The Modern War on

Drugs (After 50+ Years)

As we live near the quarter century mark of

“We cannot incarcerate ourselves out of addiction.
Addiction is a medical crisis that - when it comes to
nonviolent offenders – warrants medical
interventions, not incarceration. Decades later, data
unequivocally illustrates that this war has been a
massive failure. It has not only failed to reduce
violence crime, but arrest rates – throughout its tenure
– have continuously ascended even when crime rates
have descended.”
this new century, we realize that we are not
alone. There are tons of people in the world
who think like us in seeing that the War on
Drugs has been a failure. Today, people
from across the political spectrum want
solutions in the form of progressive
alternatives to drug addiction and other
situations dealing with drugs. In our time of
Tik Tok and the Meta Universe, we know
tons of information about how the War on
Drugs, after more than 50 years, we realize
the truth. Saving lives, educating people,
showing compassion to those with the
illness of drug addiction, and doing the right
course of action will result in a better world.
That is what we desire fully.

-Dominique DuBois Gilliard

The War on Drugs have existed more than 50 years. Billie Holiday was a victim of the evil War
on Drugs back in the 1950's. This is about the modern-day War on Drugs too that was born on
June 18, 1971, by President Nixon. From the days of the Opium Wars to the modern age of
2022, the War on Drugs has been filled with controversy. One positive news is that a huge
majority of Americans (from across the political spectrum) in recent years now oppose the War
on Drugs. Back in the day, it was extremely taboo to talk about solutions to drug addiction that
are in opposition to the War on Drugs. Now, we have a new day when new laws in various states
invest in drug treatment programs, education, community development, and other progressive
means to improve the confines of society. As recently as 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance has
called for an end to the War on Drugs costing $51 billion annually in the States plus costing
cumulative in ca. $1 trillion. The War on Drugs is interrelated to the prison industrial complex,
gentrification, racism, and other unjust laws. Sentencing disparities based on race and class are
real. You can't claim to be for justice and take a blind eye to the corruption found in the racist
prison industrial complex. Drug addiction doesn't discriminate either. It's found among people
of every color from Los Angeles, NYC, and to rural places with meth plus oxycontin addiction.
Scholars and political leaders have spoken about this issue like John L. Potash, Gary Webb,
Mike Ruppert, Michelle Alexander, Sherrilyn Hill, Maxine Waters, etc. Nothing is new under the
sun. Today, we have books, the Internet, and other sources documenting the viciousness of
government corruption and the destructive nature of the War on Drugs in general. That is why
progressive alternatives to the War on Drugs remain a necessity.
 Ancient Times
A drug is any chemical substance that caused a change in any organism’s physiology or psychology when
consumed. Many drugs can be ingested by inhalation, injection, smoking, being ingested, and absorption.
During the ancient times, there was the use of natural extracts for medicinal purposes goes back
thousands of years. Many people used trial and error in being involved with drugs. Early medicines often
had as much religious and spiritual significance as they had healing importance. 50,000 years ago, there
was the herbal stimulant ephedra found. Plants were the basis of the ancient medicines and were
complemented with minerals and animal substances. Often the same plants and herbs were used for
similar diseases among different civilizations, even though they were discovered separately. From ca.
14,000 to 12,000 B.C, there were remnants of ancient poppy plantations in Spain, Greece, Northeast
Africa, Egypt, and Mesopotamia are evidence of the widespread early use of opium. Earliest agriculture
did deal with some drugs. Some evidence shows that the first crops include psychoactive plants such as
mandrake, tobacco, coffee, and cannabis (in ca. 10,000 B.C.). There was opium by the Sumerians in ca.
5,000 B.C. and tobacco being cultivated and used by Native Americans in South America by 6,000 B.C.
Wine and beer were produced in Egypt and Sumeria in ca. 4,000 B.C. By 1,000 B.C., Central Americans
erected temples to mushrooms gods. Treatment of disease through development of new herbal remedies
may have been very difficult in an environment where the false, prevailing attitude (among some spaces)
is that disease is God’s punishment for sin. Practitioners of herbal remedies would often be seen as
heretics. Medical progress was very weak back then in some places due to the prevailing unscientific
opinion. During the Renaissance, the development of many things existed.
 The Opium Wars
The First and Second Opium Wars represented the future War on Drugs in many ways. They represented
how the political establishment wanted to exploit drugs in trying to dominate markets in an imperialist
fashion. Both wars were about the same British Empire who used wars, colonialism, slavery, and other
abhorrent tactics in spreading their influence in the global sphere among numerous continents. The First
Opium War lasted from March 18, 1839, to August 29, 1842. In that war, about 18,000 Chinese soldiers
and 69 British troops died. After that war, the British Empire won trade rights, access to five treaty ports,
and Hong Kong. The Second Opium War was fought from October 23, 1856, to October 18, 1860, and
was also known as the Arrow War or the Second Anglo-Chinese War, (although France joined in).
Approximately 2,900 Western troops were killed or wounded, while China had from 12,000 to 30,000
killed or wounded. Britain won southern Kowloon and Western powers got extraterritorial rights and trade
privileges. China's Summer Palaces were looted and burned. These wars existed by a long history.

