieve pain since the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), particularly in the treatment of soldiers during wartime. In the 1800s, the use of opiates in the civilian population increased dramatically,[15] and cocaine use became prevalent.[16][17] Alcohol consumption steadily increased, as did the temperance movement, well-supported by the middle class, promoting moderation or abstinence.[18][19] The practice of smoking cannabis spread in the early 1900s.[20] The authority to control dangerous drugs in the US exists at both the federal and state level, each acting separately under the US Constitution.[21] At the state and local level, drug laws began to appear in the second half of the 1800s, while federal drug legislation arrived after the turn of the century..
Mid-1800s–1909: Proliferation of unregulated drug use
The latter half of the 19th century saw a ramping up of opiate use in America. Early in the century, morphine had been isolated from opium, decades later, heroin was created from morphine, each more potent than the previous form.[22][23] With the invention of the hypodermic syringe, introduced in America mid-century, opiates were easily administered and became a preferred medical treatment. During the Civil War (1861-1865), millions of doses of opiates were distributed to sick and wounded soldiers, addicting some;[15] home gardens were turned to poppies for opium processing in the war effort.[24] In the civilian population, physicians treated opiates like a wonder drug, prescribing them widely, for chronic pain, irritable babies, asthma, bronchitis, insomnia, "nervous conditions", hysteria, menstrual cramps, morning sickness, gastrointestinal disease, "vapors", and on.[15][25][26]
Drugs were also marketed over-the-counter to consumers. Laudanum, a powdered opium solution, was commonly found in the home medicine cabinet.[25][26] Heroin was available as a cough syrup.[27][28][24] Cocaine was introduced as a surgical anesthetic, and more popularly as a pick-me-up,[16][17] found in soft drinks, cigarettes, blended with wine, in snuff, and other forms.[16][17] Brand names appeared: Coca-Cola contained cocaine until 1903; Bayer created and trademarked "Heroin" as the name of their diamorphine product.[24] In the 1890s, the Sears & Roebuck catalog, distributed to millions of American homes, offered a syringe and a small amount of cocaine or heroin for $1.50.[27][28][24]
America's "first opioid crisis"
The 1880s saw opiate addiction surge among among housewives, doctors, and Civil War veterans,[29] creating America's "first opioid crisis."[30][31] By the end of the century, an estimated 1 in 200 Americans were addicted to opiates, 60% of them women, typically white and middle- to upper-class.[15] Medical journals of the later 1800s were replete with warning against overprescription. As medical advances like the x-ray, vaccines, and germ theory, presented better treatment options, prescribed opiate use began to decline. Meanwhile, smoking opium was popular among Chinese immigrant laborers; opium dens were established in Chinatowns in cities and towns across America. The public face of opiate use and addiction changed, from affluent white Americans, to “Chinese, gamblers, and prostitutes.”[15]
During this period, states and municipalities began enacted laws banning or regulating certain drugs.[32] In Pennsylvania, an anti-morphine law was passed in 1860.[33] In 1875, San Francisco enacted an anti-opium ordinance, vigorously enforced, imposing stiff fines and jail for visiting opium dens. The rationale held that "many women and young girls, as well as young men of a respectable family, were being induced to visit the Chinese opium-smoking dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise." The law was racial in nature, one of the measures catering to resentment towards the Chinese laborer population who were being accused of taking jobs; no other uses of opiates or other drugs were affected. Similar laws were enacted in other states and cities. The federal government became involved, raising the import tariff on the grade of opium prepared for smoking. None of these measures proved effective in significantly reducing opium use,[34] while the anti-Chinese fervor lead to Congress halting Chinese laborer immigration for 10 years with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.[35] In the following years, opioids, cocaine, and cannabis were associated with various ethnic minorities and targeted in other local jurisdictions.[33][additional citation(s) needed]
1909–1971: Rise of federal drug regulation and prohibition
On February 9, 1909, the Smoking Opium Exclusion Act, "to prohibit the importation and use of opium for other than medicinal purposes", became the first federal law to ban the non-medical use of a substance.[32][36][37] This was soon followed by the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914, that regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products.[38][39] Amending the Smoking Opium Exclusion Act, the Anti-Heroin Act of 1924 specifically outlawed the manufacture, importation and sale of heroin.[22]
During World War I (1914-1918), soldiers were commonly treated with morphine, giving rise to addiction among veterans.[40] An international wartime focus on opiates and cocaine in the military, for medical treatment and performance enhancement, and for potential abuse, lead to a post-war adoption among nations of the Hague Convention of 1912, forming the basis of modern international drug control treaties and policy.[41][42] These policies were initially concerned with regulating the free trade of drugs, and didn't affect production or use. The US, one of the most prohibitionist countries, felt these provisions did not go far enough enough in restricting drugs.[43]
In 1919, the US passed the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, with exceptions for religious and medical use, and the National Prohibition Act, informally known as the Volstead Act, to carry out the provisions of the 18th Amendment. By the 1930s, the policy was seen as a failure: production and consumption of alcohol did not decrease, organized crime flourished, and tax revenue, particularly needed after the start of the Great Depression in 1929, was lost. Prohibition was repealed by passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) asking Americans not to abuse "this return to personal freedom."[44]
Ascendency of Anslinger and the FBN
The Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was established as an agency of the US Department of the Treasury by an act of June 14, 1930,[45] with Harry J. Anslinger as the founding commissioner, a position he held for 32 years, until 1962.[46] Anslinger supported Prohibition and the criminalization of all drugs, and spearheaded anti-drug policy campaigns.[47] He has been characterized as the first architect of the punitive war on drugs.[48][49][50]
During his three decades heading the FBN, Anslinger zealously and effectively pursued harsh drug penalties, with a particular focus on cannabis. He used his stature as the head of a federal agency to draft legislation, discredit critics, discount medical opinion and scientific findings, and convince lawmakers. Publicly, he used the media and speaking engagements, to introduce hyperbolic messages about the evils of drug use.[48][51] In the 1930s, he referred to a collection of news reports of horrific crimes that he attributed to drugs, particularly cannabis, without supporting evidence. He announced that youth become "slaves" to cannabis, "continuing addiction until they deteriorate mentally, become insane, turn to violent crime and murder.” He promoted a racialized view of drug use, saying that blacks and Latinos were the primary abusers.[48] In Congressional testimony, he declared “of all the offenses committed against the laws of this country, the narcotic addict is the most frequent offender.”[52] He was also an effective administrator and diplomat, attending international drug conferences and steadily expanding the FBN's influence.[53]
In 1935, President Roosevelt publicly supported the adoption of the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act; the New York Times used the headline "Roosevelt Asks Narcotic War Aid".[54][55] The Uniform Law Commission developed the Act to address the 1914 Harrison Act's lack of state-level enforcement provisions, creating a model law reflecting the Harrison Act, that states could adopt to replace the existing patchwork of state laws.[54] Anslinger and the FBN were centrally involved in drafting the Act, and later, in convincing states to adopt it.[56]
With the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937,[57] federal law reflected state law—by 1936, the non-medical use of cannabis had been banned in every state.[58] That year, the first two arrests for tax non-payment under the Act, for possession of a quarter-ounce (7g), and trafficking of four pounds (1.8 kg), resulted in sentences of nearly 18 months and four years respectively.[59] The American Medical Association (AMA) had opposed the tax act on grounds that it unduly affected the medical use of cannabis. The AMA's legislative counsel testified that the claims about cannabis addiction, violence and overdoses were not supported.[60][61] Scholars have posited that the Act was orchestrated by powerful business interests – Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family – to head off cheap competition from the hemp industry: Mellon was invested in DuPont's new synthetic plastic, nylon; Hearst was involved with pulp and timber.[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][Note 1]
In 1944, the LaGuardia Committee report, the first US in-depth study of cannabis use, systematically contradicted government claims, finding that cannabis is not physically addictive, not a gateway drug, and its use does not lead to crime. The Committee was formed in 1939 by New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, an opponent of the Marihuana Tax Act.[76][77] The FBN's Anslinger branded the study "unscientific", denounced all involved, from LaGuardia to the researching physicians, and interrupted other cannabis studies at the time.[78]
During World War II (1939-1945), in addition to opiates, amphetamines entered military use, to combat fatigue and improve morale. The class of stimulants, including the closely related methamphetamine, was discovered in the late 1800s, and commercialized as an over-the-counter drug in the 1930s. In the US, the Benzedrine brand quickly became popular for a variety of medical and recreational applications. During the war, it was widely used in the military and by the public; beginning in 1943, American soldiers could buy Benzedrine directly from the army, with no accompanying regulation.[79][80] Post-war, amphetamines were promoted as mood elevators and diet pills, to great success; by 1945, an estimated 750 million tablets a year were already being produced in the US, enough to provide a million people with a daily supply.[81][82]
Drugs as a growing political issue, penalties get harsher
In the early 1950s, "white suburban grassroots movements", concerned about dealers preying on teenagers, pushed liberal politicians at state level to crack down on drugs. California, Illinois, and New York passed the first mandatory minimums sentences for drug offenses; Congress soon followed with the Boggs Act of 1951, creating the first federal mandatory minimums for drugs;[83][84] first-offense possession of cannabis carried a 2-10 year minimum and a fine of up to $20,000.[85] This marked a change in Congress's approach to mandatory minimums, increasing their number, severity, and the crimes they covered. According to the United States Sentencing Commission, reporting in 2012: "Before 1951, mandatory minimum penalties typically punished offenses concerning treason, murder, piracy, rape, slave trafficking, internal revenue collection, and counterfeiting. Today, the majority of convictions under statutes carrying mandatory minimum penalties relate to controlled substances, firearms, identity theft, and child sex offenses.".[86]
In 1961, 64 countries initially signed on to the United Nations' Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, a treaty that unified all the international drug agreements then in existence.[87] In the US, the treaty was ratified and came into force in 1967.[88] The Single Convention became the first of three UN treaties, with the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 and the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, that currently form the legal framework for international drug control.[89][90]
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969) decided that the government needed to make an effort to curtail the social unrest that blanketed the country at the time. He decided to focus his efforts on illegal drug use, an approach that was in line with expert opinion on the subject at the time. In the 1960s, it was believed that at least half of the crime in the U.S. was drug-related, and this number grew as high as 90 percent in the next decade.[91] He created the Reorganization Plan of 1968 which merged the Bureau of Narcotics and the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control to form the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs within the Department of Justice.[92]
