by B.D. Bolin

Created on: February 03, 2008

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought to ease the burdens of their existence through the ingestion of mind-altering substances, and almost as long, governments have tried to regulate the use of such chemicals. However, many centuries into the human experiment, we still crave a window out of ourselves, and regulation by leadership has consistently failed to reign in that urge. Despite this, the American war on drugs wages on with little success to show for the vast amount of financial and police resources allocated to it. More disturbing are the statistics which show that drug convictions are disproportionately high amongst the poor and minority communities. Following is a discussion of the history of American drug prohibition and an analysis of the data regarding the effectiveness of drug prevention efforts. Also discussed is the apparent racism in the criminal justice system when it comes to drug offenses, and possible reasons why those behind the war may benefit most by having it wage on.

The first major prohibitive legislation passed in the United States was the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914. The law was not sold to Congress as prohibition, but rather as a way to control the marketing and prescription of opium by doctors. The law was used by police, however, to charge doctors who prescribed opium as treatment for addiction, thereby effectively criminalizing the use of opiates (Brecher). In 1919, the use and sale of alcohol was prohibited in the United States by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Almost immediately, use and sale of alcohol skyrocketed along with a sharp rise in crimes such as public drunkenness and drunk driving, as well as theft, assault and murder. In 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution repealed prohibition and left the regulation of alcohol to the states (Thornton). Undaunted by the failure of Prohibition, Congress next targeted marijuana in the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act. The law required those who grew or possessed marijuana to purchase stamps from the government for one dollar. The problem with this was that the government never bothered to print or distribute any stamps. This law was overturned by the Supreme Court in the case of Timothy Leary v. United States, in which the famed drug use activist successfully challenged the act on the basis that it violated the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination (Belville). In 1951, the Boggs Act was passed, bringing penalties for marijuana use

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