By the 1700's, European nations like Britain, the Netherlands, and France wanted to expand their Asian
trade networks by linking with the powerful Qing Empire in China. China was the eastern endpoint of the
Silk Road. The Silk Road helped people to trade many goods and services for centuries. The British East
India Company and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) wanted to control the Silk Road trade system.
China limited them to the port of Canton. They didn't want to teach them Chinese, and they wanted
penalties for any European who wanted to leave Canton and enter the rest of China. European
consumers wanted Chinese silks, porcelain, and tea. China didn't want any European manufactured
goods. The Qing government wanted payment in cash like silver. Britain also a trade deficit with China. It
didn't have domestic silver supply. So, the British East India Company dealt with opium from British India.
Opium was mostly grown in Bengal. Payment in opium was illegal in China. The Qing government was
concerned about many Chinese people addicted to opium. So, the British continued to smuggle opium in
China causing a high number of young men in China being addicted to opium. The British smuggling was
evil. So, in 1839, China's Daoguang Emperor appointed a new governor of Canton. He was Lin Zexu. He
caught 13 British smugglers inside their warehouses. They surrendered. By April of 1839, Governor Lin
confiscated goods like 42,000 opium pipes and 20,000 150-pound chests of opium, with a total street
value of some £2 million. He ordered the chests placed into trenches, covered with lime, and then
drenched in sea water to destroy the opium. Outraged, British traders immediately began to petition the
British home government for help.

More tensions rose. On July 7, 1839, there was the Kowloon incident. This was when drunk British and
American sailors rioted in the village of Chien-sha-tsui in Kowloon killing a Chinese man. They vandalized
the Buddhist temple. Qing officials wanted the criminals to be placed in trial. The British refused citing
China's legal system. The crime was on Chinese soil and had a Chinese victim. The British claimed that
the sailors were entitled to extraterritorial rights which is nonsense. The 6 sailors were tried in British
court at Canton. They were convicted, but they were freed as soon as they returned to Britain. So, the
Qing leaders banned any foreign merchants to trade in China unless they agree under pain of death to
abide by Chinese law. Qing leaders outlawed the opium trade. They wanted people to submit to Chinese
legal jurisdiction. The British Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliot, responded by suspending
all British trade with China and ordering British ships to withdraw. The war started with 2 British ships
argued over opium smuggling. Quaker ship owners opposed it, but the British person Charles Elliot
supported it. The Royal Saxon ship was fired on by the Royal Navy fleet. The Chinese ships wanted to
protect Royal Saxon, but the British Navy sank many Chinese ships. The Chinese government lost that
war. The British seized Canton, Chusan, and other areas. The Qing government fought for peace and the
Treaty of Nanking existed. China lost much of their sovereignty to the British, and China had economic
problems. The Qing government was even forced to pay reparations to the British in 21 million silver
dollars. The 2nd Opium War came when Qing Chinese leaders didn't want to support the unfair treaty
and the unequal treaties imposed on them from France and America. The British wanted the opening of
all China's ports to foreign traders, a 0% tariff rate on British imports, and the legalization of Britain's
trade in opium from Burma and India into China.

