The War on Drugs, Human Nature & Social Policy
One of the West's greatest failures
[TL;DR It is futile to criminalize drug use]
The Failure of the War on Drugs
Prohibition
In January 1920 US Congress passed the National Prohibition Act setting forward a short but significant period in US history. Bootlegging alcohol became so profitable it birthed deadly mobsters like the infamous Al Capone. By 1933, only 13 years later, it was repealed by President Franklin Roosevelt who had the wisdom to see that it would prove pointless.
Nixon Era
On October 27, 1970 US Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. This act categorized substances based on their “medicinal use” and “addiction potential”. President Nixon declared drug abuse was “public enemy number one”.
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
- John Ehrlichman (Counsel & assistant for Domestic Affairs under President Nixon)
In 1973 the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) was created.
Reagan Era
In 1984 Ronald Reagan signed the Comprehensive Criminal Control Act.
"he led Congress in criminalizing drug users, especially African American drug users, by concentrating and stiffening penalties for the possession of the crystalline rock form of cocaine, known as ‘crack’, rather than the crystallized methamphetamine that White House officials recognized was as much of a problem among low-income white Americans" - Elizabeth Hinton (US Historian)
Bush Sr Era
In 1982 Vice President George H. W. Bush began pushing the involvement of the CIA & US military in drug interdiction. In 1988 the National Narcotics Leadership Act established the ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy). This office would go on to become the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.
The Inherent Problem
Substance abuse is a symptom not a crime and is even natural to an extent. The next chapter will discuss how ingrained psychoactive substances are in anthropological history. Nonetheless, real addiction can occur and should be treated as any other serious disease. The criminals are not the drug users and self supplying smaller distributors. The real criminals are the major drug distributors almost always associated with cartels and larger mafias. When there are such huge profit potentials it attracts the greediest of humans.
When societies treat drug abuse and addiction as a serious disease we see completely different outcomes. The classic argument of carrot and stick is the fundamental question in this case. Some countries like Portugal have decriminalized all drug use and have many government programs to help addicts access the resources they need. Resources like safe injection sites, drug testing, and rehabilitation which all treat the users as patients not criminals.
The History of Drugs
“…there was a sudden doubling of the human brain 200,000 years ago. From an evolutionary point of view, that’s an extraordinary expansion. And there is no explanation for this sudden increase inthe human brian.” - Paul Stamets (psilocybin mycologist)
“Hallucinogenic drugs and plants in psychotherapy and shamanism”
- R Metzner
Regulatory Philosophy
As we can see from anthropological history the desire for drugs is ever-present. We can attribute this to different reasons such as an innate biological desire for altered perception and for humans maybe escapism.
I think it would be common sense to not fight reality. However, many politicians even to this day seem to disagree.
In my opinion the truth always prevails, fight reality and you will lose; it is a question of when, not if. Black markets exist because an unmet demand is being serviced. No matter the negative externality of a vice, in my opinion it is better to focus on rehabilitative efforts. Progressive allocation of resources in social care rather than policing could be the answer. This approach takes a collaborative humanistic mindset versus a divisive and polarizing mindset of criminalization. I always like to tackle the roots of problems. On the extreme end of things, regulated alternatives to commonly abused substances make help take the power away from organized crime such as cartels. One modern example could be methadone, a pharmaceutical drug used to help opioid addicts wean off of addictions.
great work