The Richard Nixon presidency (1969-1974) did not back away from the anti-drug precedent set by his predecessor. In his 1968 presidential nominee acceptance speech, Nixon's tough-on-crime pledge promised, "Our new Attorney General will ... launch a war against organized crime in this country. ... will be an active belligerent against the loan sharks and the numbers racketeers that rob the urban poor. ... will open a new front against the filth peddlers and the narcotics peddlers who are corrupting the lives of the children of this country."[93][94] In a 1969 special message to Congress, he identified drug abuse as "a serious national threat".[95][96]
On October 27, 1970, Nixon signed into law the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, setting his approach to drug control. The Act largely repealed mandatory minimum sentences:[97] simple possession was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, the first offense carried a maximum of one year in prison, and judges had the latitude to assign probation, parole or dismissal. Penalties for trafficking were increased, up to life depending on quantity and type of drug. Funding was authorized for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to provide treatment, rehabilitation and education. Additional federal drug agents were provided, and a "no-knock" power was instituted, that allowed entry into homes without warning to prevent evidence from being destroyed. Licensing and stricter reporting and record-keeping for drug manufacturers and distributors would occur under the Act.[98] Title II of Act, the Controlled Substances Act, established five drug Schedules, categories based on medical value and potential for abuse.[99]
Under the new drug categories, cannabis was temporarily placed in the most restrictive Schedule I, pending scientific assessment. Nixon-appointed the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, known as the Shafer Commission, to investigate. The Shafer report, "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding" (1972), combined a review of the medical literature and a national drug survey. It recommended decriminalization for personal possession and use of small amounts of cannabis, and prohibition of supply only. The conclusion was not acted on by Nixon and Congress.[100][101]
1971–present: The "War on Drugs"
On May 27, 1971, after a trip to Vietnam, two congressmen, Morgan F. Murphy (Democrat) and Robert H. Steele (Republican), released a report describing a "rapid increase in heroin addiction within the United States military forces in South Vietnam". They estimated that "as many as 10 to 15 percent of our servicemen are addicted to heroin in one form or another."[102][99][103][104] On June 6, a New York Times article, "It's Always A Dead End On 'Scag Alley'", cited the Murphy-Steele report in a discussion of heroin addiction. The article stated that, in the US, "the number of addicts is estimated at 200,000 to 250,000, only about one‐tenth of 1 per cent of the population but troublesome out of all proportion." It also noted, "Heroin is not the only drug problem in the United States. 'Speed' pills—among them, amphetamines—are another problem, and not least in the suburbs where they are taken by the housewife (to cure her of the daily 'blues') and by her husband (to keep his weight down)."[105]
On June 17, 1971, Nixon presented to Congress a plan for expanded anti-drug abuse measures. He painted a dire picture: "Present efforts to control drug abuse are not sufficient in themselves. The problem has assumed the dimensions of a national emergency. ... If we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely in time destroy us." His strategy involved both treatment and interdiction: "I am proposing the appropriation of additional funds to meet the cost of rehabilitating drug users, and I will ask for additional funds to increase our enforcement efforts to further tighten the noose around the necks of drug peddlers, and thereby loosen the noose around the necks of drug users." He singled out heroin and broadened the scope beyond the US: "To wage an effective war against heroin addiction, we must have international cooperation. In order to secure such cooperation, I am initiating a worldwide escalation in our existing programs for the control of narcotics traffic."[106]
Later the same day, Nixon held a news conference at the White House, where he described drug abuse as "America's public enemy number one." He announced, "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive. … This will be a worldwide offensive dealing with the problems of sources of supply ... It will be government wide, pulling together the nine different fragmented areas within the government in which this problem is now being handled, and it will be nationwide in terms of a new educational program." Nixon also stated that the problem wouldn't end with soldier addiction in the Vietnam War.[107] He pledged to ask Congress for a minimum of $350 million for the anti-drug effort (when he took office in 1969, the federal drug budget was $81 million).[108]
The news media focused on Nixon's militaristic tone, describing his announcement with variations of the phrase "war on drugs". The day after Nixon's press conference, the Chicago Tribune proclaimed, "Nixon Declares War on Narcotics Use in US". In England, The Guardian headlined, "Nixon declares war on drug addicts." Drug control efforts came to be commonly referred to as the war on drugs.[109]
Facing reelection with drug control as a campaign centerpiece, Nixon formed the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE) in late 1971. ODALE, armed with new federal enforcement powers, began orchestrating drug raids nationwide to improve the administration's watchdog reputation. In a private conversation while helicoptering over Brooklyn, Nixon was reported to have commented, "You and I care about treatment. But those people down there, they want those criminals off the streets." From 1972 to 1973, ODALE performed 6,000 drug arrests in 18 months, the majority of the arrested black.[110]
In 1973, Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) by executive order, accepted by Congress, to “establish a single unified command to combat an all-out global war on the drug menace.”[111] It is charged with enforcing US controlled substances laws and regulations, nationally and internationally, coordinating with federal, state and local agencies and foreign governments, and has oversight over legally-produced controlled substances.[112] The DEA absorbed the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, ODALE, and other drug-related federal agencies or personnel from them.[99]
Decades later, a controversial quote attributed to John Ehrlichman, Nixon's domestic policy advisor, claimed that the war on drugs was fabricated to undermine the anti-war movement and African-Americans. In a 2016 Harper's cover story, Ehrlichman, who died in 1999,[113] was quoted from journalist Dan Baum's 1994 interview notes: "... by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."[114][115][116][117] The quote was challenged by Ehrlichman's children,[118] and Nixon-era officials.[119] In the end, the increasingly punitive reshaping of US drug policy by later administrations was most responsible for creating conditions such as Ehrlichman described.[120]
In a 2011 commentary, Robert DuPont, Nixon's drug czar, argued that Comprehensive Drug Abuse Act had rolled back mandatory minimum sentencing and balanced the "long-dominant law enforcement approach to drug policy, known as 'supply reduction'" with an "entirely new and massive commitment to prevention, intervention and treatment, known as 'demand reduction'", thus Nixon was not in fact the originator of what came to be called the "war on drugs".[121] During Nixon's term, some 70% of anti-drug money was spent on demand-side public health measures, and 30% on supply-side interdiction and punishment, a situation reversed under subsequent administrations.[122][123]
The war on drugs under the next two presidents, Gerald Ford (1974-1977) and Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), was essentially a continuation of their predecessors' policies. Carter's campaign platform included decriminalization of cannabis and an end to federal penalties for possession of up to one ounce.[95] In a 1977 "Drug Abuse Message to the Congress", Carter stated, "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself." None of his advocacy was translated into law.[124][125]
Reagan escalation, crack crackdown, and "Just Say No"
The presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) saw an increase in federal focus on interdiction and prosecution. Shortly after his inauguration, Reagan announced, "We're taking down the surrender flag that has flown over so many drug efforts; we're running up a battle flag."[126] From 1980 to 1984, the federal annual budget of the FBI's drug enforcement units went from eight million to 95 million.[127][128] In 1982, Vice-President George H. W. Bush and his aides began pushing for the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and US military in drug interdiction efforts.[129]
Early in the Reagan term, First Lady Nancy Reagan, with the help of an advertising agency, began her youth-oriented "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. Propelled by the First Lady's tireless promotional efforts through the 1980s, "Just Say No" entered the American vernacular. Later research found that the campaign had little or no impact on youth drug use.[130][131][132] One striking change attributed to the effort: public perception of drug abuse as America's most serious problem, in the 2-6% range in 1985, rose to 64% in 1989.[133]
In 1984, Reagan signed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, which included harsher penalties for cannabis cultivation, possession, and distribution, and established equitable sharing, a new civil asset forfeiture program that allowed state and local law enforcement to share the proceeds from asset seizures made in collaboration with federal agencies.[134][135] Under the controversial program, up to 80% of seizure proceeds can go to local law enforcement, and most of it does, expanding their budgets. By 2019[update], $36.5 billion worth of assets had been seized, much of it drug-related.[136]
As the media focused on the emergence of crack cocaine in the early 1980s, the Reagan administration shored up negative public opinion, encouraging the DEA to play up the harmful effects of the drug. Stories of "crack whores" and "crack babies" became commonplace.[137] In the summer of 1986, crack dominated the news. Time declared crack the issue of the year.[137] Newsweek compared the magnitude of the crack story to Vietnam and Watergate.[138] The cocaine overdose deaths of rising basketball star Len Bias, and young NFL football player Don Rogers,[139] both in June, received wide coverage.[138] Riding the wave of public fervor, that October Reagan signed into law much harsher sentencing for crack through the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, commonly known as the Len Bias law.[138][140] According to historian Elizabeth Hinton, "[Reagan] led Congress in criminalizing drug users, especially African American drug users, by concentrating and stiffening penalties for the possession of the crystalline rock form of cocaine, known as 'crack', rather than the crystallized methamphetamine that White House officials recognized was as much of a problem among low-income white Americans".[141]
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act appropriated an additional $1.7 billion to drug war funding, and established 29 new mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses (until then, the American legal system had seen 55 minimum sentences in total).[142] Of particular note, the Act made sentences for larger amounts of cocaine 100 times more severe for crack than for the powder form.[143] With the 100:1 ratio, conviction in federal court for possession of 5 grams of crack would receive the same 5-year mandatory minimum as possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine.[144][145] Debate at the time considered whether crack, generally used by blacks, was more addictive than the powder form, generally used by whites,[137] comparing the effects of snorting powder cocaine with the briefer, more intense high from smoking crack;[146] pharmacologically, there is no difference between the two.[147] According to the DEA, at first crack "was not fully appreciated as a major threat because it was primarily being consumed by middle class users who were not associated with cocaine addicts ... However, partly because crack sold for as little as $5 a rock, it ultimately spread to less affluent neighborhoods."[148]
Support for Reagan's drug crime legislation was bipartisan. According to Hinton, Democrats supported his legislation as they had since the Johnson administration,[141] though Reagan was a Republican.
Internationally, the Reagan term saw a massive increase in US military anti-drug activity in other countries. The Department of Defense budget for interdiction increased from $4.9 million in 1982 to $397 million by 1987. The DEA also expanded its presence on foreign soil. Countries were encouraged to adopt the same sort of punitive drug approach in place in the US, with the threat of economic sanctions for non-compliance. The UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs treaty provided a legal framework, and in 1988, the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances expanded that framework, working the US-style punitive approach into international law.[149]
Hard line maintained and a new opioid crisis
Next to occupy the Oval Office, Reagan protégé and former VP George H. W. Bush (1989-1993) maintained the hard line drawn by his predecessor and former boss. In his first prime-time address to the nation, Bush held up a plastic bag of crack "seized a few days ago in a park across the street from the White House" (turned out that DEA agents had to lure the seller to Lafayette Park to make the requested arrest).[150] The administration increased narcotics regulation in the first National Drug Control Strategy, issued by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in 1989.[151] The director of ONDCP became commonly known as the US drug czar.[99]
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As president, Bill Clinton (1993-2001) dramatically raised the stakes for drug felonies with his signing of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The Act introduced the federal "three-strikes" provision that mandated life imprisonment for violent offenders with two prior convictions for violent crimes or drugs, and provided billions of dollars in funding for states to expand their prison systems and increase law enforcement.[152] During this period, state and local government initiated controversial drug legislation, policies that demonstrated racial biases such as the stop-and-frisk police practice in New York City, and state-level "three strikes" felony laws, which began in California in 1994.[153]
During the 1990s, opioid use in the US dramatically rose, leading to the ongoing, commonly called opioid epidemic. A loose consensus of observers describe three key stages to date: overprescription of legal opioids beginning in the early to mid-1990s, a rise in heroin use, and the introduction of fentanyl and other synthetics.[154]
The George W. Bush (2001-2009) administration maintained the hard line approach.[155] In a TV interview in February 2001, Bush's new Attorney General, John Ashcroft, said about the war on drugs, "I want to renew it. I want to refresh it, relaunch it if you will."[156] In 2001, after 9/11 and the Patriot Act, the DEA began promoting the tie between drug trafficking and international terrorism, gaining the agency expanded funding to increase its global presence.[157]
Growing dissent and state-level changes
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In the summer of 2001, a report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), "The Drug War is the New Jim Crow", tied the vastly disproportionate rate of African American incarceration to the range of rights lost once convicted. It stated that, while "whites and blacks use drugs at almost exactly the same rates ... African-Americans are admitted to state prisons at a rate that is 13.4 times greater than whites, a disparity driven largely by the grossly racial targeting of drug laws." Between federal and state laws, those convicted of even simple possession could lose the right to vote, eligibility for educational assistance including loans and work-study programs, custody of their children, and personal property including homes. The report concluded that the cumulative affect of the war on drugs amounted to "the US apartheid, the new Jim Crow".[156] This view was further developed by lawyer and civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander in her 2010 book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.[161]
In the year 2000, the US drug-control budget reached $18.4 billion,[162] nearly half of which was spent financing law enforcement while only one-sixth was spent on treatment. In the year 2003, 53% of the requested drug control budget was for enforcement, 29% for treatment, and 18% for prevention.[163] The state of New York, in particular, designated 17% of its budget towards substance-abuse-related spending. Of that, 1% was put towards prevention, treatment, and research.[citation needed]
During his time in office, Barack Obama (2009-2017) implemented a "tough but smart" approach to the war on drugs. While he claimed that his method differed from those of previous presidents, in reality, his practices were similar.[164] In May 2009, Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the ONDCP – Obama's drug czar – indicated that the Obama administration did not plan to significantly alter drug enforcement policy, but that it would not use the term "war on drugs", considering it to be "counter-productive".[165] In August 2010, Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act into law, reducing the 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine to 18:1 for pending and future cases.[143][166][167]
In 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, an international non-governmental group composed primarily of former heads of state and government, released a report that stated, "The global war on drugs has failed." It recommended a paradigm shift, to a public health focus, with decriminalization for possession and personal use.[168] Obama's ONDCP did not support the report, stating: "Drug addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and treated. Making drugs more available ... will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe."[121]
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In May 2012, the ONDCP published "Principles of Modern Drug Policy", broadly focusing on public health, human rights, and criminal justice reform, while targeting drug traffickers.[169] According to ONDCP director Kerlikowske, drug legalization is not the "silver bullet" solution to drug control, and success is not measured by the number of arrests made or prisons built.[170] That month, a joint statement, "For a humane and balanced drug policy", was signed by Italy, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the US, promoting a combination of "enforcement to restrict the supply of drugs, with efforts to reduce demand and build recovery."[171] Meanwhile, at the state level, 2012 saw Colorado and Washington become the first two states to legalize the recreational use of cannabis with the passage of Amendment 64 and Initiative 502.[172]
A 2013 ACLU report declared the anti-marijuana crusade a "war on people of color". The report found that "African Americans [were] 3.73 times more likely than whites to be apprehended despite nearly identical usage rates, and marijuana violations accounting for more than half of drug arrests nationwide during the previous decade". Under Obama's policies, nonwhite drug offenders received less excessive criminal sanctions, but by examining criminals as strictly violent or nonviolent, mass incarceration persisted.[164]
In March 2016, the International Narcotics Control Board stated that the UN's international drug treaties do not mandate a "war on drugs" and that the choice is not between "'militarized' drug law enforcement on one hand and the legalization of non-medical use of drugs on the other", health and welfare should be the focus of drug policy.[173] That April, the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the "World Drug Problem" was held.[174] The Wall Street Journal assessed the attendees' positions as "somewhat" in two camps: "Some European and South American countries as well as the U.S. favored softer approaches. Eastern countries such as China and Russia and most Muslim nations like Iran, Indonesia and Pakistan remained staunchly opposed."[175] The outcome document recommended treatment, prevention and other public health measures, and committed to "intensifying our efforts to prevent and counter" drug production and trafficking, through, "inter alia, more effective drug-related crime prevention and law enforcement measures."[176][177]
Under President Donald Trump (2017-2021), Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed his predecessor's drug reform position, and instructed federal prosecutors to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense” in drug cases, regardless of whether mandatory minimum sentences applied. This amounted to encouraging prison time even for simple cannabis possession.[178][179] With cannabis legalized to some degree in nearly 30 states, Sessions' directive was seen by both Democrats and Republicans as a rogue throwback action, and there was a bipartisan outcry. Trump fired Sessions in 2018, over other issues.[180]
Some policy reversal attempts and successes
In 2018, Trump signed into law the First Step Act which, among other federal prison reforms, made the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act retroactive. A US Supreme Court decision in 2021 determined that retroactivity applied to cases where mandatory minimum penalties had been imposed.[181]
In 2020, both the ACLU and the New York Times reported that Republicans and Democrats were in agreement that it was time to end the war on drugs. While on the presidential campaign trail, President Joe Biden (2020–present) stated that he would take the steps to alleviate the war on drugs and end the opioid epidemic.[182][183]
On December 4, 2020, during the Trump administration, the House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act), which would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level by removing it from the list of scheduled substances, expunge past convictions and arrests, and tax cannabis to "reinvest in communities targeted by the war on drugs".[182][184] The MORE Act was received in the Senate in December 2020 where it remained.[185] In April 2022, the Act was again passed by the House, and awaits Senate action.[186]