Warren Delano Jr. (1809-1898) was an

American merchant and drug smuggler.
He made a large fortune smuggling illegal
opium into China. He is also the maternal
grandfather of the U.S. President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt. He was part of the
Russell & Company corporation, and
Warren was born in New Bedford,
Massachusetts. His wealth came about at
the expense of the destruction of the
Canton system, the humiliation of the
Chinese government, and massive wars in
Asia costing tons of human lives.
The 2nd war started after the Arrow Incident. This took place on October 8, 1856. It was when the
smuggling ship called The Arrow was based out of Hong Kong and registered in China. When Chinese
officials boarded the ship and arrested its crew of twelve on suspicion of smuggling and piracy, the British
protested that the Hong Kong-based ship was outside of China's jurisdiction. Britain demanded that
China release the Chinese crew under the extraterritoriality clause of the Treaty of Nanjing. Although the
Chinese authorities were well within their rights to board the Arrow, and in fact, the ship's Hong Kong
registration had expired, Britain forced them to release the sailors. Even though China complied, the
British then destroyed four Chinese coastal forts and sank more than 20 naval junks between October
23 and November 13. Since China was in the throes of the Taiping Rebellion at the time, it did not have
much military power to spare to defend its sovereignty from this new British assault. This came after the
British took down the Indian Revolt. After a French Catholic missionary was beat to death for preaching
Catholicism outside of treaty points, France would join the British in the Second Opium War. The war
ended with a Qing dynasty defeat. The Second Opium War finally ended on October 18, 1860, with the
Chinese ratification of a revised version of the Treaty of Tianjin. In addition to the provisions listed above,
the revised treaty mandated equal treatment for Chinese who converted to Christianity, the legalization
of opium trading, and Britain also received parts of coastal Kowloon, on the mainland across from Hong
Kong Island. The Qing dynasty ended after the war. This humiliation inspired the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.

By the end of the 19th century, drug development moved rapidly. Sigmund Freud in 1884 was so extreme
that he treated his depression with cocaine. He wrote that he felt euphoria after using cocaine. Also,
there was a temperance movement in America back then that encouraged the banning of the usage of
alcohol long before Prohibition existed. Ironically in 1885, the Report of the Royal Commission on Opium
condemned opium. In 1889, the John Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, Maryland, is opened. One of its
world-famous founders, Dr. William Stewart Halsted, was a morphine addict. He continued to use
morphine in large doses throughout his phenomenally successful surgical career lasting until his death in
1922. In 1898, diacetylmorphine (heroin) was synthesized in Germany.
 1900-1971
In 1900, the Senate adopted a resolution (introduced by Henry Cabot Lodge) that forbid the sale by
American traders of opium and alcohol to other human beings in Hawaii, Alaska, and other countries. In
1903, the composition of Coca-Cola is changed to use caffeine instead of cocaine. Cocaine was legal in
America back then. By the early 20th century, the United States of America became stricter in regulating
drugs. By 1906, there was the first Pure Food and Drug Act becomes law; until its enactment, it was
possible to buy, in stores or by mail order medicines containing morphine, cocaine, or heroin, and without
their being so labeled. America bans the importation of smoking opium in 1909. Dr. Hamilton Wright was
a leader of early anti-narcotics laws. Back in 1912, a physician warns: “[There is] no energy more
destructive of soul, mind, and body, or more subversive of good morals than the cigarette. The fight
against the cigarette is a fight for civilization.” [Sinclar, op. cit., p. 180]. This time also saw racists exploiting
drug use as an excuse to scapegoat black people. One example is that the racist Dr. Edward H. Williams
and Dr. Christopher Kochs believed in the lie that black people collectively were cocaine crazed attacking
white women of the South. As early as 1917, the President of the American Medical Association wanted
a national prohibition of the use of alcohol.

The 19th Amendment is passed in 1919 and it ended by 1933. Prohibition didn't work, because it violated
individual freedom, the Mafia and other gangs promoted an underground trade of it, and it didn't last long
term. Violent crime did drop during that period. In 1932 alone, approximately 45,000 persons received jail
sentences for alcohol offenses. During the first eleven years of the Volstead Act, 17,971 persons are
appointed to the Prohibition Bureau. 11,982 are terminated “without prejudice,” and 1,604 are dismissed
for bribery, extortion, theft, falsification of records, conspiracy, forgery, and perjury. [Fort, op. cit. p.
69]. As early as 1920, the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a pamphlet urging Americans to grow
cannabis (marijuana) as a profitable undertaking. The extremist Harry J. Anslinger was the first
commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger harassed Billie Holiday for years. He was
paranoid about marijuana. The Marijuana Tax act was created in 1937. Since the enactment of the
Harrison Act in 1914, 25,000 physicians have been arraigned on narcotics charges, and 3,000 have
served penitentiary sentences. Dr. Albert Hoffman (a chemist at Sandoz Laboratories in Basle,
Switzerland, synthesizes LSD. He reported on the effects of LSD after he took it.

General Chiang Kai-shek in 1941 ordered the suppression of poppy laws. In 1943, Colonel J.M. Phalen,
editor of the *Military Surgeon*, declares in an editorial entitled “The Marijuana Bugaboo”: “The smoking
of the leaves, flowers, and seeds of Cannibis sativa is no more harmful than the smoking of tobacco. . . .
It is hoped that no witch hunt will be instituted in the military service over a problem that does not exist.”
[Quoted in ibid. p. 234]. The 1956 Narcotics Control Act of 1956 gave the death penalty to people who
are guilty of the sale of heroin to a person under 18 by one over 18 years old. The leaders of the U.S.
government hypocritically were claiming to be for drug reform in the 1960's, but they subsidized large
corporations to fund cigarettes in America plus overseas (cigarettes are poisons known for causing lung
disease, heart disease, and ultimately death). The 1960's saw the Drug Revolution too. The common myth
about the Drug Revolution was that it was spontaneous headed by the independent youth alone. The
truth is that the establishment, the CIA, and the MI6 had a huge role in the Drug Revolution. John L.
Potash's book entitled "Drugs as Weapons Against Us" documented how the intelligence community
harassed not only drug addicted people (who deserved treatment not mass incarceration). They also
harassed and monitored musicians and activities who wanted sincere progressive, revolutionary social
change. For example, Paul Robeson's son said that the intelligence community drugged Paul Robeson.
We know that MK Ultra was about the CIA experiencing LSD on human beings. Many of these human
beings have their lives and their minds ruined. We know that the Vietnam War increased drug addiction
of heroin in American society. We know that Tim Leary was a professor who spread LSD nationwide. The
problem was that many people used LSD to escape from reality instead of advancing activism to confront
Jim Crow apartheid, the Vietnam War, economic oppression, gentrification, housing discrimination, health
care disparities, and other evils. As drug usage in America increased, there was government overreach
in harshly sentencing people who possessed drugs (and were non-violent).

A Timeline of the Cultural

Revolution of the 1960’s
“Nobody’s free
SNCC was born on
until everybody’s
The March on
April 28, 1960. The
Student Non-Violent free.” Washington on August
28, 1963, wanted justice,
Coordinating
equality, living wages, no
Committee
mentored by
was
Ella -Fannie Lou police
economic
brutality,
justice
and
in
Baker in dealing with
grassroots organizing
and progressive
Hamer, a civil general. John Lewis, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.,
and more than 200,000
activism.
rights icon. people were there.

