Americas War on Drugs Essays -- History of the Drug War

In 1968, President Richard Nixon initiated the War on Drugs when American soldiers were coming home from the Vietnam War addicted to heroin. More than a decennary later, President Ronald Reagan launches the South Florida Drug Task force, headed by then Vice-President George Bush, in response to the city of Miamis demand for help. In 1981, Miami was the financial and effect central for cocaine and marijuana, and the residents were fed up. Thanks to the task force, medicate arrests went up by 27%, and drug seizures went up by 50%. With that, the motivation for prosecutors and judges also rose. Despite these increased arrests and seizures, marijuana and cocaine motionlessness poured into south Florida. At this stage, the root of the problem, the Colombian Cartels, was not attacked.The DEA soon established that they needed to crack down on the cartels. In 1982 the DEA went to Colombia to eradicate handle of marijuana and coca plants. These fields were located and burned. The hard part now, was decision the labs used to turn the coca leaves into cocaine. These labs were in very remote locations, to neutralise surveillance. The DEA suspected that the cocaine labs were very large, but the Colombians kept eluding them. eventually the DEA was able to track down the chemicals used in the processing of cocaine to one of the labs, and the DEA scored their first major bust. On March 10, 1984 twelve dozens of cocaine were seized from a very remote lab. The DEA thinks they made an impact, but astonishingly the cocaine availability on American streets remained the same. The DEA is shocked, and realizes just how big the drug problem in the United States was. Because the Cartel leaders had money, they also began to win power. The dealers run for political office and win.... ...tice Policy Institute, 1997). Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., The Past and Future of U.S. prison house Policy Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment, American Psychologist, Vol. 53, none 7 (July 1998), p. 720 Abraham, Manja D., University of Amsterdam, Centre for Drug Research, Places of Drug Purchase in The Netherlands (Amsterdam University of Amsterdam, phratry 1999), and pp. 1-5. www.NORML.orgOther sources consultedwww.drcnet.orgwww.pbs.orgwww.erowid.orgwww.masscann.orgThe Emperor Wears No Clothes The Authoritative Historical accede of the Cannabis Plant, Hemp Prohibition, and How Marijuana Can Still Save the gentlemans gentleman By Jack Herer Pages 182 (New Edition 330)Pub Date 1990 (New Edition 1996)newspaper publisher Hemp Publishing (New Edition Quick American Archives)ISBN 0-88706-541-4