Over time, states in the US have approached drug liberalization at a varying pace. Initially, in the 1930s, the states were ahead of the federal government in prohibiting cannabis; in recent decades, the trend has reversed. As of September 2023[update], over 30 states had decriminalized or legalized cannabis, split about equally between recreational and medical-only use. Decriminalization in this context usually refers to first-time offenses and small quantities, such as, in the case of cannabis, under an ounce (28g).[187] In November 2020, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize a number of drugs, including heroin, methamphetamine, PCP, LSD and oxycodone, shifting from a criminal approach to a public health approach;[188][189][182] portions of that policy were reversed in April 2024.[190]
In 2022, Biden signed into law the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, to allow cannabis to be more easily researched for medical purposes. It is the first standalone cannabis reform bill enacted at the federal level.[191][192][193] That October, Biden stated on social media, "We classify marijuana at the same level as heroin – and more serious than fentanyl. It makes no sense," and pledged to start a review by the Attorney General on how cannabis is classified.[194] On October 6, he pardoned all those with federal convictions for simple cannabis possession, and urged state governments, where the large majority of convictions rest, to do the same. His action affected 6,500 people convicted from 1992 to 2021, and thousands convicted in the District of Columbia.[195]
The War continues, focus on fentanyl
In 2023, the US State Department announced plans to launch a "global coalition to address synthetic drug threats", with more than 80 countries expected to join.[196][197][198] That April, Anne Milgram, head of the DEA since 2021, stated to Congress that two Mexican drug cartels posed "the greatest criminal threat the United States has ever faced." Supporting a DEA budget request of $3.7 billion for 2024, Milgram cited fentanyl in the "most devastating drug crisis in our nation’s history."[199][200]
In January 2024, the DEA confirmed that it was reviewing the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I narcotic. Days later, documents were released from the Department of Health and Human Services stating that cannabis has "a currently accepted medical use” in the US and a “potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances in Schedules I and II."[194] As of April 2024[update], Schedule I drugs, considered most dangerous, with highest abuse potential and no medical use, include heroin, LSD, peyote, ecstasy and cannabis; Schedule II includes cocaine, oxycodone, fentanyl, methamphetamine and Adderall.[10]
Foreign operations
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During the 1970s, the US treated drugs as a policing issue in foreign countries. Billions of dollars were given to support anti-drug activity by police forces in Latin American countries, including Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Beginning in the 1980s, the US increasingly involved the military and private security firms, to provide training and support to armed forces in drug-producing and transit countries.[206]
Scholars have claimed that the war on drugs, a metaphorical war, is propaganda cloaking an extension of earlier military or paramilitary operations.[8] Others have argued that large amounts anti-drug foreign aid money, training, and equipment actually goes to fighting leftist insurgencies and is often provided to groups who themselves are involved in large-scale narco-trafficking, such as corrupt members of the Colombian military.[7]
Foreign operations in the war on drugs initially focused on Latin America, and expanded globally over time. As of 2024[update], the DEA has, in addition to 241 domestic offices, 93 foreign offices in 69 countries.[207]
Latin America
In 2021, Gustavo Gorriti, journalist and founder of corruption-focused IDL-Reporteros news media, wrote a scathing editorial in the Washington Post on the impact of 50 years of the war on drugs on Latin America. He described the flow of drugs to the US as an "unstoppable industry" that triggered an economic revolution throughout the region, where the illegal drug trade with its high profit margins far exceeded the potential of legitimate businesses. Corruption among politicians and anti-drug forces soared, even as those in charge were "cultivating close relationships with U.S. enforcement and intelligence agencies." An underclass of poor farmers became economic hostages, depending on drug crops for their survival. The big winners were "the systems built to wage a fight that they soon realized would have no end. ... [The war on drugs] became a source for endless resources, inflated budgets, contracts, purchase orders, power, influence — new economies battling drug trafficking but also dependent on it."[208]
At a meeting in Guatemala in 2012, three former presidents from Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia said that the war on drugs had failed and that they would propose a discussion on alternatives, including decriminalization, at the Summit of the Americas in April of that year.[209] Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina said that the war on drugs was exacting too high a price on the lives of Central Americans and that it was time to "end the taboo on discussing decriminalization".[210] At the summit, the government of Colombia pushed for far-reaching changes to drugs policy, citing the catastrophic effects of the war on drugs in Colombia.[211]
Colombia
Through the Plan Colombia program, between 2000 and 2015, the US provided Colombia with $10 billion in funding,[212][213] primarily for military aid, training, and equipment,[214] to fight left-wing guerrillas such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), which has been accused of being involved in drug trafficking.[215] The Clinton administration initially waived all but one of the human rights conditions attached to Plan Colombia, considering such aid as crucial to national security at the time.[216] Private US military contractors, including the former DynCorp, the largest private company involved, were contracted by the State Department and Defense Department, to carry out anti-drug initiatives as part of Plan Colombia.[217]
Colombian military personnel received extensive counterinsurgency training from US military and law enforcement agencies, including the School of Americas (SOA). Author Grace Livingstone has stated that more Colombian SOA graduates have been implicated in human rights abuses than currently known SOA graduates from any other country.[citation needed] All of the commanders of the brigades highlighted in a 2001 Human Rights Watch report on Colombia were graduates of the SOA, including the III brigade in Valle del Cauca, where the 2001 Alto Naya Massacre occurred. US-trained officers have been accused of being directly or indirectly involved in many massacres during the 1990s, including the Trujillo Massacre and the 1997 Mapiripán Massacre.[citation needed]
The efforts of U.S. and Colombian governments have been criticized for focusing on fighting leftist guerrillas in southern regions without applying enough pressure on right-wing paramilitaries and continuing drug smuggling operations in the north of the country.[218][219] Human Rights Watch, congressional committees and other entities have documented the existence of connections between members of the Colombian military and the AUC, which the U.S. government has listed as a terrorist group, and that Colombian military personnel have committed human rights abuses which would make them ineligible for U.S. aid under current laws.[citation needed]
A report by the RAND Corporation, examining the Colombian experience for insights applicable to the Mexican drug war, noted that "Plan Colombia has been widely hailed as a success, and some analysts believe that, by 2010, Colombian security forces had finally gained the upper hand once and for all." The report cited dramatic reductions in kidnappings and terrorist acts, and the recapture of territory, attributed to "a reinforced military and reinvigorated police force." It also found that, as of 2010, "Colombia is still a major source country for illicit narcotics. Moreover, the state continues to share sovereignty with a range of violent nonstate actors, including rebel groups and rightwing paramilitaries allied with drug traffickers and wealthy landowners."[220] The Washington Office on Latin America concluded in 2010 that both Plan Colombia and the Colombian government's security strategy "came at a high cost in lives and resources, only did part of the job, are yielding diminishing returns and have left important institutions weaker."[221]
Mexico
One of the first anti-drug efforts in the realm of foreign policy was President Nixon's Operation Intercept, announced in September 1969, targeted at reducing the amount of cannabis entering the United States from Mexico. The effort began with an intense inspection crackdown that resulted in a near shutdown of cross-border traffic.[222] The burden on border crossings was controversial in border states; the effort lasted only 20 days.[223]
The Mérida Initiative, launched in 2008, was a security cooperation program between the US and Mexico, aimed at combating drug trafficking and transnational crime. From 2008 to 2021, the US provided $3.5 billion in funding. The initial focus was anti-drug and rule-of-law measures, later broadened to include US-Mexico border activities. Components included military and law enforcement training and equipment, and technical advice and training to strengthen the national justice systems. In 2021, it was replaced by the Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities.[224]
In 2013, a Pew Research Center poll found that 85% of Mexican citizens supported using the Mexican army against drug cartels, 74% supported US training assistance for their police and military, 55% supported the US supplying of weapons and financial aid, and 59% were against deploying US troops on Mexican soil.[225] Anti-drug efforts were seen as making progress by 37%, losing ground by 29%, and staying the same by 30%; 56% believed that the US and Mexico are both to blame for drug violence in Mexico.[226]
Nicaragua
Senator John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on Contra drug links concludes that members of the U.S. State Department "who provided support for the Contras are involved in drug trafficking... and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly receive financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."[227] The report further states that "the Contra drug links include... payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies."