1960 1961 1962 1963 1964

On March 28, The SDS The police riot

The Summer of
1965, there were was formed in Chicago in
Love took place
teach in in on 1968 was not
on July 28, 1967,
universities December only evil, but it
to celebrate love
28, 1966. harmed The historic
across America and hippie culture
The peaceful Woodstock Festival
to protest the (at Haight-
Students protesters. on August 28, 1969
Vietnam War. Ashbury in San
for a had about 400,000
Francisco). It has News coverage
Democratic people in upstate
100,000 people of it was global. New York. It has
Society
at the place.
wanted Jimi Hendrix, the
progressive Who, The Grateful
policies. Dead, etc.

1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

 The Early War on Drugs
President Richard Nixon was President in 1969. Nixon was wrong to use the FBI to crush the Black
Panthers, to advance the bombing of Hanoi, and being involved in the Watergate scandal. In 1971,
President Richard Nixon said that drug abuse is America's Public Enemy Number 1. This started the
modern-day War on Drugs. With the passage of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control
Act of 1970, the federal government took a more active role in drug enforcement and drug abuse
prevention. At first, drug treatment was available. Elvis Presley shook Nixon's hands and supported
Nixon's War on Drugs. Ironically, Elvis would suffer drug addiction throughout his later years of his life.
Before the 1970's, there was a consensus that drug abuse was a social disease only to be solved by
treatment programs. After the 1970s, drug abuse was seen by numerous policymakers primarily as a law
enforcement problem that could be addressed with aggressive criminal justice policies. The addition of
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to the federal law enforcement apparatus in 1973 was a
significant step in the direction of a criminal justice approach to drug enforcement. If the federal reforms
of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 represented the formal
declaration of the War on Drugs, the Drug Enforcement Administration became its foot soldiers. As the
1970's existed, more people went into prison, the police became more militarized, and the problem of
drug abuse remained. A Nixon administration official admitted that: “You want to know what this was
really all about,” Ehrlichman, who died in 1999, said, referring to Nixon’s declaration of war on drugs. “The
Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and
black people. You understand what I’m saying. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against
the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin,
and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders,
raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we
know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Reaganomics
Ronald Reagan was what he was. Many black folks like me knew that Reagan was a racist, a Bohemian
Grove member, an honorary 33rd degree Freemason, and a reactionary extremist. During the 1970's, he
said a racist remark to Richard Nixon that black Africans are uncomfortable with wearing shoes. By the
time he was President in 1981, Ronald Reagan supported the War on Drugs. He not only had the Just Say
No campaign (as advanced by Reagan's wife Nancy Reagan). He supported policies that
disproportionately harmed the lives of black Americans. Powdered cocaine was used by mostly rich and
white Americans. Crack cocaine was cheaper and used by poorer people. Congress and the Reagan
administration responded with the Antidrug Act of 1986, which established a 100:1 ratio for mandatory
minimums associated with cocaine. It would take 5,000 grams of powdered cocaine to land you in prison
for a minimum 10 years—but only 50 grams of crack. This increased the prison industrial complex to send
the poor, black people, other people of color, and other oppressed people into prison for long sentences
(even for non-violent offenses). Ronald Reagan used the racist "welfare queen" trope in scapegoating
black people too. Reagan's Presidency of Reaganomics allowed tons of the poor to suffer massively. This
reality has been proven by Sister Harriet Washington's book called "Medical Apartheid." Adler Berriman
"Barry" Seal (July 16, 1939 – February 19, 1986) was a commercial airline pilot who became a major drug
smuggler for the Medellín Cartel. When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an
informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and testified in several major drug trials. He was
murdered in 1986 by contract killers hired by the cartel.
 The 1990's
By the 1990's, the War on Drugs continued fiercely. By the late 1980's and early 1990's, a new generation
of anti-War on Drugs activists developed though. One group was the Drug Policy Foundation created by
Arnold Trebach and Kevin Zeese. They wanted to end the War on Drugs. Even some conservatives like
William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman desired an end to drug prohibition. ACLU Executive Director Ira
Glasser, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Federal Judge Robert Sweet, Princeton professor Ethan
Nadelmann, and other scholars, activists, policymakers, etc. wanted the same goal too. George H.W. Bush
and Bill Clinton were faithful followers of the War on Drugs. After Noriega was brought down and sent to
prison, we lived in a new era. After Bush Sr. was out of office in early 1993, William Jefferson Clinton was
President. As time has gone by, we realize more and more realize that Clinton was a centrist President
despite the red baiting by far-right Republicans who accuse him of being near socialist (which is false
obviously). Bill Clinton worked with Republicans to pass the Crime Act of 1994. Back then, many thought
that the new law would eliminate the crime rates of the early 1990's. The consequences of the law were
an expansion of the prison industrial complex, the growth of the War on Drugs, and the ruin of so many
lives (especially black lives and other people of color's lives). The 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill was supported
by then Senator Joe Biden too. It had a provision that allowed for federal execution of drug kingpins. The
1990's saw a skyrocketing number of human beings sent into prison for long periods of time, even those
with nonviolent drug offenses. In fact, people in prison from nonviolent drug law offenses increased from
50,000 in 1980 to over 400,000 in 1997. President William Jefferson Clinton also passed the Welfare
Reform Act in 1996 that cut many services for the poor and was another attack by a neoliberal moderate
President on the New Deal progressive policies. It proves that Clinton wasn't the progressive superhero
that some have claimed. Back in 1992, Clinton actually advocated treatment instead of incarceration
during his 1992 Presidential campaign. He reverted to the drug war policies from his Republican
predecessors when he got into office. Clinton rejected a U.S. Sentencing Commission recommendation
to eliminate the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences. He rejected the end of the
federal ban on funding for syringe access programs (which has been even promoted by drug czar
General Barry McCaffrey and Health Secretary Donna Shalala). Ironically, a month before leaving office,
Bill Clinton told words in a Rolling Stone interview that he wanted "a re-examination of our entire policy
on imprisonment" of people who used drugs. He said that he believes now that marijuana use "should be
decriminalized." As Sister Michelle Alexander has written in her classic book: “The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”:

