effectiveness and wisdom of the War on Drugs, prospects for any major policy changes in the foreseeable future appeared to be remote.
When the Clinton administration assumed office, the federal War on Drugs was approximately a decade old. According to the Callahans, "the declared 'war' on drugs . . . actually commenced during the 1968 presidential campaign, when Richard M. Nixon was casting about for election ammunition" (1). The first federal campaign against the sale and use of illegal drugs, which was incorporated in the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 and a federal crime bill that year, subjected trafficking and possession of marijuana, LSD, cocaine and other narcotics to heavier federal criminal penalties. The inclusion of relatively harmless drugs such as marijuana on the proscribed list reflected what the Callahans called "a knee-jerk response to the failing war in Vietnam, social unrest within the United States and the drug use-particularly marijuana among the so-called counterculture" (1).
The War on Drugs was provided new impetus and major funding by the Reagan and Bush administrations. The charter and funding of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were greatly expanded and a national drug czar to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy was established in 1988 to oversee and coordinate all federal anti-drug efforts. By the end of the Bush administration, federal funding for the War on Drugs, including assistance to states and localities, had increased more than ten fold over funding levels in 1980. Over two thirds of federal funding was used for various foreign drug interdiction programs and domestic law enforcement. Relatively little was targeted for prevention and treatment other than to support Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" public education program in the public schools and the media.
Throughout the 1980s, rates of violent crime in the United States increased sharply. The media ...