Panama
On December 20, 1989, the US invaded Panama with 25,000 American troops, as part of Operation Just Cause, to depose and arrest the Panamanian head of government, Gen. Manuel Noriega. Noriega had been giving military assistance to Contra groups in Nicaragua at the request of the US, which in turn tolerated his drug trafficking activities, known since the 1960s.[228][229] The CIA prevented the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs from indicting him in 1971 and, under the directorship of future president George H. W. Bush, provided Noriega with hundreds of thousands of dollars annually as payment for his work in Latin America.[228] When CIA pilot Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinistas in 1986, documents aboard the plane revealed many of the CIA's Latin American activities, making the agency's connection with Noriega a public relations liability for the US. The DEA was finally permitted to indict him for drug trafficking.[228] Operation Just Cause and Nifty Package were launched to capture Noriega and overthrow his government. He surrendered to US soldiers on January 3, 1990,[230] and was sentenced by a US court to 45 years in prison for racketeering, drug smuggling, and money laundering.[228][231] The United Nations General Assembly resolved that the invasion was a "flagrant violation of international law."[232]
Ecuador
Ecuador is located between the world's two largest cocaine-producing countries, Colombia and Peru, and has long been a major drug transit point.[233] From 1999, the Manta air base was the US military's most prominent South American presence, originating some 100 drug surveillance flights monthly. In 2009, citing unwanted internal influence by the CIA, Ecuador declined to renew the base's lease, ending official US military presence.[234][235] Drug activity in Ecuador has dramatically intensified since 2018.[236] In 2023, the US-Ecuador Defense Bilateral Working Group was formed to address the Ecuadorian situation, and a memorandum of agreement to help strengthen the Ecuadorian military was signed.[235] A drug-related wider conflict broke out in 2024.[237]
Honduras
In 2012, the US sent DEA agents to Honduras to assist security forces in counternarcotic operations. Honduras has been a major stop for drug traffickers, who use small planes and landing strips hidden throughout the country to transport drugs. The US government made agreements with several Latin American countries to share intelligence and resources to counter the drug trade. DEA agents, working with other US agencies such as the State Department, the CBP, and Joint Task Force-Bravo, assisted Honduran troops in conducting raids on traffickers' sites of operation.[238]
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Aerial herbicide application
The US regularly sponsored the spraying of large amounts of herbicides such as glyphosate over the jungles of Central and South America as part of its drug eradication programs. Environmental consequences resulting from aerial fumigation have been criticized as detrimental to some of the world's most fragile ecosystems;[239] the same aerial fumigation practices are further credited with causing health problems in local populations.[240]
Impact on growers
The coca eradication policy has been criticised for its negative impact on the livelihood of coca growers in South America. In many areas of South America, the coca leaf has traditionally been chewed and used in tea and for religious, medicinal and nutritional purposes by locals.[241] For this reason, many insist that the illegality of traditional coca cultivation is unjust. In many areas, the US government and military forced the eradication of coca, at the same time destroying other food or market crops, without providing an alternative, leaving farmers starving and destitute.[241] In Bolivia, president Evo Morales (2006-2019), a former coca growers' union leader, promised to legalize the traditional cultivation and use of coca. His legalization efforts, combined with aggressive and targeted eradication efforts, lead to some success, using coca growers' federations to ensure compliance with the law rather than deploying security forces; a 12–13% decline in coca cultivation was noted in 2011.[242]
Domestic impact
The social consequences of the drug war have been widely criticized by such organizations as the ACLU as being racially biased against minorities and disproportionately responsible for the exploding United States prison population. Critics have compared the wholesale incarceration of the dissenting minority of drug users to the wholesale incarceration of other minorities in history.[citation needed] Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz wrote in 1997, "Over the past thirty years, we have replaced the medical-political persecution of illegal sex users ('perverts' and 'psychopaths') with the even more ferocious medical-political persecution of illegal drug users."[243]
Incarceration
According to Human Rights Watch, the War on Drugs caused soaring arrest rates that disproportionately targeted African Americans due to various factors.[244] Anti-drug and tough-on-crime policies from the 1970s through the 1990s created a situation where the US, with less than 5% of the world population, houses nearly 25% of the world's prisoners. As of 2015[update], the US prison population rate was 716 per 100,000 people, the highest in the world, six times higher than Canada and six to nine times higher than Western European countries.[245]
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In the 1980s, while the number of arrests for all crimes had risen by 28%, the number of arrests for drug offenses rose 126%.[246] Increased demand lead to the development of privatization and the for-profit prison industry.[247]
Reporting on the effects of state initiatives, the Department of Justice found that, from 1990 through 2000, "the increasing number of drug offenses accounted for 27% of the total growth among black inmates, 7% of the total growth among Hispanic inmates, and 15% of the growth among white inmates." In 1994, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that the war on drugs resulted in the incarceration of one million Americans each year.[248]
In 2008, The Washington Post reported that of 1.5 million Americans arrested each year for drug offenses, half a million would be incarcerated, and one in five black Americans would spend time behind bars due to drug laws.[249] In addition to prison or jail, the US provides for the deportation of many non-citizens convicted of drug offenses.[250]
Federal and state policies also impose collateral consequences on those convicted of drug offenses, separate from fines and prison time, that are not applicable to other types of crime.[251] In order to comply with a federal law known as the Solomon–Lautenberg amendment, a number of states require a six-months driver's license suspension for anyone convicted of a drug offense.[252][253][254] Other examples of collateral consequences for drug offenses, or for felony offenses in general, include loss of professional license, loss of ability to purchase a firearm, loss of eligibility for food stamps, loss of eligibility for Federal Student Aid, loss of eligibility to live in public housing, loss of ability to vote, and deportation.[251]
Prison overcrowding
One consequence of the war on drugs policy has been the overcrowding of prisons within the United States. The policy's approach to prosecuting drug-related offenses has led to a surge in incarcerated individuals for nonviolent drug offenses. As a result, many prisons have become overburdened, often operating at capacities far beyond their intended limits. Overcrowding not only strains the prison system itself but also raises questions about the effectiveness of incarceration as a solution to drug-related issues.[255] Resources that could be allocated to address the root causes of drug abuse, provide rehabilitation and treatment programs, or support communities affected by drug-related issues are instead diverted to managing the burgeoning prison population. This reallocation of resources away from preventive measures and treatment options undermines the potential for a comprehensive and holistic approach to addressing drug-related challenges. Critics argue that focusing solely on incarceration fails to address the underlying social factors contributing to drug abuse and perpetuates a cycle of criminality without offering pathways to recovery and reintegration into society.[256]
Racial disparities in sentencing
Racial disparities have been a prominent and contentious aspect of the "War on Drugs" in the US. In 1957, the belief at the time about drug use was summarized by journalist Max Lerner in his work, America as a Civilization: "As a case in point we may take the known fact of the prevalence of reefer and dope addiction in Negro areas. This is essentially explained in terms of poverty, slum living, and broken families, yet it would be easy to show the lack of drug addiction among other ethnic groups where the same conditions apply."[257]
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 created a 100:1 sentencing disparity in the U.S. for the trafficking or possession of crack when compared to penalties for trafficking of powder cocaine.[258][144][145][259] The bill had been widely criticized as discriminatory against minorities, mostly blacks, who were more likely to use crack than powder cocaine.[260] In 1994, studying the effects of the 100:1 sentencing ratio, the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) found that nearly two-thirds of crack users were white or Hispanic, while nearly 85% of those convicted for possession were black, with similar numbers for trafficking. Powder cocaine offenders were more equally divided across race. The USSC noted that these disparities resulted in African Americans serving longer prison sentences than other ethnicities. In a 1995 report to Congress, the USSC recommended against the 100:1 sentencing ratio.[261][262] In 2010, the 100:1 sentencing ratio was reduced to 18:1.[260][167]
Other studies indicated similarly dramatic racial differences in enforcement and sentencing. Statistics from 1998 show that there were wide racial disparities in arrests, prosecutions, sentencing and deaths. African-American drug users made up for 35% of drug arrests, 55% of convictions, and 74% of people sent to prison for drug possession crimes.[144] Nationwide African-Americans were sent to state prisons for drug offenses 13 times more often than other races,[263] even though they supposedly constituted only 13% of regular drug users.[144] Human Rights Watch's report, "Race and the Drug War" (2000), provided extensive documentation of racial disparities, citing statistics and case studies highlighting the unequal treatment of racial and ethnic groups by law enforcement agencies, particularly in drug arrests.[264] According to the report, in the US in 1999, compared to non-minorities, African Americans were far more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and received much stiffer penalties and sentences.[265]
In Malign Neglect – Race Crime and Punishment in America (1995), University of Minnesota professor and social justice author Michael Tonry wrote, "The War on Drugs foreseeably and unnecessarily blighted the lives of hundreds and thousands of young disadvantaged black Americans and undermined decades of effort to improve the life chances of members of the urban black underclass."[266]
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Public opinion
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In the 21st century, according to polling, a majority of Americans have been skeptical about the methods and effectiveness of the war on drugs. A national poll in 2008 found that three in four Americans believed that the drug war was failing.[267] In 2014, a Pew Research Center poll found found that 67% of Americans feel that a movement towards treatment for drugs like cocaine and heroin is better versus 26% who feel that prosecution is the better route. Moving away from mandatory prison terms for drug crimes was favored by two-thirds of the population, a substantial shift from a fifty-fifty for-against split in 2001. A large majority saw alcohol as a greater danger to health (69%) and society (63%) than cannabis.[268][269] In 2018, a Rasmussen Reports poll found that less than 10% of Americans think that the war on drugs is being won.[270] In Gallup polls on whether cannabis should be legal, 15% of Americans agreed in March 1972, rising to 28% in April 1977, where it roughly stayed until 2000, when it began rising again, to 68% in October 2021.[271] In May 2021, a Bully Pulpit Interactive/ACLU poll found that 83% of Americans, across party lines, considered the war on drugs a failure, and 12% considering it a success.[272][273]
Socioeconomic effects
Permanent underclass creation
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Penalties for drug crimes among American youth almost always involve permanent or semi-permanent removal from opportunities for education, strip them of voting rights, and later involve creation of criminal records which make employment more difficult. One-fifth of the US prison population are incarcerated for a drug offence.[274] Thus, some authors maintain that the War on Drugs has resulted in the creation of a permanent underclass of people who have few educational or job opportunities, often as a result of being punished for drug offenses which in turn have resulted from attempts to earn a living in spite of having no education or job opportunities.[275][276]
In her 2010 book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander argues that the war on drugs has effectively perpetuated a racial caste system, with African American and Hispanic individuals experiencing disproportionately high rates of arrest, conviction, and incarceration for drug-related offenses. This system functions as a modern form of racial control, stripping individuals of their rights and opportunities, and reinforcing societal inequalities. According to Alexander, the consequences extend beyond criminal justice, affecting economic opportunities, access to education, and overall social mobility for affected individuals and communities.[277]
Cost to taxpayers
In 2007, "An Open Letter to the President, Congress, Governors, and State Legislatures" signed by over 550 economists, including Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman, George Akerlof and Vernon L. Smith, endorsed the findings of a 2006 paper, "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron. Comparing the cost of drug prohibition to the tax revenue if cannabis was taxed as regular consumer good, or similarly to alcohol, the letter stated: "The fact that marijuana prohibition has these budgetary impacts does not by itself mean prohibition is bad policy. Existing evidence, however, suggests prohibition has minimal benefits and may itself cause substantial harm. We therefore urge the country to commence an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition. We believe such a debate will favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods."[278] According to a 2010 report on co-authored by Miron, the annual savings on enforcement and incarceration costs from the legalization of drugs would amount to roughly $41.3 billion, with $25.7 billion being saved among the states and over $15.6 billion accrued for the federal government. Miron further estimated at least $46.7 billion in tax revenue based on rates comparable to those on tobacco and alcohol: $8.7 billion from marijuana, $32.6 billion from cocaine and heroin, and $5.4 billion from other drugs.[279]
Drug testing in the workplace