“Few would guess that our prison population leaped from

approximately 350,000 to 2.3 million in such a short period of
time due to changes in laws and policies, not changes in crime
rates. Yet it has been changes in our laws – particularly the
dramatic increases in the length of our prison sentences – that
have been responsible for the growth of our prison system, not
increases in crime.”
 The 21st Century
As the 21st Century developed, we have seen a gradual change into more progressive drug policies. More
of the American public since 2000 are progressive on drug issues. George W. Bush was in office by 2001.
He knew that the War on Drugs wasn't working conclusively to end drug addiction. Yet, he still put in more
money than previous Presidents to advance War on Drugs policies. His drug czar was John Walter. He
was a zealot against marijuana. He promoted student drug testing. We know that illicit drug use was
plateauing, but many people suffered overdoses. George W. Bush also advanced the escalation of the
militarization of drug law enforcement groups. By the end of Bush's 2nd term in 2009, we saw about
40,000 paramilitary SWAT style raids on Americans every year (mostly for nonviolent drug law offenses
or misdemeanors). Federal drug reform struggled in Congress. That is why state level reforms slowly
existed to start to end the War on Drugs. The culture shifted. More political leaders as diverse as Barack
Obama and Michael Bloomberg have admitted to using drugs. Most Americans now support health-based
approaches to deal with drug issues. In our time in 2021, the legalization of marijuana has existed in
Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont,
Washington state, and the District of Columbia. In December of 2014, Uruguay was the first country on
Earth to legally regulate marijuana. Canada legalized marijuana for adults in 2018.

