Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Drug Legalization

In a series of speeches delivered between June and September 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared a War on Drugs in the United States. Reagan proposed huge increases in federal expenditures, roughly 70 percent of which was earmarked for strict enforcement of newly strengthened drug laws.

According to Gallup and New York Times/CBS News polls, between July 1986 and September 1989, the percent of the American public naming drug abuse as the “number one problem facing the country today” skyrocketed from 8 to 64 percent (Goode 1999: 71). Reagan's proclamations were followed by enactment of a series of stringent laws that escalated penalties for possession and sale of controlled substances. Law enforcement was stiffened, resulting in huge increases in the numbers of arrests and incarcerations for drug offenses. Between 1980 and 2000, while the number of inmates in federal prisons quadrupled, the number incarcerated for drug offenses increased more than ten times. During the same time period, the number of new commitments to state prisons tripled, while the number of new commitments specifically for drug offenses increased more than tenfold. Currently, 56 percent of all federal and a quarter of all state inmates are imprisoned for drug offenses. Between 1980 and the beginning of the twenty-first century, the average time served in prison by a convicted drug offender rose by over 100 percent, from thirty-three to seventy months. In the federal system, penalties for drug possession—a victimless crime—seem disproportionately large. For instance, a person convicted of possession of five grams of crack cocaine is subject to a mandatory five-year sentence. Incarceration for this duration seems genuinely egregious when compared to the average criminal homicide sentence of five years and four months.

It has been argued that the concept of a “drug war” is counterproductive, and that enforcement of victimless crimes, such as possession offenses, can harm society. Gathered under a broad rubric of “legalization,” numerous critics, scholars, researchers, journalists, and politicians have suggested that the laws governing controlled substances be drastically rewritten, reformed, or even abolished altogether.

The outcome of the drug legalization debate will affect not only the fate of current and future drug users and sellers but also the well being of the nation as a whole, because broad changes in drug policy can generate repercussions that will be perceived throughout society. Drug policy has a direct affect on many facets of daily life, including but not limited to (1) the number of arrests and incarcerations for crimes such as possession and/or sale of illegal drugs; (2) the staff and devices needed by, as well as priorities of, law enforcement agencies; (3) health care costs related to use of illegal drugs; (4) federal and state budgets, which are partially responsible for funding local law enforcement agencies; and (5) the overall crime rate, because users of illegal drugs may commit other crimes to support their habits.

History of Government Regulation of Drugs

During the nineteenth century, drug possession and sale were virtually unregulated in the United States. The limited range of available psychoactive substances could be purchased without prescription from physicians, grocers, general stores, pharmacies, and by mail from catalogues. Patent medicines—sold and used indiscriminately as panaceas for every medical and psychiatric ailment known to humanity—frequently contained opium, morphine, or cocaine. In addition, many beverages contained cocaine. Because advertising was totally unregulated, some people made outrageous claims about the effects of their products. Labels on medicines and other products could be similarly creative, because there was no law requiring that labels list ingredients. In short, nineteenth-century America was truly a “dope-fiend's paradise” (Brecher and colleagues 1972: 3). Experts estimate that at the turn of the nineteenth century, there were roughly half a million narcotic addicts in the United States, which converts, on a per-population basis, to four times the current figure (Musto, 1999; Inciardi, 1992). During the first decade of the twentieth century, America's laissez faire approach to drugs began to change. In 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which outlawed the interstate sale of substances that were adulterated or whose contents were mislabeled. That same year, China launched an antiopium campaign. To ensure uninterrupted trade with that country, the U. S. government banned the importation of all opium into the United States. In 1912, Congress amended the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 by extending its provisions to false and fraudulent advertising claims. Also in that same year, twelve countries, including the United States, signed the Hague Convention, an agreement to restrict opium and cocaine

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution