Reconsidering the American Drug War

1. Reconsidering the American Drug War By Samantha Mosier

2. Why is the Drug War Important? • Cost • Estimated at $600 Per Second • Social Consequences • Has Greatest Effect on Lower SES and Minority Communities. • Strain on Prisons and Judicial System • Prisons Face Overcrowding and the Large Number of Drug Offenders Backup the Courts. • Damaging International Relations

3. Thinking In Time (Neustadt and May) • Look Towards the Past to Envision Future • For Current Policy, Use of History Can Be Used as Propaganda • 3 Assumptions • Particulars Matter • Policy Decisions Come One at a Time • Policy Makers Always Act in Uncertainty

4. Science of ‘Muddling Through’ (Lindblom) • Rational-comprehensive: Relies on Theory. Starts From Scratch. Means-End Analysis. • Incrementalism: Relies on Improving Past Precedents. Means and End Intertwined. • Produces More Realistic/ Obtainable Options. • Criticized for Being Too Slow When Swift Action Needed.

5. The Spanish-American War until the Harrison Narcotics Act

6. Trends and Events • State and Local Laws Responsible for Narcotic Control • Narcotics Used for Medical Purposes • Acquisition of the Philippines • Gradual Prohibition Modeled After Japanese • 1909 International Opium Commission • 1910 Foster Antinarcotics Bill (Failed) • Ethnic Associations with Cocaine and Heroine • 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act

7. Historical Significance • Attitudes and Regulations Lay the Foundation for Future Policy • Narcotics Become an American Enemy • Transfer From State and Local Regulation to Federal Control • U.S. Makes International Push to Eradicate Drug Usage • Professional Standards and Regulations Emerge • Foreign Attempt at Prohibition Fails

8. The 18th Amendment to the Marijuana Tax Act

9. Trends and Events • 18th Amendment (1920) • The Volstead Act of 1919 • The Prohibition Unit • Violence and Organized Crime • Narcotic Education Week • Continuing International Crusade • Second Geneva Convention • Ask Other Nations to Eradicate Narcotic Cultivation for Sake of Addicts

10. Trends and Events Cont’d • Narcotics Limitations Convention • Drugs Divided Into Two Schedules • Black Thursday/Tuesday (Oct 24 & 29, 1929) • 21st Amendment (1933) • States Responsible of Own Alcohol Laws • Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 • New Ethnic and Behavioral Associations with Drug Use

11. Historical Significance • Domestic Failure of Prohibition • Organized Crime and Violence • Not All Intoxicating Substances Merit Same Cohesive Negative Attitudes • International Crusade Continues • Emphasis on Needing to Solve America Narcotic Dilemma • Creates Resentment From Other Nations • Adjustment to Indirect Prohibition of Certain Substances.

12. Nixon, Reagan, and Militarization of Drug Efforts

13. Trends and Events: Johnson and Nixon • Johnson’s Prettyman Commission • Operation Intercept (1969) • Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act (1970) • Nixon 1971- Drug Abuse is No. 1 American Public Enemy • Reorganization Plan No. 2 and the DEA • Nixon 1974- Turned the Corner on Hard Drugs

14. Trends and Events: Ford and Carter • Gap in Drug War Advocacy • The White Paper on Drug Abuse • Contradicts Previous Efforts of Drug Policy • “Drugs cannot be forced out of existence; they will be with us for as long as people find in them the relief or satisfaction they desire. We cannot talk in absolutes- that drug abuse will cease, that no more illegal drugs will cross our borders- because if we are honest with ourselves we know that is beyond our power.” – President Carter

15. Trends and Events: Reagan and Bush • Cocaine, Crack, AIDs, a Revived Parents Movement, and 49 States with Minimum Mandatory Sentencing Laws • Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force • The Medellín Cartel • National Assets Seizure and Forfeiture Fund (1985) • Money Laundering Control Act of 1986

16. Reagan and Bush Cont’d • 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act • Crime Bills Extending Federal Control • Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 • Crime Control Act of 1990 • Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 • “Just Say No” & Red Ribbon Week • 1988 Anti-Abuse Drug Act • ONDCP • January 1990- Bush Proposed 50% Increase in Military Spending and 1.2 Billion for Drug War Aid

17. Historical Significance • Same Fear of Addiction Mirrors Early Century/ Always New Drug • Strict Policy Adaptation Over Tolerance • Growing Link Between Terrorism/Organized Crime and Narcotics • Escalation of Cost • Continuance of International Crusade • Conflict with Other Nations

18. Economics and Alternative Policy Options

19. Jeffrey Miron • Supply and Demand of Drugs is Constant • Prohibition’s Affect on Demand • Decrease: Respect for the Law • Increase: Forbidden Fruit • Decrease: Punishment Measures • Prohibition’s Affect on Supply • Increase Cost of Manufacturing, Transportation, and Distribution • Other Side Affects • Increased Corruption, Violent Crime, Income-Generated Crime, Product Quality, Criminal Redistribution, and Higher Cost of Enforcement

20. Jeffrey Miron Cont’d • 4 Ways to View Drug Policy • Rational-Consumption • Externalities • Irrational Consumption • Immoral Consumption • Prohibition: Not the Right Policy Option

21. The Netherlands (Korf) • Dutch Policy Base on 3 Principles • Separation of Soft and Hard Drugs • Normalization of Drug Use • Harm Reduction Efforts • No Single Policy Appropriate For All • Dutch Belief Overly Strict Regulation Causes Negative Consequences • Severely Punishes Violators • Criticism from Neighboring Countries

22. Robert Charles • Terrorism and Narcotics • U.S. Cannot Legalize Narcotics • Contradiction of Anti-Terrorism Efforts • “As a nation, we must be willing to project ourselves around the globe diplomatically and militarily, but also to pry ourselves from the sources of terrorist funding we have grown accustomed to overlooking.”

23. Conclusion • U.S. Cannot Keep to Current Drug Policy • Suggestions • Adapt Medical Marijuana Approach • Decriminalize Drug Users • Reallocate Funding Towards Terrorism • Continue Iron Fist to Stop Illegal Drug Trafficking • Rely More on Negotiation/ Soft Power than Hard Power When Dealing with Other Nations

24. Charles, Robert B. 2004. Securing the Nation: Issues in American National Security Since 9/11-Narcotics and Terrorism. Chelsea House: Philadelphia, PA. Domestic Council Drug Abuse Task Force. 1975.White Paper on Drug Abuse. “Drug War Facts: Crime”. 2007. Common Sense for Drug Policy. \ Korf, Dirk and Helen Riper, Bruce Burllington. 1999. “Windmills in Their Minds? Drug Policy and Drug Research in the Netherlands”. Journal of Drug Issues. 29(3):451-471. Lindblom, Charles. 1959. “The Science of ‘Muddling Through’ “. In Classic Readings in American Politics, ed. Pietro S. Nivola and David H. Rosenbloom. Worth Publishers: New York, New York. Miron, Jeffrey. 2001. “The Economics of Drug Prohibition and Drug Legalization”. Musto, David, and Pamela Korsmeyer. 2002. The Quest for Drug Control: Politics and Federal Policy in a Period of Increasing Substance Abuse, 1963-1981. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Musto, David. 1999. The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. Neustadt, Richard and Ernest May. 1986. Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers. New York, New York: The Free Press. References