Even my state of Virginia is the first Southern state of America to legalize marijuana. Virginia is the most
progressive Southern state of the Union now. States have worked hard to combat drug addiction and the
opioid crisis. Many states have passed law to increase access to the overdose antidote called naloxone.
There are 911 Good Samaritan laws that promote people to get medical help in the event of an overdose.
Yet, we have a long way to go, even in 2021. Every year, about 700,000 people in America are arrested
for marijuana offenses. Also, almost 500,000 people are still behind bars for just a drug law violation.
When Barack Obama was in office, he promoted the reduction of crack/power sentencing disparities, he
ended the ban on federal funding for syringe access programs, and he ended federal interference with
state medical marijuana laws. Yet, President Obama didn't go to fully caused a health-based approach
for the majority of his drug policy. The Trump administration obviously was much worse than Barack
Obama on drug policy.
Trump wanted to build a wall in the southern border, because he believed in the xenophobic lie that
undocumented immigrants were just drug smuggling criminals mostly. Trump wanted harsher sentences
for drug law violations and the death penalty for people who sell drugs. He promoted the ineffective "Just
Say No Campaign" message being aimed at young people. It is no secret that former Attorney General
Jeff Sessoms was fiercely in favor of the War on Drugs. When the pandemic rose up, Trump made a
terrible response which is one major reason why Trump lost the 2020 election. The coronavirus made
more people aware of the health disparities in society and how the drug war promotes these disparities
unfairly. The crisis made it more difficult for the homeless, the poor, those with drug addictions, etc. to
have adequate medical treatment. The 2020 election saw massive changes involving drug policy. For
example, after the 2020 elections, Oregon voted to pass Measure 110. That was the nations' first all-drug
decriminalization measure. Voters in Arizona, New Jersey, Montana, and South Dakota passed measures
to legalize marijuana for adult use. Medical marijuana was passed in Mississippi and South Dakota. Both
red and blue states enacted policies in saving lives literally. Today, President Joe Biden is here since
2021. Biden said that it was a mistake to support legislation that increased the prison industrial complex
and the War on Drugs like the 1994 Crime Law. Biden said that he wants a compassionate approach to
problematic drug use. One mistake Biden has made is how he extended class wide scheduling of fentanyl
analogues through October 2021. It makes it easier to go after low level drug dealers. Some critics say
that it will disproportionately affect communities of color. The Biden administration is right to invest 2.5
million dollars in grants to help support drug treatment options and reform criminal statutes that have
harmed black people (and other people color) via the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Ava
Duvernay's 13th documentary is one of the greatest modern documentaries that exposes the prison
industrial complex and the War on Drugs. We shall see what the future will hold.
 Financial Facts on the
Top 5 Countries with the
War on Drugs
Most People in Prison
There are $293 million
worth of equipment RUSSIA 471,490
transferred from the military
INDIA 478,600
to law enforcement though
the 1033 program in 2019 BRAZIL 811,707
CHINA 1,690,000
There are $3.5 billion in UNITED STATES 2,068,800
taxpayers’ money spent to
0 1,000,000 2,000,000
fund the Drug Enforcement
Agency in 2021. Top 5 Countries with the Most People in Prison

There is about $6,500

money being spent per
minute in the Drug
Enforcement Agency.
THE U.S. JUSTICE SYSTEM
There is an estimated $47 INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE
billion spent per year in
PRISON
enforcing drug prohibition.
Probation Parole Correctional Facilities

34%
1.9 million
52%
2.9 million
14%

820,000

Source: Prison Policy Initiative.

