Nixon
On June 17, 1971, president Richard Nixon gave a speech that is considered the official declaration of the War on Drugs, declaring drug abuse “Public Enemy Number One”. The term "War on Drugs" refers to the strong use of military and police interventions to enforce strict prohibitions against the sale and consumption of drugs (through legislation and policy), and the eventual aim is stated to be the elimination of illegal drug trade.
Through this speech, according to journalist Radley Balko, Nixon constructed a national issue in order to receive credit from the general public for his actions against crime. Balko proposes that this speech was the culmination of a series of fear-mongering tactics including creating fake news stories concerning heroin use and holding staged strategy sessions concerning the issue. According to Balko, the Nixon administration reported that heroin addicts committed 365 million burglaries each year, though in reality the number of burglaries committed in 1971 was only 1.8 million, for instance.
From this new national emergency stemmed an increase in the role of police responsibility concerning drug usage. Agencies such as the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement, meant to address this issue, flourished in their aim to create a flurry of arrests for the media and to boost Nixon’s image. Nixon’s War on Drugs is known to have been “Hard on Crime”, that is to say that sanctions for drug-related offenses were very high and strict. Balko remarks that the policing strategies of that time were to project aggression and instill fear among street-level pushers. In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Agency became operational, in parallel to the creation of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.
The Rockefeller Drugs Laws were statutes created in 1973 that punished involvement with narcotics more strictly than ever before. They represented the first shift of national address of drug usage from treatment in clinics or the public health system to mass criminalization. For instance, the laws punished the possession of 4 ounces or sale of 2 ounces of narcotics to a degree similar as the punishment for a second-degree murder. Mandatory prison sentences were established for any drug possession and judges lacked discretion in the sentence post-verdict. These laws have dramatically impacted the role of policing in the State’s management of drug policy in the context of War on Drugs. In the People V. Broadie case, it is stated that "It was thought that rehabilitative efforts had failed; that the epidemic of drug abuse could be quelled only by the threat of inflexible, and therefore certain, exceptionally severe punishment.” These laws were accompanied by sharp increases in the prison population as well as the proportion of people incarcerated for drug-related offenses. A majority of people targeted were African-American, leading to a perpetuation of racial inequalities still very visible in the prison system today.
Through this speech, according to journalist Radley Balko, Nixon constructed a national issue in order to receive credit from the general public for his actions against crime. Balko proposes that this speech was the culmination of a series of fear-mongering tactics including creating fake news stories concerning heroin use and holding staged strategy sessions concerning the issue. According to Balko, the Nixon administration reported that heroin addicts committed 365 million burglaries each year, though in reality the number of burglaries committed in 1971 was only 1.8 million, for instance.
From this new national emergency stemmed an increase in the role of police responsibility concerning drug usage. Agencies such as the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement, meant to address this issue, flourished in their aim to create a flurry of arrests for the media and to boost Nixon’s image. Nixon’s War on Drugs is known to have been “Hard on Crime”, that is to say that sanctions for drug-related offenses were very high and strict. Balko remarks that the policing strategies of that time were to project aggression and instill fear among street-level pushers. In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Agency became operational, in parallel to the creation of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.
The Rockefeller Drugs Laws were statutes created in 1973 that punished involvement with narcotics more strictly than ever before. They represented the first shift of national address of drug usage from treatment in clinics or the public health system to mass criminalization. For instance, the laws punished the possession of 4 ounces or sale of 2 ounces of narcotics to a degree similar as the punishment for a second-degree murder. Mandatory prison sentences were established for any drug possession and judges lacked discretion in the sentence post-verdict. These laws have dramatically impacted the role of policing in the State’s management of drug policy in the context of War on Drugs. In the People V. Broadie case, it is stated that "It was thought that rehabilitative efforts had failed; that the epidemic of drug abuse could be quelled only by the threat of inflexible, and therefore certain, exceptionally severe punishment.” These laws were accompanied by sharp increases in the prison population as well as the proportion of people incarcerated for drug-related offenses. A majority of people targeted were African-American, leading to a perpetuation of racial inequalities still very visible in the prison system today.