War On Drugs : Timeline : The War On Drugs

“Over 40 year ago president nixon, Declared Drug abuse public enemy number one, starting an unprecedented global Campaign, the war on drug.

Drugs first surfaced in the United States in the 1800s. After the Civil War opium become very popular and was used medicinally. Following opium was cocaine which was also used as a health remedy but near the end of the 19th century opium and cocaine abuse peaked and local governments began to prohibit opium dens and importation. In 1914 the first federal drug policy, the Harrison Narcotics act, is passed and drugs are no longer seen as harmless remedies. The act aggressively regulated the manufacturing of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. During the 50’s more federal drug policies were passed and drugs began to become more criminalized. The 60’s saw a rise in counter-culture and substances such as marijuana and LSD saw widespread use. The demand for drugs skyrocketed in the 1960s. In 1971 President Nixon declared drug abuse America 's number one enemy and proclaimed that we must wave a all out offensive. After President Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1971, the United States has spent more than a trillion dollars on this failing policy that not only has had no effect on the amount of drugs being used in the United States and has increased the number of people incarcerated on drug charges from just 50,000 to over half a million, but also has helped fuel drug cartels and foment violence and death through overdoses from uncontrolled drug potency and turf wars between street gangs.

To start, a little history behind the drug war. During Nixon’s campaign in 1968 and his presidency thereafter, there were two threats to Nixon at the time. One was the anti-war leftists and the other was black people. The reason is, during the war with Vietnam, the anti-war leftists, or also known as the hippies, would protest often in Washington.

In the 1970s, President Nixon declared a war on drugs. The War on Drugs is a government movement aiming toward a prohibition of illegal drugs. Nixon dramatically increased drug control agencies, and reinforced the mandatory sentence. He placed the crime in the most restrictive category of drugs. The original budget for waging this war was one trillion dollars. In October of 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared a war on drugs. It marked the beginning of a long period of incarceration. Reagan increased anti-drug spending and increased the number of federal drug enforcement. During his campaign, he integrated the dog whistle strategy to discriminate against the African Americans. Since there was a mass incarceration of African Americans

As the variables above are added up it, quickly becomes apparent that the “war on drugs,” during the mid 1980s-early 2000s had a negative impact on American life. With all the money spent and lives ruined, the United States came no closer to solving drug issues it had faced in the years prior. Citizens took the biggest brunt of this “war” with the fact that not only did they have to forcibly financially support the “war on drugs,” but in some cases, they had their civil liberties encroached upon or even completely violated. It could be argued that retrospectively looking at the “war on drugs” makes criticizing our country and the officials in charge easy, but when you actually look at the statistics and events surrounding this time period criticism

The War on Drugs began in increments, first with President Nixon and secondly with President Reagan (Hill, Oliver, Marion, 2012). While under the Nixon administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration was developed due to the thought of how drugs can affect an individual as well as a community. Drugs did not only affect the user and the community, but also the families as well as children. Out of all the presidents, it is documented that President Nixon was one who had discussions about drugs more than any other president (Hill, et al., 2012).

In the late 1960's and early 1970's, the federal government began to increasingly tighten drug laws. In 1972, President Richard Nixon formally declared a "War on Drugs", which continues

In the 1960’s, as drugs became signs of youthful rebellion, social upheaval and political dissent, the government halted scientific research in order to evaluate medical safety. Therefore, President Nixon declared a “war on drugs” in 1971. He increased the size of the federal drug control agencies and pushed through measures such as mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants After his declaration other Presidents of America continued this plan thinking it was the right way.

First, the strict policy on substance abuse dates back to the formal declaration of the war on drugs by the president of the united states Richard Nixon. In 1971 Nixon’s formal declaration of war on drugs deliberately linked urban crime control to the suburban marijuana subculture by portraying narcotics pushers and heroin addiction as universal threats (Lassiter, M. D). Nixon and his administrators were trying to cause a pandemic with the America people about substance

The War on Drugs is a term that is commonly applied to the campaign of prohibition of drugs. The goal of this campaign is to reduce the illegal drug trade across America. This term “ War on Drugs” was used during Nixon’s campaign in which he declared War on Drugs during a press conference in 1971. Following this declaration many organizations were created to stop the spread of drugs, like the DEA and Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement. Note that Nixon’s approach to this problem was to fund treatment rather than law enforcement. After Nixon’s retirement from office, most of the funding went from going into treatment to the law enforcement. Which militarized the police force giving the officer’s military weapons and gear. With this, the sentencing for possessing drugs was changed as well, resulting incarcerations rates to increase overtime. The increase of incarceration rates started to create many patterns that were soon noticeable. The funding’s that go into the law enforcement has shown to greatly have an affect on the incarceration rates.

While laws prohibiting the use of drugs, in one form or another, can be traced back to the 1870s, it was not until 1968, when Richard M. Nixon was elected President, that our current drug war was conceived. In 1970 Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act.(2) With an

Drug war, death, narcotics are three terms that can be linked to public policies in America with presidents ranging from Wilson to Nixon to present. The public policy has been adapted and focused many times since the first drug related policy came out on the regulation of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine in 1914 with the Harrison Narcotics Act. How has this the past public policy and the many other adapted policies effect the relations with America, Mexico and what can we learn from these past actions should be questions called and followed to day. Instead America is still in its “War on Drugs” and we have been in the “Modern Drug War” since the 70’s with no end in sight (The United States War on Drugs). Wilson not only was the president during the Harrison Act but also oversaw Prohibition which was the 18th amendment to the constitution spurred on by the temperance movement.

Americans have been using drugs like morphine, heroin, and cocaine and marijuana. When the 20th century began, the United States began to take notice to its first drug epidemic. The government gradually instituted effective restrictions, by passing laws that limit the distribution of opium and coca crops. During the 1960s, drugs like amphetamines, and psychedelics came on the scene, and a new generation embraced the use of these drugs. With the drug culture expanding, our government developed new laws and agencies to target the problem. In 1973, through executive order President Richard Nixon founded The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to enforce federal drug laws. In the 1980s, crack appeared causing the addiction rate to sky rocket

In the midst of the 1960s Lyndon B. Johnson took office as President of the United States and helped to create even more legislation in regards to The War on Drugs including the 1965 Drug Abuse Control Amendments which were enacted to deal with problems caused by abuse of depressants, stimulants and hallucinogens (Significant Dates in U.S. Food and Drug Law History. (2014, December 19). Fast forward a little further to 1969 and into the Nixon administration another major step in what will be known as The War on Drugs was introduced called Operation

In 1971 President Richard Nixon was the first President to declare war on drugs. In one of his speeches