ABSTRACT
In 1972 President Richard Nixon, in a major national pronouncement, declared a war on drugs. This was not a declaration of war in the sense that the United States would engage its military in pitched battles against another country, but rather it was a comprehensive governmental attack on both the suppliers of a range of narcotics, largely from Latin America and Asia, and their distributors, largely minorities from the inner cities. Although Nixon’s war on drugs initially focused on marijuana, cocaine and heroin, his bold declaration of combat against narcotics was part of a long line of government policies dating back to the days of alcohol prohibition from 1919 to 1933.1
Since the declaration of a war on drugs, the United States has developed a bureaucratic-enforcement system designed to stop the supply and distribution of narcotics and allocated billions of dollars to end the illegal drug trade. President Nixon established the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 1973 to enforce drug laws and work with foreign governments to stem the tide of illegal narcotics entering the United States.2 In 1988 President Reagan established the Office of National Control Policy as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act with a so-called Drug Czar as the head of the White House unit.3 Following suit, states and localities, especially major urban centers, developed major antidrug programs and created specialized police units for the express purpose of waging the war on drugs on the streets, in schools and in neighborhoods.
