ABSTRACT
Scholarship across several academic and research fields substantiates that the War on Drugs plays a significant role in maintaining racial inequality by disproportionately targeting, controlling, and punishing marginalized racial groups. Yet, among the broader public, the War on Drugs is a contested social issue or an issue of profound importance to our society under contestation, controversy, or debate. This chapter discusses three significant problems that contextualize the study of the War on Drugs debate. First, it explains issues and trends in mass and digital media. It then looks at the history and present-day examples of public debates about race, crime, and immigration. Finally, it demonstrates how the racialization and militarization of drug policy in the United States have taken shape. Together, these issues provide a critical context for the subsequent chapters and their in-depth analysis of trends and features of the War on Drugs debate.
