When most people think of The War on Drugs, they think of the 1980s, D.A.R.E., Nancy Reagan and the Just Say No TV ads. The term was first introduced into our Lexicon in the 1970s by Richard Nixon. He used the term in a speech, where he declared drug abuse “public enemy number one.”
In the 1968 Presidential election, Nixon essentially ran the original MAGA campaign. The 1960s was a time of upheaval and change from the way America was, and Nixon campaigned on making America normal again for good, upstanding citizens (aka Caucasians). The principal opponents who opposed Nixon were anti-war activists (Vietnam) and African Americans. Nixon couldn’t punish people for being any of those things, but if he could associate marijuana use with anti-war activists aka hippies and heroin use with African Americans and then criminalize and punish both, he could “destroy” his enemies. This was Nixon’s primary reason for his War on Drugs. President Nixon wasted no time starting his plan. From 1972 to 1973, the Office of Drug Abuse and law enforcement made 6000 arrests in 18 months. Most of the people arrested were African American.
Ronald Reagan took the War on Drugs to another level during his Presidency. Reagan signed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, which expanded penalties towards possession of cannabis, established a federal system of mandatory minimum sentences, and established procedures for civil asset forfeiture. From 1980 to 1984, the federal annual budget of the FBI’s drug enforcement units went from 8 million to 95 million. Then Vice President George H. W. Bush began pushing for the involvement of the CIA and U.S. military in drug interdiction efforts. In 1988, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign was mandated.
In the 1980s, the number of arrests for drug offenses rose 126%. The 80s also brought the rise of the for-profit prison industry to fill the rising incarceration needs. In 1986, Reagan and Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. The new law appropriated an additional $1.7 billion to fund the War on Drugs. The law also established 29 new mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. For perspective, from when the U.S. was founded till 1986, the country only had 55 minimum sentences in total.
A major part of the new law was different mandatory minimums for crack and powder cocaine. Crack and cocaine are closely related chemicals except crack was mostly used by African Americans and cocaine mostly used by whites. The law made a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity between cocaine and crack. A person convicted in federal court of possession of 5 grams of crack, would get sentenced to a minimum of 5 years in prison. If they convicted the same person of possessing 500 grams of cocaine, they would also get 5 years in prison.
The Reagan administration began shoring up public opinion against crack, stories of “crack whores” and “crack babies” became commonplace and even Time magazine declared crack the issue of the year in 1986.
George H. W. Bush maintained the hard line drug policies of Reagan and even increased narcotics regulation with the National Drug Control Strategy in 1989. The next three presidents; Clinton, Bush Jr and Obama maintained the War on Drugs. During these periods, the states started enacting controversial legislation. New York City enacted the “stop and frisk” policy, and California enacted the “Three Strikes” law. Obama signed the fair sentencing act into law in 2010, that reduced the 100-1 sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine.
Effects and Results from War on Drugs
A 2008 poll found that three in four Americans believed that the War on Drugs was failing or failed. The War was supposed to curb youth drug use and also deter people from using drugs; it failed on both fronts. The War on Drugs created a lot of side effects that the U.S. is still dealing with.
1. Rising incarceration rates
The U.S. Department of Justice, stated 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 addition, the U.S. also provided for the deportation of many non citizens convicted of drug offenses.
In 1994, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that the “War on Drugs” resulted in the incarceration of one million Americans each year. In 2008, the Washington Post reported that of 1.5 million Americans arrested each year for drug offenses, it would incarcerate half a million, in addition, one in five black Americans would spend time behind bars due to drug laws.
2. Sentencing inequality
According to Human Rights Watch, statistics show that in the U.S., African Americans were far more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and received much stiffer penalties and sentences.
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. Nationwide African Americans were sent to state prison for drug offenses 13 times more than other races, even though they only comprised 13% of regular drug users.
3. Collateral Damage
A person convicted of a felony drug offense; could lose a 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.
The War on Drugs essentially made a large subsection of people second-class citizens who lost constitutional rights or the ability to better or house themselves all for the fact they used or sold illegal drugs.
4. Waste of Money
According to a 2008 study published by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. 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 from the states and over $15.6 from the federal government.
Miron also estimated the government can make a minimum of $46.7 billion in tax revenue; $8.7 billion from marijuana, $32.6 billion from cocaine and heroin, and $5.4 billion from other drugs. One can imagine where these financial resources could go to make the U.S. a better country instead of just wasting the resources on a failed policy.
To be clear, I’m not advocating for a total legalization of all drugs. Alot of people lack self-control and discipline, so a total legalization would lead to more unnecessary deaths and addictions. It’s also clear the War on Drugs strategy is not working and something needs to change.
They sold the War on Drugs to the public as a strategy to cure Americans of the drug virus that invaded its communities and streets. What has occurred over the last 60 years is that it’s made the most vulnerable people, the ones most harmed by the strategy. Nixons secret strategy for the war, as stated earlier, worked as planned. The War on Drugs has ravaged and wrecked black communities, and drugs are as readily available as ever, after all the money spent, arrests and lives forever altered.
Racism, Propaganda, staying the course and Sunk cost fallacy thinking have all led to the failure known as the War on Drugs. What has the public gotten out of this war? The many losses to American Society overshadow the few wins, including all the consequential damage inflicted because of the War. The last 60 years have showed The War on Drugs is not working and we need to change course before this misguided strategy alters more lives.
