From The War on Drugs to Medical Cannabis: Why U.S. Drug Policy Still Misses The Mark

Since Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs in 1970 — and Ronald Reagan escalated it in the 1980s — the U.S. has poured billions into fighting what those leaders labeled ‘national security threats.’ Today’s data shows that the war’s true casualties are the communities and individuals who needed treatment, not punishment.

Nixon Vs. The Counterculture of the 1960s

Vietnam War protests, the Black Power movement, and Women’s Rights all led to the development of what’s known as the counterculture — a social movement that went against the grain of conventional society and norms. The counterculture also included the youth drug culture, as marijuana, speed, and hallucinogens like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) all removed the collective veil of conventional norms for the first time.

For a while there, it looked like the counterculture could sustain and prevail. Thousands upon thousands of new young people expanded their minds against the many injustices contained within American life. Art, films, music, fashion, and more all reflected these deep new reflections, which no doubt sent a chill down the spine of typically straight-laced conservative folks. 

The War on Drugs Begins

One of those ‘normies’ was Richard Milhouse Nixon, the 37th U.S. President, whose regime lasted from 1969 to 1974, when he was forced to resign for his shameful role in the Watergate scandal. Nixon was a conservative politician with strong traditional values — and a calculating streak. 

Seeing the counterculture start to stem the tide of systemic racism, sexism, unnecessary war, and overall control of the hearts and minds of the youth deeply disturbed him, and so the War on Drugs began. 

Controlled Substances Act

One of the first measures the Nixon administration made was to institute the Controlled Substances Act. In 1970, Nixon’s administration listed cannabis as a Schedule I drug—on par with heroin—where it remains today. This designation claims cannabis has ‘no medical value,’ ignoring decades of research proving otherwise. 

The move was a purely political one: hippies, revolutionaries, and young moldable minds would be penalized harshly simply for consuming, growing, selling, and possessing a plant that has never caused any overdoses, ever. 

LSD, perhaps the biggest lightning rod responsible for changes in perspectives and norms in conventional society, was made federally illegal several years ago. These classifications continue to bar important research funding regarding how cannabis and certain hallucinogens can potentially provide therapeutic value to the human race as a whole, not just Americans. 

The Drug Enforcement Agency

A new era of enforcement and intimidation began during this time, continuing its reign of terror all the way up to the present day. Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 1973 to enforce against illegal drug trafficking and distribution. 

The DEA is in charge of scheduling drugs, like cannabis. Despite cannabis’s demonstrable efficacy in managing many ailments, the DEA still refuses to budge from its stance on cannabis as a Schedule I drug with no medicinal value. This classification is a huge crash and burn for its extremely wide spectrum of atrocities.

Prescription Drug Abuse

Due to cannabis’s Schedule I classification, it wasn’t previously allowed to be prescribed in place of more highly addictive and dangerous drugs such as OxyContin, benzodiazepines, adderall, and hydrocodone. Doctors over-prescribed these drugs from the late 1990s to the mid-2010s, leading an entire generation to opioid addiction solely rooted in greed by the pharmaceutical lobby. 

Barriers to Research and Cannabis’s True Potential 

Federal restrictions stifle research into the medicinal potential of cannabinoids. Federal prohibition means no grants or money allocated to furthering the research. This designation also affects the potential of psychedelic substances like psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT, and others that have demonstrated efficacy in treating a host of mental health disorders.

The Rise of the Black Market

Cannabis prohibition fuels the black market. People still want and need access to cannabis despite laws saying otherwise. This need for access creates cartels and large-scale drug operations that are sometimes run by criminal enterprises. 

READ MORE: Why Some Patients Still Turn To Illicit Cannabis Products

It also removes safe access to weed, leaving consumers vulnerable to prosecution for simply looking for relief. Testing of contaminants is also nonexistent. Legalization creates safer, healthier access to cannabis, without fear of incarceration or adverse health effects.