True Words from Ava Duvernay

 LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
THE TIMELINE OF 2000-2022
Playstation 2 changed
the game in terms of
video game consoles. It
was released in 2000 to
be the bestselling video
game console of all
time. It could play
games and DVD movies
too. Playstation 5 would
come out in 2020.
On October 27, 2004, the
Boston Red Sox won the
World Series for the first
time since 1918, ending
the so-called “Curse of the
Bambino.”
Amerie’s 1 Thing song in
2005 took the world by
storm. It’s from her 2nd
studio album called Touch.
With its funk and go-go
beats, it was a powerful
song.
The Heat won the 2006
NBA Championship led by
Dwyane Wade and others.
2001
On September 11th, 2001, there
were the September 11th attacks
done by terrorists in New York
City, Pennsylvania, and at the The iPhone changed
Pentagon in Northern Virginia. everything in human
Almost 3,000 people died from history. It was invented in
the attacks. 2007 from Steve Jobs.
2003 Every smartphone that
we have used originated
On March 19, 2003, the United from the iPhone device.
States invaded Iraq to try to oust
Saddam Hussein. Anti-war
protests and an 8-year war
commenced. To this day, the Iraq
War remains very controversial
during the war on terror.
2009
The Redeem Team won
By January 20, 2009, President gold in 2008 at The
Barack (who is married to First Beijing Olympics. It is the
Lady Michelle Obama) was
inaugurated as the first African best basketball men’s
American President of the United Olympic team of the 21st
States of America. This historic century.
moment was truly rememberable.
2011
The Occupy Wall Street
movement developed to confront
poverty, economic inequality, and The 2012 USA Olympic
Wall Street exploitation. women’s 4 X 100 relay
2020
team shown massive talent
After the unjust murders of at London.
George Floyd and Breonna
Taylor, there were massive,
worldwide against racism and
police brutality. These protests
were the largest anti-racism
protests in human history.
2021
Recently in July of 2022,
Vice President Kamala Harris was Maya Moore gave birth to
inaugurated as the first African her child, and she is
American and Asian American married to Jonathan
Vice President in American Irons, the man who she
history on January 20, 2021. helped to be released
2022 from prison after Irons
was unjustly imprisoned.
Russia unjustly invaded Ukraine
in 2022.
 Conclusion
It has been over 50 years since the Richard Nixon call for his War on Drugs plans. Now, we have
witnessed the fruits of it. The fruits of it have seen massive drug trafficking, violations to human civil
liberties, and the expansion of the prison industrial complex. The pandemic causing social isolation
has contributed to suffering involving drug overdoses. Two years ago in 2020, more than 93,000
Americans have died of drug overdoses. That is the highest number ever. We see the increase usage
of fentanyl which is 25 to 40 times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl now has taken the lives of
more people as the illicit drug market has used it on other drugs causes mayhem to suffering human
beings. This problem is a worldwide problem. We know of oxycotin in the Rust Belt. Like always, a
real solution to help people to get drug treatment and medical care instead of locking people up all
over the place. Corporations and governments have been complicit in drug trafficking for
generations. For example, Iran Contra was about certain people in the Reagan administration
(during his 2nd term) secretly facilitating the sale of arms to the Khomeini government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran (which was the subject of an arms embargo). The administration used the proceeds
of the arms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. The Contras were involved in drug trafficking in
California, and that spread the crack epidemic all across America. The Boland Amendment banned
the funding of the Contra by the U.S. government. Gary Webb, Maxine Waters, and Michael Ruppert
accused the CIA of involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking. To this day, the CIA denies these
allegations. It is true that the CIA has been involved in voting rigging, supporting coups of
progressive governments, and other nefarious acts (like infiltrating the media via Operation
Mockingbird) for decades. The CIA is also complicit in the drug program of MK-Ultra that ruined
many lives. Today, we have a long way to go, but we have made great progress in causing the
majority of the American people to say clearly that this War on Drugs must end (and progressive
alternatives must exist to save lives literally. That is our precise goal).

By Timothy