Workplace drug testing has been widespread and controversial in the US since the late 1980s: there is no clear measure of its effectiveness in improving safety and productivity, and testing affects significantly more non-whites than whites. Testing is more prevalent in the US than elsewhere in the world.[280] Most common is urine analysis for amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, opioids and PCP;[281] usually with no practical discrimination between the effects of the different drugs.[280] Workplace testing rapidly gained popularity after the Reagan administration made it mandatory for federal workers, peaking in 1996, with 81% of companies reporting drug screening, up from 21% in 1987.[282][280]
In the1980s, testing had been promoted to business as a way to reclaim what were said to be huge losses in productivity caused by drug use. Studies released in the 1990s refuted these claims; a 1994 report from the National Academy of Sciences, "Under the Influence? Drugs and the American Work Force“, concluded that "the data... do not provide clear evidence of the deleterious effects of drugs other than alcohol on safety and other job performance indicators.” By 2004, workplace testing was down to 62% of companies,[282] in 2015, it was reported as below 50%. Drug use continues to be blamed for productivity losses, and testing remains common.[280]
In 2021, some companies began to reduce drug testing in order to improve hiring prospects in a tight labor market. Amazon, America's second largest employer, eliminated cannabis testing in job pre-screening, where not required by government regulations, stating, "Pre-employment marijuana testing has disproportionately affected communities of color by stalling job placement." In a survey of 45,000 companies worldwide, 9% reported the elimination of testing in order to improve hiring.[283] In 2022, thousands of US truck drivers were taken off the road after testing positive for cannabis, contributing to a severe driver shortage; a conflict between the majority of states with some form of cannabis legalization, and the federal Department of Transportation's zero-tolerance cannabis policy, even for medical use, is cited as an issue.[284]
Legality
The legality of drug prohibition within the US has been challenged on various grounds. One argument holds that drug prohibition, as presently implemented, violates the substantive due process doctrine in that its benefits do not justify the encroachments on rights that are supposed to be guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.[285][286] Another argument interprets the Commerce Clause to mean that drugs should be regulated in state law not federal law.[citation needed] A third argument states that the reverse burden of proof in drug-possession cases is incompatible with the rule of law, in that the power to convict is effectively taken from the courts and given to those who are willing to plant evidence.[287]
Efficacy
There is no clear measure of the effectiveness of the war on drugs, and it has been called a policy failure.[5][288] Thirty years into the campaign, a National Research Council report, "Informing America’s Policy on Illegal Drugs" (2001), found that "existing drug-use monitoring systems are strikingly inadequate to support the full range of policy decisions that the nation must make." The report noted that studies of efforts to address drug usage and smuggling, from US military operations to eradicate coca fields in Colombia, to domestic drug treatment centers, had all been inconclusive, if the programs had been evaluated at all: It concluded, "It is unconscionable for this country to continue to carry out a public policy of this magnitude and cost without any way of knowing whether and to what extent it is having the desired effect."[289][290]
Writing in the New Statesmen in 2021, journalist James Bloodworth stated, "The war on drugs is a failure. We know this. We’ve long known it. In fact, there is such an abundance of evidence for its failure that we have more certainty here than in most areas of policy. ... According to the International Drug Policy Consortium there was a 31 per cent global increase in drug taking between 2011 and 2016. ... It is impossible to suppress the demand for drugs." He quoted Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand and head of the Global Commission on Drug Policy: “The total elimination of drugs? Dream on, there’s never been a time in human history where human beings haven’t resorted to some kind of substances that will take them out of their current reality for whatever reason.”[291]
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Interdiction
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In 1988, the RAND Corporation released a Department of Defense-funded two-year study, Sealing the Borders: The Effects of Increased Military Participation in Drug Interdiction. It concluded that the use of the armed forces to interdict drugs coming into the US would have little or no effect on cocaine traffic and might, in fact, raise the profits of cocaine cartels and manufacturers. It noted that seven prior studies, including one by the Center for Naval Research and the Office of Technology Assessment, had come to similar conclusions.[293]
In mid-1995, the US government tried to reduce the supply of methamphetamine precursors to disrupt the market of this drug. According to a 2009 study, this effort was successful, but its effects were largely temporary.[294]
In the six years from 2000 to 2006, the U.S. spent $4.7 billion on Plan Colombia, an effort to eradicate coca production in Colombia. The main result of this effort was to shift coca production into more remote areas and force other forms of adaptation. The overall acreage cultivated for coca in Colombia at the end of the six years was found to be the same, after the US Drug Czar's office announced a change in measuring methodology in 2005 and included new areas in its surveys.[295] Cultivation in the neighboring countries of Peru and Bolivia increased, some would describe this effect like squeezing a balloon.[296]
Richard Davenport-Hines, in his book The Pursuit of Oblivion, criticized the efficacy of the war on drugs by pointing out that "10–15% of illicit heroin and 30% of illicit cocaine is intercepted. Drug traffickers have gross profit margins of up to 300%. At least 75% of illicit drug shipments would have to be intercepted before the traffickers' profits were hurt."[297]
Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, described US foreign drug policy as "failed": "For 10 years, there has been a considerable sum invested by the Peruvian government and another sum on the part of the American government, and this has not led to a reduction in the supply of coca leaf offered for sale. Rather, in the 10 years from 1980 to 1990, it grew 10-fold."[298]
According to a report commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, and released in March 2006 by the Justice Policy Institute, harsher sentences for drug offenses committed in drug-free school zones are ineffective at keeping youths away from drugs, and instead create strong racial disparities in the judicial system.[299]
According to data collected by the Federal Bureau of Prisons 45.3% of all criminal charges were drug related and 25.5% of sentences for all charges last 5–10 years. Furthermore, non-whites make up 41.4% of the federal prison system's population and over half are under the age of 40.[300] The Bureau of Justice Statistics states that over 80% of all drug related charges are for possession rather than the sale or manufacture of drugs.[301]
Prohibition versus public health
During the 1990s, the Clinton administration commissioned a major cocaine policy study by the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. The report recommended that $3 billion be switched from federal and local law enforcement to treatment, concluding that treatment is the cheapest way to cut drug use, and twenty-three times more effective than the supply-side war on drugs.[302]
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In the constitution of the multinational non-governmental World Federation Against Drugs, the "Declaration of the World Forum Against Drugs" (2008), advocates for "no other goal than a drug-free world", and states that a balanced policy of drug abuse prevention, education, treatment, law enforcement, research, and supply reduction provides the most effective platform to reduce drug abuse and its associated harms and calls on governments to consider demand reduction as one of their first priorities. It supports the UN drug conventions, the inclusion of cannabis as one of the "hard drugs", and the use of criminal sanctions "when appropriate" to deter drug use. It opposes legalization in any form, and harm reduction in general.[304]
In 2015 The U.S. government spent over to $25 billion on supply reduction, while allocating only $11 billion for demand reduction. Supply reduction includes: interdiction, eradication, and law enforcement; demand reduction includes: education, prevention, and treatment. The war on drugs is often called a policy failure.[305][306][307][308][309][310]
In a 2023 UN report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that "decades of punitive, 'war on drugs' strategies had failed to prevent an increasing range and quantity of substances from being produced and consumed", described punitive drug policies as a failure, and called for an approach "based on health and human rights, including through the legal regulation of drugs."[311][312][313]
Drug use
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In 2005, the federally funded Monitoring the Future annual survey reported about 85% of high school seniors found marijuana "easy to obtain", virtually unchanged since 1975, never dropping below 82.7% in three decades of national surveys.[314] The DEA stated that the number of users of cannabis in the US declined between 2000 and 2005, even with many states passing new medical cannabis laws, making access easier,[315] though usage rates remain higher than they were in the 1990s according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.[316]
The ONDCP stated in April 2011 that there has been a 46% drop in cocaine use among young adults over the previous five years, and a 65% drop in the rate of people testing positive for cocaine in the workplace since 2006.[317] At the same time, a 2007 study found that up to 35% of college undergraduates used stimulants not prescribed to them.[318]
A 2013 study found that prices of heroin, cocaine and cannabis had decreased from 1990 to 2007, while the purity of these drugs had increased.[319][320]
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2019 found that 1.7% of US adults over 25 had used cocaine in the previous 12 months, compared to 1.8% in 2002, and cannabis use went from 7% in 2002 to 15.2%. The DEA's 2021 National Drug Threat Assessment stated that "a steady supply of cocaine was available throughout domestic markets" in 2019 and 2020.[321]
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), drug abuse fatalities in 2021 reached an all-time high of 108,000 deaths,[322] a 15% increase from 2020 (93,000)[323] which, at the time, was the highest number of deaths and a 30% increase from 2019, .[322]
During alcohol prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, alcohol use initially fell but began to increase as early as 1922. It has been extrapolated that even if prohibition had not been repealed in 1933, alcohol consumption would have surpassed pre-prohibition levels. One argument against the war on drugs is that it uses similar measures as Prohibition and is no more effective.[324]
Alternatives
A prevalent critical view holds that the war on drugs has been costly and ineffective largely because US federal and state governments have chosen the wrong methods, focusing on interdiction and punishment rather than regulation and treatment.[325] The US leads the world in both recreational drug usage and incarceration rates; 70% of men arrested in metropolitan areas test positive for an illicit substance,[326] and 54% of all men incarcerated will be repeat offenders.[327] Aggressive, heavy-handed enforcement funnels individuals through courts and prisons; instead of treating the cause of the addiction. Making drugs illegal rather than regulating them also creates a highly profitable black market. Jefferson Fish has edited scholarly collections of articles offering a wide variety of public health-based and rights-based alternative drug policies.[328][329][330]
In the US, current public health-oriented interventions include harm reduction, drug courts, and Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs, which give police treatment or social services options rather than arrest with minor drug offenses. Harm reduction approaches include provision of sterile syringes, medically supervised injection sites (SIF), and availability of the opioid overdose-countering drug naloxone.[325]
As an alternative to imprisonment, drug courts in the US identify substance-abusing offenders and place them under strict court monitoring and community supervision, as well as provide them with long-term treatment services.[331] According to a National Drug Court Institute report, drug courts have a wide array of benefits, with only 16.4% of the nation's drug court graduates rearrested and charged with a felony within one year of completing the program (versus the 44.1% of released prisoners who end up back in prison within one year). Additionally, enrolling an addict in a drug court program costs much less than incarcerating one in prison.[332] According to the Bureau of Prisons, the fee to cover the average cost of incarceration for Federal inmates in 2006 was $24,440.[333] The annual cost of treatment in a drug court program ranges from $900 to $3,500.[332]
A survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that substance abusers who remain in treatment longer are less likely to resume their former drug habits. Of the people studied, 66% were cocaine users. After experiencing long-term in-patient treatment, only 22% returned to the use of cocaine.[162]
Considering outright legalization of recreational drugs, New York Times columnist Eduardo Porter noted: "Jeffrey Miron, an economist at Harvard who studies drug policy closely, has suggested that legalizing all illicit drugs would produce net benefits to the United States of some $65 billion a year, mostly by cutting public spending on enforcement as well as through reduced crime and corruption. A study by analysts at the RAND Corporation, a California research organization, suggested that if marijuana were legalized in California and the drug spilled from there to other states, Mexican drug cartels would lose about a fifth of their annual income of some $6.5 billion from illegal exports to the United States."[334]
See also
- Baker, a series of counter-narcotics training exercises conducted by the United States Army and several Asian countries
- Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
- Chasing the Scream
- Civil forfeiture in the United States
- Class war
- Cognitive liberty
- Crack epidemic
- Drugs in the United States
- Harm reduction
- Latin American drug legalization
- Law Enforcement Action Partnership
- November Coalition
- Philippine Drug War
- Prison-industrial complex
- Race war
- Recreational use of drugs
- Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure
- Victimless crime
- War on Gangs
Covert activities and foreign policy
- Allegations of CIA drug trafficking
- Golden Crescent
- Golden Triangle
- Harry J. Anslinger
- Military Cooperation with Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies Act
- CIA transnational anti-crime and anti-drug activities
- Plan Colombia
- UMOPAR
- Air Bridge Denial Program
Government agencies and laws
Notes
References
- ^ Mann, Brian (June 17, 2021). "After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?'". NPR.
