Transcript War on Drugs

Heroin Introduced 1898
Considered
nonaddictive
Free samples by mail
as “step down” cure for
morphine addiction
Non-medical use
banned 1924
Medical use banned
1970
Sigmund Freud
Discovers
Miracle Cure for
Opioid
Addiction
An Effective Ophthalmologic
Anesthetic and
Vasoconstrictor
Cocaine
Freud Praises
Cocaine
"...you are simply normal, and it is
soon hard to believe you are under
the influence of any drug....
Absolutely no craving for the
further use of cocaine appears
after the first, or even after
repeated taking of the drug..."
Freud later
ruefully admitted
using cocaine to
cure morphine
addiction was
"like trying to
cast out the Devil
with Beelzebub."
Drug War History:
A Snapshot
CJ/PS 4535
The War on Drugs
a Dr. Matt presentation
Significant Dates:
1930: Bureau of Narcotics formed (Treasury Dept.)
Harry Anslinger, director
 Close links to William Randolph Hearst (newspaper
giant / timber guy), E.I. DuPont (paper giant), and
Andrew Mellon (Sec. of Treasury and owner of Mellon
Bank)
 Launched campaign against the “killer weed” and
“assassin of youth” marijuana
"Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, jazz
musicians, and entertainers. Their satanic music is
driven by marijuana, and marijuana smoking by white
women makes them want to seek sexual relations with
Negroes, entertainers, and others. It is a drug that
causes insanity, criminality, and death -- the most
violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

Marijuana!!!
Marijuana!!!
Marijuana!!!
Significant Dates:
1937: Marijuana Tax Act
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Required tax stamp to sell ($1)
Required laborious procedures to prescribe
Very tough sentences (“life” for selling to minor)
Bureau also wrote sample bill banning pot (adopted
by 40 states)
Partly inspired by racist sentiment
Consider:
Significant Dates:
1970: Narcotics Treatment Administration
formed (President Nixon)

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In part due to military addiction to heroin from
Vietnam
Treatment received majority of funds
1970: Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention
and Control Act
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“Federalization” or “nationalization” of drug control
Created 5 drug schedules through Controlled
Substances Act
Significant Dates:
1971: Nixon declares war on drugs

Most money for treatment
1971: Operation Golden Flow

Required returning soldiers to take urine test
Significant Dates:
1972: Office of Drug Abuse & Law Enforcement
(ODALE) formed (President Nixon)
Coordinated task forces to reduce drugs and crime
 Shifted focus to law enforcement approach
1973: Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

Primary federal agency involved in drug seizures and
busts
1978: Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention
and Control Act amended

Allowed for asset forfeiture
Significant Dates:
1981: US-Colombia treaty

Allowed extradition of traffickers to US
1983: DARE founded in LA, California

Totally ineffective
1984: Comprehensive Crime Control Act

Longer sentences and increased bail amounts for
drug offenders
1985: “Just Say No” (Nancy Reagan)

Totally ineffective
Estimated 1.2 Million
Opioid Addicts in U.S.
Increasing since 1991
Lucas GM. Buprenorphine in primary HIV care clinics: a big pill to swallow. The Hopkins HIV Report. 2004;16:5-7.
Estimated 5.5 Million
People Used Cocaine
in the U.S. in 2005
Meth Treatment Admission Per 100,000
Meth Treatment Admission Per 100,000
Meth Treatment Admission Per 100,000
Impact of the War on
Drugs on Incarceration in
the United States
President Nixon Declares
The “War On Drugs”
Congress Dramatically
Increases Penalties For
Drug Offenses
A Nation of Prisoners
The United States incarcerates more than six times as
many people as does the entire European Union, which
has 100,000,000 more people.
Weekly Growth in Prison
Population
Costs of Drug Crime
Continued to Climb
The Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States 1992 – 2002, Office of Drug Control Policy
In Reality, Drugs Make
Us Do Horrible Things
“Meth Mouth”