Consequences of the War on Drugs
by DAVID M. JOLLEY, J.D.
On June 17, 1971, President Nixon delivered a special message to Congress in which he declared drug abuse to be “public enemy number one” and called for increased funding for drug enforcement and treatment. This marked the beginning of the “war on drugs.” Shortly thereafter in 1973, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was formed by merging the Office for Drug Abuse Law Enforcement, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and the Office of Narcotics Intelligence in order to consolidate federal resources to fight the war. However, as this article will show, the war on drugs was an abject failure on all counts. Not only did it fail to reduce drug abuse and addiction, it disproportionately affected minorities, over-crowded our prisons, and sealed the fate for many low-level offenders and addicts.
Racial Disparity
The war on drugs disproportionally affected the minority communities, especially African-Americans. Studies on the subject over the past 20 years have proven this. For example, in a 2009 paper put out by the Department of Justice, it was found that even though African-Americans only represent about 12 percent of the population and use illegal drugs at the same rate as White Americans, they are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for drug offenses at a much higher rate compared to White Americans.
In addition, research has shown that prosecutors are twice as likely to pursue a mandatory minimum sentence for African-Americans than for White Americans charged with the same drug offense. Among people who received a mandatory minimum sentence in 2011, 38% were Latino and 31% were black.
Increased Incarcerations
The war on drugs has also dramatically increased the number of people incarcerated. Consequently, the United States has imprisoned more people than any other nation in the world due to the war on drugs. Even though the U.S. is less than 5 percent of the world’s population, it represents 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population.
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The higher arrest and incarceration rates among the minority communities are not a result of higher usage, but rather how law enforcement tends to focus their efforts on lower-income, urban communities of color.
Other Life-long Consequences
It’s important to note that even if one’s arrest for drugs do not result in a conviction, that arrest alone can stay on the person’s record for years and affect their ability to find a job, housing, loans, and more.
Public Support
The war on drugs has failed to gain any popularity among the general public as well. In a 2021 poll conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union, 65 percent of voters supported ending the war on drugs, acknowledging the war has led to the incarceration of millions while doing nothing to reduce the use of drugs. In addition, 66 percent supported elimination of all criminal penalties for drug possession and investing more in treatment and addiction services.
Alternate Approach – Harm Reduction
As an alternate to the criminal justice system and mass incarceration, harm reduction has been touted as a much better and more realistic approach than the “war on drugs” was. Essentially, harm reduction is based on the belief that abstinence is not a realistic option for everyone who uses illicit drugs. Instead, harm reduction efforts focus preventing on fatalities, disease, and other harms by promoting safter substance use. Examples of this approach include syringe access programs, safe injection facilities, peer programs, and naloxone, which reverses the effect of overdosing on heroin.
The consequences of the war on drugs cannot be denied. It has disproportionately affected the minority communities, made the U.S. the number one incarcerator of the world, and ruined countless lives for minor drug offenses—all while doing nothing to decrease drug abuse and addiction. Rather than treating this issue as a criminal one, it would be much more effective and humane to treat it as a social one. One that focuses more on reducing harm from and promoting safer substance usage, as opposed to increasing arrest and incarceration rates.
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