The War On Drugs

Paper Summary:

The paper states that the majority of legislators have declared themselves proponents of the war on drugs. The paper explains that the most practical political solution to reduce drug addiction is the Pure Food and Drug Act, which was legislated in 1906. The writer explains the three main sections of the act as follows: it was responsible for the introduction of the Food and Drug Administration in Washington - an organization that must approve all foods and drugs meant for human consumption, it stipulated that certain drugs could only be sold on prescription and it required warning labels on products that can be potentially habit-forming. The paper discusses the punishments for drug possession and how it has changed and become more severe over time. The writer explains that instead of substance abuse being treated as a public health crisis, it has been framed as a crime epidemic. In conclusion, the writer lists a number of influential Americans who support decriminalization of drugs in America.

From the Paper:

"Talk about practical politics! After 1916, if somebody was found in possession of an ounce of cocaine, they would have committed a criminal crime - but not possession of a controlled substance. They were tax evaders!
"Meanwhile the states were struggling with their own local substance abuse problems. Evidence of prejudice that motivated the marijuana laws in the Rocky mountain and southern western states can still be found in legislative records.
"For example, in Utah, Mormons who had always been opposed to intoxicants of any kind, enacted religious prohibition as a criminal law after witnessing Indians using marijuana. It was the first criminal law in this country's history against hemp.
"In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt was reelected in the largest landslide election in this country's history till then. He brought with him two Democrats for every Republican, all, or almost all of them pledged to the economic and social reform packages we today call the New Deal. Meanwhile the American Medical Association, from 1932 to1937, consistently opposed every piece of New Deal legislation. The Republicans who discovered that AMA members were proponents of this proposed prohibition, sided with the medical professionals."

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