Inconsistency Across Different States

Federal inaction forces states to design their own medical and recreational cannabis programs. One state may allow full access to all types of cannabis products, while another state next to it can throw the book at anyone caught with cannabis or psychedelics within their specific borders. Some Americans are allowed access, while others are barred with serious consequences if caught. 

Reagan Takes the War On Drugs to The Next Level

After Nixon’s fall as a result of his Watergate involvement, the U.S. still did not see any significant shifts away from the heavy presence and inconsistency of the War on Drugs. 

President Jimmy Carter supported the decriminalization of cannabis and efforts to treat cannabis possession and consumption as a public health crisis issue instead of a criminal act. 

Despite Carter’s appeal to the better angels, conservative approaches to drug policy remained. And once Ronald Reagan assumed the reins of the highest office in the land in 1981, the War on Drugs shifted into a higher gear. 

The Second Phase of the War on Drugs Begins

Regan viewed drug use as a national security threat to ‘traditional’ American values: publicly saying as much, and politically acting as such. First Lady Nancy Reagan’s ‘Just Say NO’ anti-drug campaign was also rolled out nationally as the public-facing side of these ultimately flawed and failed drug policies.

The ‘War On Drugs’ campaign officially began in 1982. Policing and prisons received huge windfalls of federal tax dollars, while drug rehabilitation and treatment program dollars gradually dwindled and disappeared. The results created an onslaught of destructive ‘zero tolerance’ measures that American society still grapples with the fallout from. 

Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984

The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 updated the criminal code system in the U.S, essentially laying the groundwork for the implementation of a stricter framework regarding how law enforcement and the judicial system reckon with drug offenders. 

The act empowered prosecutors to pursue harsher sentences for everyone from major traffickers to non-violent, low-level offenders. Criminal records from these convictions barred plenty of people from accessing employment, housing, and the power to participate in their governments by voting. 

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Law enforcement could seize cars, cash, and property from anyone merely suspected of drug ties—without securing a conviction. Seized property and cash became part of federal law enforcement budgets, incentivizing more aggressive law enforcement efforts. These funds have bankrolled the War on Drugs’ antics throughout its entire tenure—some estimates of civil forfeiture annual numbers have reached over $500 million annually. 

Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986

The law stripped judges of discretion and imposed mandatory minimum sentences for all drug offenses. Mandatory minimum sentences were instead established for federally illegal drugs, including cannabis, LSD, and cocaine. 

Many of these sentencing guidelines have gone by the wayside since then, but those changes weren’t retroactive; there are still plenty of people in prison for non-violent drug offenses due to the unfair nature of this shift. The same destructive legislation also replaced many rehabilitative aims existing in the justice system with correctional measures. 

Private, for-profit prisons worked with federal enforcement officials, incentivizing incarceration as a model for shareholders to buy new summer homes. Politicians and shareholders for these private prisons are very often the same entities, emphasizing a separate profit-driven motive for the War on Drugs’ dominant brutality alongside its inherently systemic racism.

Incarceration Rates, Especially Among Minorities, Dramatically Increased

Crack cocaine had permeated Black communities in the 1980s, reportedly as a covert CIA operation intent on destruction. Powder cocaine had become a status symbol during the same time for wealthier white folks, often in white-collar social circles. So, as no surprise, this same act also increased the penalties for crack cocaine compared to powder cocaine at a rate of 100 to 1. Incarceration rates rose astronomically, and the number of black people doing time in federal prison rose an astonishing 400% once mandatory minimums were imposed. 

The War on Drugs Rages On Into the ’90s

The aggressive efforts of Reagan’s presidency didn’t let up in the 1990s either. Reagan’s successor, George Bush, continued the proliferation of law enforcement efforts and penalties, as did Bill Clinton, the 42nd President. Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill provided the allocation of 100,000 new police officers on the streets, and expanded the death penalty for some drug crimes.

3 Strikes & You’re Out

As a major part of the Crime Bill, any serious drug offense combined with two violent felonies automatically resulted in a life sentence. This policy became officially known as “3 Strikes and You’re Out”. 

