Community-Coalition On Drug Awareness

Twenty-One (War On Drugs)

The War on Drugs was launched during Richard Nixon' first term.  "Public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse," the president said, at a 1971 press conference. "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive."

President Regan doubled down on Nixon's drug war, and First Lady Nancy Reagan coined the phrase, "Just Say No," which became ubiquitous in America society in the late 1980s.  The Reagans' legacy is not one of eradicaing America's drug problem, however, but of enacting harsher penalties for drug crimes, including mandatory minimum sentences.

Democratic president Bill Clinton doubled down in turn, signing a 1994 crime bill that featured a "three strikes" law.  These zero-tolerance policies helped crowd prisons around the country with nonviolent drug offenders, disproportionatley black and Latino.

American policies for countries producing our drugs have also been problematic.  The United States has pushed for eradication and targeted kingpins at huge cost, in terms of both dollars and lives lost. 

Indeed, cartel battles and security actions have resulted in 120,000 Mexican deaths in the last ten years. 

All of this costs US taxpayers about $58 billion a year, according to the Drug Policy Alliance.

In October 2017, President Trump officially labeled the opioid crisis a public-health emergency and a year later signed legislation pledging $6 billion to the problem.  The money gives first responders better access to Narcan and opioid users better access to treatment, as well as increasing funding for law enforcement and border control agents working to stop the influx of fentanyl into the country.  

...massive federal spending in the billions of dollars, and unparalled resources given to law enforcement, the War on Drugs with the goal of eliminating drugs from American Life has not worked and will not succeed.  Focused  on a top-down solution, it has failed to address the root causes of abuse, addiction, and overdose.