1970's Drug Abuse

Therefore, the start of this increase in drug abuse and widespread illness is due to the condemning ignorance in which the United States is responsible for. If there would have been doctors involved that would have alerted the people of the great dangers of drug abuse and cocaine and crack cocaine addiction as doctors Smith and Wesson tried to warn the country. The 1960s drug use were characterized as “youthful rebellion.”It gained the attention of the President Nixon and therefore he established the D.E.A. through executive order and declared the war on drugs shortly thereafter. During the 1970s the D.E.A. focused most of its efforts on other drugs due to an assessment on the extent of drug abuse in the United States and it read, “all drugs
are not equally dangerous. Enforcement efforts should therefore concentrate on drugs which have a high addiction potential...” This report deemed marijuana a minor problem and declared that cocaine was not a problem. “Cocaine,” the report stated, “is not physically addictive...and usually does not result in serious social consequences, such as crime, hospital emergency room admissions, or death.” The report recommended that “priority in both supply and demand reduction should be directed toward those drugs which inherently pose a greater risk— heroin, amphetamines...and mixed barbiturates.”

Because of this report the D.E.A.
and U.S. Customs Service took their attention from cocaine and marijuana focused on heroin trafficking, cocaine was largely ignored during the 1970s allowing it and marijuana cultivation to proliferate quietly in Latin America while the rest of the United States was unaware the doom they would have to face. During the start of the 1970s The D.E.A. had cracked down of many cases of heroin throughout the world, since it is considered the most trafficked narcotic in the world. Mexico was one of the major sources of both heroin and marijuana to the United States. Through 1972 to 1976 a shift in the market structures of drug smuggling had mad Mexico dominator of the heroin trade and a steady supplier of marijuana to the United States. Marijuana was also being supplied by the infamous country, Colombia. Back home, in the United States many drug criminals were being put to trail, as was Leroy “Nicky” Barnes, an addict who became a multi-millionaire drug lord. Not many policies in the United States targeted much of the problem that was starting to grow out of hand, which was the problem with drug abuse. It was until the 1980s, after President Nixon and President Jimmy Carter had been out of office, and President Ronald Reagan was appointed as new commander in chief of this drug war. President Reagan began mass incarcerations illicit drug users. The number of people in jail for non-violent drug crimes had escalated by 800 percent. By this time the
media was showing the effects of crack cocaine. Around this same time Ronald Reagan’s wife teamed up with him on the effort to hinder drug abuse by adopting the famous quote, “Just say no.” There were efforts to make educational programs like “D.A.R.E.” that wished to inform the youth and parents about the harmful effects of drugs. Ironically, D.A.R.E. was founded by a police officer who openly stated, “casual drug users should be taken out and shot.” The next president, Bill Clinton was expected to be more of a reformer when it came to drug policies. During his campaign, he stated that he believed more in therapy and rehabilitation rather than imprisonment. However, he continued to escalate the war in Latin America against drugs. While the United States tried to deal with policies at home that would end drug smuggling, they were trying to also focus attention on ending the production of drugs in foreign countries, especially in Latin America.
One of the attempts of the United States to stop influx of smuggled marijuana from Mexico was under “Operation Intercept” in 1969. The operation was made because of belief that Marijuana was being streamlined into the United States from Mexico and it was to blame. This policy of supply drug control is one that the United States adopted for many countries. The United States adopted a policy of containment rather than treatment. Another strategy used by the United States was the aerial spraying of drug crops in Mexico. Both the success in Operation Intercept and in aerial eradication were short lived as more crops and drugs would be cultivated again and replaced. The main reason for these policies that were more offensive toward other countries, rather than reflective, was because politicians during this time believed getting rid of the drugs at the cultivations source would be the least costly option rather than brainstorming on plans to improve the citizens back home who were losing themselves more to poverty and misery due to the consumption of drugs. Also most of the aid that was budgeted for the United States to use on the attempt to diminish drug trafficking abroad was not used to fund international organizations against drugs. Only 3 percent of this budget
was used on organizations, the rest was of this budgeted money was used to directly taunt and pressure Latin American countries rather than specialized groups against drugs. Another policy that the United States imposed on Latin American countries like Mexico was the use of officials from the United States to combat the problem of drugs in a foreign country such as Mexico. The United States also tried offering aid through “substitute crops” which would be given in place of the illicit cultivation of crops. This would also include some monetary aid, however this was also very unsuccessful because the substitution crops that were proposed would not help the poor countrymen who would have no choice but to grow the more lucrative illicit crop. The money in aid would also not help the drug effort because the funds would go toward paying off some of Latin American country’s debt rather than help at all with drugs.

What is implied is that instead of working to focus on the consumption or demand side of the problem the United States rather than looking within itself for answers, looked to blame the Latin America for their problems in their own country.