History of drugs in the U.S.:
The difference between a drug being illegal and legal has to do with the person who is associated with these drugs. Anti- Opium was the first drug policy in the 1870s for Chinese immigrants who were smuggling these substances into the U.S. Anti-Cocaine’s first laws started in the early 1900s and was directed to black men. Marijuana policies came along a little later in the 1910s and 1920s, was founded in the Midwest and the Southwest, and was directed toward Mexican Americans. Now of days both Latino and black communities are found with most of the drug problems today. The war on drugs started to really become a problem in the 1960s during President Nixon’s presidency and the Generation Gap. In the 60s drugs were labeled as the rebellion of the youthful. Later on in the 1970s, Nixon wanted to finally declare a war on against drugs. His main goal that he thought would really put a halt to the issue was raising more federal drug control agencies with no warrants. In 1973 and 1977, Marijuana possession finally became decriminalized in eleven states. When Jimmy Carter got inaugurated his platform included the decriminalization of marijuana. After a few years of decriminalizing marijuana in certain states, parents became very concerned with the high rate of teen use of the substance. After the 1970s came the 1980s “Drug Hysteria and Skyrocketing Incarceration Rates”. Ronald Reagan our president at the time marked the start of a skyrocketing rate for incarceration rates. This caused our expansion of the war on drugs to grow uncontrollably fast. Incarceration rates went from 50,000 in 1997 to 400,000 in 1980. Nancy Regan (Ronald Regan’s wife) began the highly-publicized anti-drug campaign “Just Say No”. This was the movement that made the U.S. have a zero tolerance policy. The policy was implemented in the mid-1980s. I’m sure most of you reading this article has heard about the DARE program. This program was founded in Los Angeles by Chief Daryl Gates, he believed “casual drug users should be taken out and shot”. In 1992 during President Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign focused on a treatment instead on incarceration, after a few months he soon reverted to the drug war strategies to continue and escalate the drug war. He stated in a rolling stones magazine "we really need a re-examination of our entire policy on imprisonment" of people who use drugs, and said that marijuana use "should be decriminalized”. George Bush soon after arrived to office and really pushed to have student drug testing. During the era of Bush there was a rapid escalation of militarization of domestic drug law enforcements. Currently in 2014 we have politicians coming out saying they as a kid used marijuana or cocaine when they were younger. When both Michael Bloomberg and Barack Obama were interviewed they stated "You bet I did – and I enjoyed It." and “When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently – that was the point."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_drug_policy_of_the_United_States
http://facultypages.morris.umn.edu/~ratliffj/psy1081/drug_laws.htm
http://www.drugabuse.net/drug-policy/
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/drugpolicy/tp/War-on-Drugs-History-Timeline.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/history.htm
The difference between a drug being illegal and legal has to do with the person who is associated with these drugs. Anti- Opium was the first drug policy in the 1870s for Chinese immigrants who were smuggling these substances into the U.S. Anti-Cocaine’s first laws started in the early 1900s and was directed to black men. Marijuana policies came along a little later in the 1910s and 1920s, was founded in the Midwest and the Southwest, and was directed toward Mexican Americans. Now of days both Latino and black communities are found with most of the drug problems today. The war on drugs started to really become a problem in the 1960s during President Nixon’s presidency and the Generation Gap. In the 60s drugs were labeled as the rebellion of the youthful. Later on in the 1970s, Nixon wanted to finally declare a war on against drugs. His main goal that he thought would really put a halt to the issue was raising more federal drug control agencies with no warrants. In 1973 and 1977, Marijuana possession finally became decriminalized in eleven states. When Jimmy Carter got inaugurated his platform included the decriminalization of marijuana. After a few years of decriminalizing marijuana in certain states, parents became very concerned with the high rate of teen use of the substance. After the 1970s came the 1980s “Drug Hysteria and Skyrocketing Incarceration Rates”. Ronald Reagan our president at the time marked the start of a skyrocketing rate for incarceration rates. This caused our expansion of the war on drugs to grow uncontrollably fast. Incarceration rates went from 50,000 in 1997 to 400,000 in 1980. Nancy Regan (Ronald Regan’s wife) began the highly-publicized anti-drug campaign “Just Say No”. This was the movement that made the U.S. have a zero tolerance policy. The policy was implemented in the mid-1980s. I’m sure most of you reading this article has heard about the DARE program. This program was founded in Los Angeles by Chief Daryl Gates, he believed “casual drug users should be taken out and shot”. In 1992 during President Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign focused on a treatment instead on incarceration, after a few months he soon reverted to the drug war strategies to continue and escalate the drug war. He stated in a rolling stones magazine "we really need a re-examination of our entire policy on imprisonment" of people who use drugs, and said that marijuana use "should be decriminalized”. George Bush soon after arrived to office and really pushed to have student drug testing. During the era of Bush there was a rapid escalation of militarization of domestic drug law enforcements. Currently in 2014 we have politicians coming out saying they as a kid used marijuana or cocaine when they were younger. When both Michael Bloomberg and Barack Obama were interviewed they stated "You bet I did – and I enjoyed It." and “When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently – that was the point."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_drug_policy_of_the_United_States
http://facultypages.morris.umn.edu/~ratliffj/psy1081/drug_laws.htm
http://www.drugabuse.net/drug-policy/
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/drugpolicy/tp/War-on-Drugs-History-Timeline.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/history.htm