Prison populations already at their brink increased in no time. Mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offenses, along with the crack vs. powder sentencing travesty, continued to plague minority and low-income communities en masse. Private prisons continued to expand, while shareholders continued to reap the profits. 

Students in the 90s were also exposed to DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) by educators and widespread television fear mongering with ads like “This Is Your Brain On Drugs,” despite evidence demonstrating these aims had little effect. Maybe they just missed Dear Mrs. Reagan telling them to “Just Say NO.” 

Public Opinion & Policy Finally Begin to Shift

An amazing thing happened towards the end of the 1990s and into the new millennium: society and lawmakers began to shift their perspectives. Civil rights groups and scholars amplified cold-blooded, undeniable statistics about the War on Drugs’ damage, positively shifting public opinion.

Drug abuse treatment and recovery became a more compassionate route instead of tossing everyone in jail and throwing away the key. Drug courts and rehabilitation programs took the place of many jail sentences for simple possession. 

Medical and Recreational Cannabis Legalization

The adoption of the nation’s first medical marijuana program in 1996 was the first real turning point in cannabis policy. As more states began to enact their medical marijuana programs, not only were fewer people being incarcerated for it, but safe access and a legitimizing of the potential medical efficacy of cannabis compared to addictive substances was undeniable.

It would take 18 more years, but recreational weed for Adults 21 and older became the other, more positive end of the spectrum to the War on Drugs. States that legalized weed did not devolve into crime-infested hell holes, contrary to some political rhetoric. They instead provide safe access to cannabis to the masses who find it a better alternative to alcohol and drugs. 

Legal Cannabis Provides Valuable Tax Dollars, Sky Still Remains Intact

A majority of Americans voiced support for cannabis, as well as acknowledged the failures of the War on Drugs for the first time, around the mid-2010s. The popularity of cannabis is undeniable and unstoppable at this point. 

Legal states continue to collect record-breaking cannabis tax revenue. A valuable lesson to be learned from that is that flowing with a force rather than using all your resources to fight it often produces more fruitful results—take note, the War on Drugs. 

Many of the same drug war survivors, like the famous cannabis breeder Chemdog, are now part of a lucrative and legal landscape of cannabis. While the states continue to show the country that legalizing weed won’t make the sky fall, federal policy still lags—cannabis remains a Schedule I drug.

Social Justice Reform to Counter Failed Policies

Many states that have legalized cannabis have also implemented social justice reforms. Many states now ban police from using the smell of cannabis as probable cause for a search. The practice of using police stops as a means to bust you for your stash is over in many places now. 

Easier expungement so that folks can still get jobs despite prior convictions for non-violent possession charges also came to fruition due to legalization. 

Reinvestment taxes and social equity programs also light the way for minorities to be directly involved in legal cannabis in their own communities. Harsh sentences no longer dominate the code systems of many states, and sentence reductions are now normal occurrences for prisoners still doing time as victims of the War on Drugs. 

Psychedelics in the Modern Age

Drugs like psilocybin, DMT, ayahuasca, ketamine, and ibogaine have all evolved into what some states now allow as Natural Medicine. Oregon, Colorado, and New Mexico recently started the next wave of countering the ill effects of the War on Drugs. 

Their potential ability to manage addiction, depression, and other mental health issues has pushed psychedelics to the forefront of modern health research. Some form of decriminalization exists in different regions of the U.S. for some of these compounds—another major contrast with the ridiculous policies of just a few decades prior. 

The Ultimate Failures of the War on Drugs

The War on Drugs’ failures still echo across communities, but their grip is finally loosening. The slow decline of federal and state tax dollars to fight drug epidemics rather than treat them is also present. 

Tax dollars in a majority of states are now boosted by hundreds of millions more for use in funding schools, roads, and services like social equity sharing— demonstrating even more shortcomings caused by decades of failed drug policy in our country. 

The emergence of psychedelic drugs as a potential mental health aid is another sign that things are getting better; however, many challenges remain. It also illuminates hope that a higher collective consciousness will someday ensure the war machine remains permanently out of order.