Michael Schaller: Reefer madness: America’s (very) long war on drugs | Local Editorials and Opinion

Opiate addiction emerged as a major public health issue in the 1890s. The near simultaneous discovery of the hypodermic syringe and heroin (a chemically altered opiate that, like OxyContin, was initially promoted by the Bayer company as a nonaddictive pain reliever) created a more severe form of addiction.

Religious and secular health reformers warned that opiates, like tobacco and alcohol, threatened national survival. Early in the 20th century they lobbied successfully for the federal government to join efforts to suppress the global opium trade and in 1906 persuaded Congress to enact the Pure Food and Drug laws that regulated the opium content of popular over-the-counter medicines.

Pushing Washington to further restrict opiates and cocaine, reformers encouraged journalists to publish largely fictional accounts of crime waves attributed to “outsiders” such as “drug-crazed, sex-crazed Negroes,” “debauched Chinamen,” and “degenerate Mexicans” who robbed, raped and murdered under the influence. Congress responded in 1914 by adopting the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act. The law regulated the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products. Physicians could prescribe opiates as pain killers but not for addiction treatment or maintenance.

Moral reformers secured ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, banning alcohol production. The Treasury Department, which oversaw both alcohol and opiate prohibition, created the Bureau of Narcotics (BON) in 1930. The BON set the agenda for national drug policy for the remainder of the century.

The repeal of alcohol prohibition in 1933 left Treasury agents under-employed. Many joined the BON which launched a campaign to outlaw cannabis, or marijuana. “Pot” was a little known intoxicant loosely regulated at the state level. In magazine articles, radio broadcasts, and films, the BON alleged that drug-crazed African- American musicians and Hispanics used a toxic mix of jazz and marijuana to corrupt white girls and promote a gateway to heroin. The most notorious example appeared in the film known as “Reefer Madness,” produced in 1936 by a church group and promoted by the BON. (As late as the 1960s it was still shown on wobbly projectors in hygiene classes as a cautionary tale.) In 1937, Congress enacted the Marijuana Tax Act, criminalizing the weed and its derivatives. States followed the federal lead.

When the BON accused communist Cold War rivals of promoting drugs, Congress passed the Boggs Act (1952) and the Narcotic Control Act (1956) that imposed harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, including marijuana possession. Federal and state crackdowns continued during the supposedly drug-friendly 1960s.

Presidents often used anti-drug campaigns for ulterior purposes. Richard Nixon attempted to undermine African-American radicals and college Vietnam war protesters by linking them to heroin and marijuana. Declaring “war on drugs” in 1971, he merged the BON and other agencies into the new Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan justified intervention in Central America by accusing Nicaragua’s left-wing Sandinista regime of “narco-terrorism,” although U.S. allies in the region engaged heavily in drug smuggling. His administration launched a “Just Say No To Drugs” campaign and a “crusade for a drug-free America.” Congress hopped on board, enacting the Anti-Drug Act of 1986 that raised sentences for minor drug violations and mandated especially severe prison time for possession of crack cocaine (as compared to powder), a form of the drug predominantly used by minorities.

George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton followed similar scripts. Both deployed military units to combat smuggling in the Caribbean and along the Mexican border and expanded military assistance programs designed to suppress drug production in Latin America. To avoid being labeled as “soft on drugs,” Democrats and Republicans outbid each other to enact laws increasing jail time for “super-predators,” often meaning crack cocaine dealers.

Even though rates of drug use among racial groups were roughly similar, the harsh laws of the 1980s and 1990s led to much higher levels of arrests and incarceration of blacks and Hispanics than of whites. George W. Bush and Barack Obama – both of whom acknowledged recreational drug use in their youth – declined to challenge the drug policies they inherited.

Despite crackdowns, overdose deaths ballooned, prison populations swelled, and families struggled to deal with addiction. Drug use gradually migrated from urban to rural America and increasingly from minority to white populations.

Policies began changing about six years ago, often at the state level. Conservative legislators recoiled at the spiraling cost of incarceration that busted state budgets. A growing number of Americans recognized – many through personal experience – the fundamental difference between addictive, deadly opioids and marijuana. In response, 25 states, including Arizona, legalized medical use of marijuana. Another 10 – with more coming – permit recreational use. Although the DEA still classifies marijuana in the same category as heroin, actual enforcement guidelines have become more flexible.

More significantly, public health officials increasingly support medical – rather than criminal — treatment for opioid addiction. First responders and addicts have easier access to anti-overdose drugs like Naloxone. In place of jail or “12 Step” rehabilitation programs that have a poor record of preventing relapse, some opiate addicts now receive medically supervised treatment with drugs like Suboxone that reduce cravings while permitting users to function normally. Recent federal legislation supports these changes without committing much funding to facilitate them.

To be sure, these are small innovations, but they signify the first meaningful changes in the drug war strategy in over 100 years.