- ^ Lopez, German (January 30, 2017). "How the war on drugs has made drug traffickers more ruthless and efficient". Vox. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- ^ Scherlen, Renee (January 4, 2012). "The Never-Ending Drug War: Obstacles to Drug War Policy Termination". PS: Political Science & Politics. 45: 67–73. doi:10.1017/S1049096511001739. S2CID 153399320 – via Cambridge Core.
- ^ Doward, Jamie (April 2, 2016). "The UN's war on drugs is a failure. Is it time for a different approach?". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- ^ a b c "War on Drugs: Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy". Global Commission on Drug Policy. June 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
The global war on drugs has failed. When the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs came into being 50 years ago, and when President Nixon launched the US government's war on drugs 40 years ago, policymakers believed that harsh law enforcement action against those involved in drug production, distribution and use would lead to an ever-diminishing market in controlled drugs such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis, and the eventual achievement of a 'drug free world'. In practice, the global scale of illegal drug markets – largely controlled by organized crime – has grown dramatically over this period.
- ^ Baum, Writer Dan. "Legalize All Drugs? The 'Risks Are Tremendous' Without Defining The Problem". NPR.org. Archived from the original on January 15, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
- ^ a b Cockburn and St. Clair, 1998: Chapter 14
- ^ a b Bullington, Bruce; Block, Alan A. (March 1990). "A Trojan horse: Anti-communism and the war on drugs". Crime, Law and Social Change. 14 (1): 39–55. doi:10.1007/BF00728225. ISSN 1573-0751. S2CID 144145710.
- ^ a b Mann, Brian (June 17, 2021). "After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?'". NPR. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
- ^ a b "Richard Nixon: Special Message to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control". Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
- ^ "Nixon Calls War on Drugs". Palm Beach Post. June 18, 1971. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
- ^ Dufton, Emily (March 26, 2012). "The War on Drugs: How President Nixon Tied Addiction to Crime". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
- ^ "Drug War Statistics". Drug Policy Alliance. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved February 25, 2014.
- ^ Mann, Brian (June 17, 2021). "After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?'". NPR.
The campaign – which by some estimates cost more than $1 trillion – also exacerbated racial divisions and infringed on civil liberties in ways that transformed American society.
- ^ a b c d e Trickey, Erick (January 4, 2018). "Inside the Story of America's 19th-Century Opiate Addiction". The Smithsonian. Archived from the original on January 5, 2019. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
- ^ a b c Das, G (April 1993). "Cocaine abuse in North America: a milestone in history". Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 33 (4): 296–310. doi:10.1002/j.1552-4604.1993.tb04661.x. PMID 8473543. S2CID 9120504 – via PubMed.
- ^ a b c "Cocaine". History.com. August 21, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ Rorabaugh, W.J. (1981). The Alcohol Republic: An American Tradition. Oxford University Press. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-0-1950-2990-1.
- ^ Aaron, Paul; Musto, David (1981). Temperance and Prohibition in America: A Historical Overview. National Academies Press (US). Retrieved February 11, 2024 – via National Library of Medicine.
- ^ "Marijuana Timeline". PBS Frontline. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ Braun, Richard L. (January 1991). "Uniform Controlled Substances Act of 1990". Campbell Law Review. 13 (3): 366.
- ^ a b "Heroin, Morphine and Opiates". history.com. June 10, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
- ^ Courtwright DT [in German] (2009). Forces of habit drugs and the making of the modern world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-0674029903. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017.
- ^ a b c d McKendry, Joe (March 2019). "Sears Once Sold Heroin". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
For $1.50, Americans around the turn of the century could place an order through a Sears, Roebuck catalog and receive a syringe, two needles, and two vials of Bayer Heroin, all in a handsome carrying case.
- ^ a b The Editorial Board (April 21, 2018). "Opinion – An Opioid Crisis Foretold". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
- ^ a b "The United States War on Drugs". web.stanford.edu. Archived from the original on January 6, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
- ^ a b Cockburn, Alexander; Jeffrey St. Clair (1998). Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. Verso. ISBN 1-85984-139-2.
- ^ a b Johnston, Ann Dowsett (November 15, 2013). "'Drink' and 'Her Best-Kept Secret'". The New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
In 1897, the Sears, Roebuck catalog offered a kit with a syringe, two needles, two vials of heroin and a handy carrying case for $1.50.
- ^ Golub, Andrew; Bennett, Alex S.; Elliott, Luther (March 30, 2015). "Beyond America's War on Drugs: Developing Public Policy to Navigate the Prevailing Pharmacological Revolution". Aims Public Health. 2 (1): 142–160. doi:10.3934/publichealth.2015.1.142. PMC 4398966. PMID 25893215.
- ^ Little, Becky (September 13, 2023). "How Civil War Medicine Led to America's First Opioid Crisis". History.com. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
- ^ Ruane, Michael E. (December 1, 2021). "America's first opioid crisis grew out of the carnage of the Civil War". Washington Post. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
- ^ a b "War on Drugs". History.com. May 31, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
- ^ a b Whitford and Yates. Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda 36
- ^ Brecher, Edward M. (1972). "Licit and Illicit Drugs: The Consumers' Union Report on Narcotics, Stimulants, Depressants, Inhalants, Hallucinogens, and Marijuana—Including Caffeine, Nicotine, and Alcohol". Consumers Union. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
- ^ Lee, Erika (2002). "The Chinese Exclusion Example: Race, Immigration, and American Gatekeeping, 1882-1924". Journal of American Ethnic History. 21 (3): 36–62. doi:10.2307/27502847. JSTOR 27502847. S2CID 157999472.
- ^ "Opium prohibition law in library of congress" (PDF). Library of Congress. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
- ^ "Opium and Narcotic Laws". Office of Justice Programs. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
- ^ "Opium Throughout History". PBS Frontline. Archived from the original on September 23, 2006. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
- ^ "Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, 1914". Drug Reform Coordination Network. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
- ^ Kamieński, Łukasz (March 7, 2019). "Drugs". International Encyclopedia of the First World. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
- ^ Berridge, Virginia (November 22, 2014). "Drugs, alcohol, and the First World War". The Lancet. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
International drug control had been discussed before the war, but a global system was unlikely. ... The Hague Convention of 1912 was the product of this expanded geographical concern. The decision at the Hague that opium, morphine, and cocaine and their use should be confined to "legitimate medical purposes" was central to future international drug control. ... The German Government ... insisted that all 34 participating powers had to ratify the Hague Convention before it could come into force. The convention thus had an "all or nothing" aspect that had not been initially intended. ... The war changed the situation. ... Article 295 of the peace settlement enacted through the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 brought the Hague Convention into operation and gave the newly established League of Nations general supervision over international narcotics agreements.
- ^ "A Century of International Drug Control" (PDF). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2009. p. 7. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
- ^ "The UN Drug Control Conventions - A Primer". International Drug Policy Consortium. October 28, 2015. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
- ^ Klein, Christopher (March 28, 2023). "The Night Prohibition Ended". History.com. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
- ^ "Records of the Drug Enforcement Administration DEA". Archives.gov. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
- ^ Filan, Kenaz (February 23, 2011). The Power of the Poppy: Harnessing Nature's Most Dangerous Plant Ally. Rochester, Vt.: Park Street Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-59477-399-0.
- ^ Krebs, Albin (November 18, 1975). Sulzberger Sr., Arthur Ochs (ed.). "Harry J. Anslinger Dies at 83; Hard-Hitting Foe of Narcotics". The New York Times. Vol. CXXIV, no. 236. p. 40. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
Harry J. Anslinger, an implacable, hard-hitting foe of drug pushers and users during the 32 years he was the Treasury Department's Commissioner of Narcotics, died Friday in Hollidaysburg, Pa. His age was 83.
