ABSTRACT
The official War on Drugs began in the early 1970s. But the 1950s and especially the 1960s were formative years for considering drug use. The 1950s was characterized by heroin (and marijuana) use and cultural icons of the beat generation. The 1960s saw considerable disorder, the Vietnam War and protests, cultural changes, the civil rights movement, and urban riots. Richard Nixon campaigned on a law-and-order platform and formally initiated the War on Drugs in 1971. Nixon’s perspective was at least partially based on his dislike of anti-war protesters and minorities. While the Nixon administration probably put more emphasis on treatment than supply or demand restrictions, the Reagan administration ramped up the effort as the crack cocaine epidemic exploded in urban areas. Much legislation, such as the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse, laid the foundation for the war on drugs, as did the creation of the DEA in 1973. The George W. Bush administration continued the effort, while the Carter administration advocated somewhat more for a treatment focus. The Clinton administration, while also giving some weight to treatment, focused much of its attention on fighting crime and drugs, especially with the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. The Office of National Drug Control Policy was created in 1988, designed to coordinate the anti-illegal drug effort and to plot out future policy. One outcome of the War on Drugs was an increase in incarceration, particularly of drug users and sellers. Minorities were disproportionally represented among those arrested, convicted, and imprisoned. The drug war was disruptive to families and communities. The 1990s saw the beginning of the opioid crisis based on prescription opioids, such as OxyContin. But the abuse of the prescription drug and opioid-related deaths went unnoticed until the 2000s. The chapter concludes that the War on Drugs was an expensive policy failure. While illegal drug use cycled up and down, for example, the crack cocaine epidemic diminished by the early 1990s, illegal drug use remained a problem.
