How the War on Drugs Transformed America
The presidencies of Nixon, Reagan and Clinton sowed the seeds for the victimization of black Americans
By David Malinovsky
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
TO BEGIN A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE WAR ON DRUGS, we must first analyze the history. In order to understand how African-Americans got where they are we must take a look at the past.
Many people attribute the War on Drugs to beginning in 1971 as Nixon uttered, “America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.” However this could not be further from the truth; the U.S public health service listed the leading cause of death in 1970 as cardiovascular disease, something that still leads the cause of death in America today.
The truth is, the upcoming year 1972 was an election year for Richard Nixon. Nixon ran his campaign based on the principle of law and order and keeping criminals off the streets. On May 26th, 1971, Nixon met with Bob Haldemann, his Chief of Staff, in the Oval Office, making the following remarks.
RN: “Now, this is one thing I want. I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana. Can I get that out of this sonofabitching, uh, Domestic Council?”
HRH: “Sure.”
RN: “I mean one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them. I see another thing in the news summary this morning about it. You know it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them?…By God we are going to hit the marijuana thing, and I want to hit it
right square in the puss…”
Though Nixon’s comments were anti-Semitic and seemed extreme, his drug policy was comparatively forward-thinking. Over 60% of Nixon’s drug policy budget focused on rehabilitation and prevention instead of jailing and excessive imprisonment. While the 1970 Controlled Substance act was being enforced, Nixon put together a committee of loyalists whom he gave a year (1971–1972) to come up with a report on Marijuana and drug abuse. It was called the “National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse,” otherwise known as “The Shafer Commission.” Shafer, along with two Democrats, three Republicans, and a handful of doctors finished a report entitled “Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding,” the first blow to Nixon’s drug war. Part of the Commission’s statement is below:
“Looking only at the effects on the individual, there, is little proven danger of physical or psychological harm from the experimental or intermittent use of the natural preparations of cannabis, including the resinous mixtures commonly used in this country. The risk of harm lies instead in the heavy, long-term use of the drug, particularly of the most potent preparations.”
However, Nixon refused his own committee’s findings, and pressed on scheduling Marijuana as a schedule 1 substance with punishments greater than those for Cocaine and Oxycodon. Nixon’s policies were met with incredible support from the public, so much so that it was like a competition had opened about who could be more draconic and cruel to drug users and dealers. In New York for example, the Rockefeller laws (still in effect today, though revised) state that someone possessing two ounces of heroin or morphine could be met with a minimum of 15 years in prison — excessive punishment which doesn’t correct the root cause of drug problems.
The problem for the African American intensified with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the hero of the conservative movement, the god of Republican America. The radical capitalist purported that Americans needed to be tougher on drugs and pursue policy that locked up the degenerate junkies and dealers.
Michelle Alexander writes, “Between 1980 and 1984, the FBI antidrug funding increased from 8 million to 95 million. Department of Defense antidrug allocations increased from 33 million in 1981 to 1,042 million in 1991…by contrast, for agencies responsible for drug treatment, prevention, and education was drastically reduced.”
Reagan thought that privately-run prisons would relieve the burden of paying for the War on Drugs. This paved the way for companies such as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Suddenly, prisons emerged near small towns and small towns became company towns centered around profit from imprisonment. Now with revenues over 1.7 billion dollars and over 60 facilities, CCA offers rehabilitation and prevention programs in only 23 of its prisons. Companies emerged for body scanners, prison transport, specialty vehicles, and tactical riot gear.
However, Reagan then decided to violate the fourth amendment, which guarantees “The right of the people to be secure…against unreasonable searches and seizures,” and that “no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Reagan used RICO Civil asset seizure to incentivize the police to join his crusade.
Civil asset seizure occurs when the police are allowed to confiscate the property of someone who has broken the law, no matter how large the offense. This led to the growth of police department budgets through inappropriate incentives. Reagan then passed the Military Cooperation with Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies Act, which allowed civilian police departments access to planes, tanks, and high-level equipment often unnecessary and extreme for their duties.
Perhaps the greatest overstep in federal power during the War on Drugs was a set of mandatory minimum sentencing laws. The federal government took away from judges one of their main powers on the bench, discretion, forcing minimum sentences to be set for drug crimes. It cannot be overstated how the laws passed by both Republicans and Democrats fed misguided people into a machine that has no regards for human rights or sympathy.
But why were Black people imprisoned at a far higher rate? Ronald Reagan masterfully crafted a policy that many describe as the new Jim Crow. People convicted of a drug felony were denied access to public housing, with consequences extending to innocent family members. Even though White people used drugs at the same rate, African-Americans were more likely to be caught due to homelessness and high renter ship. In fact when dealing with Crack cocaine, African Americans comprised of 13% of users just like they are 13% of the US population. The rest of the crack using population was White or Latino with a negligible amount of Asians.
The presidencies of Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton sowed the seeds for the victimization of black people due to drugs. The movement of militarizing the police and setting mandatory minimums, from the 1970s to the 1990s, lay the foundation for our modern drug policy.
It was draconic, yet even worse, ineffective.
It remains that way today.