- ^ a b c Adams, Cydney (November 17, 2016). "The man behind the marijuana ban for all the wrong reasons". CBS News. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
- ^ Chasin, Alexandra (September 30, 2016). Assassin of Youth: A Kaleidoscopic History of Harry J. Anslinger's War on Drugs. Chicago, Illinois, United States of America: University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226277028.001.0001. ISBN 9780226276977. LCCN 2016011027. Retrieved September 10, 2021 – via Google Books.
- ^ Halpern, John H.; Blistein, David (August 12, 2019). "America's War on Drugs Has Treated People Unequally Since Its Beginning". TIME. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
Between 1930 and 1962, Anslinger established the standards that continue to serve as basic tools of the trade for America's drug enforcement, such as dramatic drug busts, harsh penalties and questionable data. There remains serious disagreement in scholarly as well as political circles about how successful Anslinger really was in reducing drug sales and use in America, though he achieved several significant legislative victories, including the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act, which fostered collaboration between federal agents and police in different states (each of which had its own specific laws).
- ^ Moynihan, Colin (August 10, 2020). "An Exhibition Tells the Story of a Drug War Leader, but Not All of It". New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
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As detailed herein, beginning in 1951, Congress changed how it used mandatory minimum penalties in three significant ways. First, Congress enacted more mandatory minimum penalties. Second, Congress expanded its use of mandatory minimum penalties to offenses not traditionally covered by such penalties. Before 1951, mandatory minimum penalties typically punished offenses concerning treason, murder, piracy, rape, slave trafficking, internal revenue collection, and counterfeiting. Today, the majority of convictions under statutes carrying mandatory minimum penalties relate to controlled substances, firearms, identity theft, and child sex offenses. Third, the mandatory minimum penalties most commonly used today are generally lengthier than mandatory minimum penalties in earlier eras.
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The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.
- ^ "Home – Dan Baum Writer". www.danbaum.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
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- ^ LoBianco, Tom (March 24, 2016). "Report: Aide says Nixon's war on drugs targeted blacks, hippies". CNN. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
Ehrlichman died in 1999, but his five children in questioned the veracity of the account. ... 'The 1994 alleged 'quote' we saw repeated in social media for the first time today does not square with what we know of our father. And collectively, that spans over 185 years of time with him. ... We do not subscribe to the alleged racist point of view that this writer now implies 22 years following the so-called interview of John and 16 years following our father's death, when dad can no longer respond.'
- ^ Hanson, Hilary (March 25, 2016). "Nixon Aides Suggest Colleague Was Kidding About Drug War Being Designed To Target Black People". HuffPost. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
[T]hree former Nixon aides say the quote just doesn't sound like Ehrlichman, and if he did say it, he was mistaken. ... 'The comments being attributed to John Ehrlichman in recent news coverage about the Nixon administration's efforts to combat the drug crisis of the 1960's and 70's reflect neither our memory of John nor the administration's approach to that problem,' wrote Jeffrey Donfeld, Jerome H. Jaffe and Robert DuPont in a joint statement ...
- ^ Lopez, German (March 29, 2016b). "Was Nixon's war on drugs a racially motivated crusade? It's a bit more complicated". Vox. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
Ehrlichman's claim is likely an oversimplification, according to historians who have studied the period and Nixon's drug policies in particular. There's no doubt Nixon was racist, and ... race could have played one role in Nixon's drug war. ... he [also] personally despised drugs — to the point that it's not surprising he would want to rid the world of them. And there's evidence that Ehrlichman felt bitter and betrayed by Nixon after he spent time in prison over the Watergate scandal, so he may have lied. ... More importantly, Nixon's drug policies did not focus on the kind of criminalization that Ehrlichman described. Instead, Nixon's drug war was largely a public health crusade — one that would be reshaped into the modern, punitive drug war we know today by later administrations, particularly President Ronald Reagan.
- ^ a b Global Commission on Drug Policy Offers Reckless, Vague Drug Legalization Proposal, Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc, July 12, 2011 Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. (PDF).
- ^ Lopez 2016b"According to the federal government's budget numbers for anti-drug programs, the 'demand' side of the war on drugs (treatment, education, and prevention) consistently got more funding during Nixon's time in office (1969 to 1974) than the 'supply' side (law enforcement and interdiction). ... Historically, this is a commitment for treating drugs as a public health issue that the federal government has not replicated since the 1970s. (Although President Barack Obama's budget proposal would, for the first time in decades, put a majority of anti-drug spending on the demand side once again.)"
- ^ The Editorial Board (February 22, 2023). "America Has Lost the War On Drugs. What Now?". New York Times.
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- ^ Whitford and Yates. Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda, 58.
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- ^ 98th Congress, 1st Session. Federal Budget of United States Government, 1984. Federal Reserve of Saint Louis. p. 451.
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....Prosecutors and law enforcement officials insist the program, included in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, is helping them fight the drug war. ... seizures hurt dealers where it counts--in the pocketbook....
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When, 50 years ago, President Richard M. Nixon declared drug abuse 'America's public enemy number one' and called for 'an all-out offensive' to defeat it, he mobilized an army of disparate bureaucracies that quickly became ensnared in an inadequate and ineffective metaphor (defeat the 'enemy'). ... The war narrative prevailed, and the biggest winners were the systems built to wage a fight that they soon realized would have no end — but this was a good thing: It became a source for endless resources, inflated budgets, contracts, purchase orders, power, influence — new economies battling drug trafficking but also dependent on it. ... The booming market of potentially dangerous substances flowing from Latin America to the United States became an unstoppable industry. Starting in the mid-1970s, it triggered an economic revolution in the region. ... became a growth sector that put all export industries to shame. ... pioneered a capitalist revolution ... triggering vast inequality and violence. ... The clandestine nature of the industry and its high profit margins elevated political corruption to new heights. There are many examples across the region of those charged with fighting drug trafficking who ended up profiting from it, all while cultivating close relationships with U.S. enforcement and intelligence agencies. ... Beneath ... lies a vast foundation: the cocaine proletariat, farmers from Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, who depend on the crops for survival. Poverty binds them to an industry that offers liquidity and consistent returns, but that also devalues their rights and lives.
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It is true that the approach suggested in this paper would limit police power. Constitutional protection of individual rights exists for that very purpose. We face coercive government action, carried out in a corrupt and racist manner, with military and paramilitary assaults on our homes, leading to mass incarceration and innocent deaths. We can never forget the tyranny of a government unrestrained by an independent judiciary. Our courts must end the War on Drugs.
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Since Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971, it seems as though people rather than products have been most directly affected. But lack of data makes it hard to understand the impact: like most illicit activities, drug production, trade and use is hard to measure accurately. And without knowing baseline values, it's hard to understand the effect of any given policy – let alone comparing the impact of various policies. However, where long-term data is available, it does point to systematic failures in drug policies.
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Further reading
- Hari, Johann (2015). Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. London; New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1620408902.
- Blanchard, Michael; Chin, Gabriel J. (1998). "Identifying the Enemy in the War on Drugs: A Critique of the Developing Rule Permitting Visual Identification of Indescript White Powders in Narcotics Prosecutions". American University Law Review (47): 557. SSRN 1128945.
- Daniel Burton-Rose, The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry. Common Courage Press, 1998.
- Stephanie R. Bush-Baskette, "The War on Drugs as a War on Black Women," in Meda Chesney-Lind and Lisa Pasko (eds.), Girls, Women, and Crime: Selected Readings. Sage, 2004.
- Chin, Gabriel (2002). "Race, the War on Drugs and the Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction". Gender, Race & Justice (6): 253. SSRN 390109.
- Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. New York: Verso, 1998.
- Mitchell Earlywine, Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Kathleen J. Frydl, The Drug Wars in America, 1940–1973. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
- Nunn, Kenneth B. (2002). "Race, Crime and the Pool of Surplus Criminality: Or Why the War on Drugs Was a War on Blacks". Gender, Race & Justice. 6 (6): 381.
- Tony Payan, "A War that Can't Be Won." Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2013.
- Preston Peet, Under the Influence: The Disinformation Guide to Drugs. The Disinformation Company, 2004.
- Thomas C. Rowe, Federal Narcotics Laws and the War on Drugs: Money Down a Rat Hole. Binghamton, NY: Haworn Press, 2006.
- Eric Schneider, "The Drug War Revisited," Berfrois, November 2, 2011.
- Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1911.
- Dominic Streatfeild, Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography. Macmillan, 2003.
- Douglas Valentine, The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs. New York: Verso, 2004.
Government and NGO reports
- National Drug Threat Assessment 2009 from the United States Department of Justice
- War On Drugs: Legislation in the 108th Congress and Related Developments, a 2003 report from the Congressional Research Service via the State Department website
- The Report of the Canadian Government Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs – 1972
- Drug Enforcement Administration (2017), Drugs of abuse: A DEA resource guide (PDF) (2017 ed.), Washington, D.C.: Author, archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2016, retrieved January 23, 2018
- Revealing the missing link to Climate Justice: Drug Policy, a 2023 report from the International Coalition on Drug Policy Reform and Environmental Justice
External links
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- Narco News – news site focusing on drug war in Latin America
- Drug Policy Facts
- Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy Full text of major government commission reports on the drug laws from around the world over the last 100 years
- Historical Research on the Drug War Full text of numerous full histories of the drug war and thousands of original historical documents
- Cato Institute Drug Prohibition Research
- Drug policy of the United States
- History of drug control in the United States
- Illegal drug trade in the United States
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