Marijuana. John Hudak
regulatory agencies would deem the most dangerous, most heavily regulated substances (conversely, Schedule V substances would receive the lowest level of control). Under Schedule I, substances were given a label that would become the trifecta of prohibition. Under CSA’s section 202(b)(1), a Schedule I substance:
A) … has a high potential for abuse,
B) … has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and
C) … there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.
Rather than leaving the classifications of drugs up to the FDA or the scientific and medical communities post-passage of the CSA, Congress sorted drugs into the five categories itself. It placed marijuana in Schedule I, along with heroin, LSD, and methamphetamines. Notably, and because of widespread use and entrenched political interests, alcohol and tobacco did not fall under the jurisdiction of CSA. The lack of control occurred despite both substances being highly addicting and having no medical value. Alcohol and tobacco were left to be regulated under their own separate systems, despite significant overlap in characteristics with controlled substances.
The CSA dramatically expanded government power over and regulation of drugs. The law set up processes to deal with adding and removing substances as well as recategorizing a substance in a different schedule (rescheduling). It was the most comprehensive prohibition of substances in American history.
No one was more pleased with the passage of this law than President Richard Nixon. At a White House ceremony on October 27, 1970, he issued a signing statement on the Controlled Substances Act in which he did not mince words about what CSA would mean for drug abuse:
We can deal with it. We have the laws now. We are going to go out and enforce those laws. But in order for those laws to mean anything they must have public support.… And therefore, I hope that at the time the Federal Government is moving, as we are moving very strongly in this field, that the whole Nation will join with us in a program to stop the rise in the use of drugs and thereby help to stop the rise in crime; and also save the lives of hundreds of thousands of our young people who otherwise would become hooked on drugs and be physically, mentally, and morally destroyed.10
In this signing statement, Richard Nixon accomplished multiple goals. He wanted the CSA to change America’s drug policy in dramatic ways. First, he lauded the legislation, signaling the substantial White House support not just for its passage but for ensuring it would be applied. Second, he explicitly sought to sway public support in favor of what would come to be America’s aggressive effort to control drugs in unprecedented ways. Third, he framed the discussion of drug abuse not as an isolated issue in big cities or among suspect groups of people but instead spoke of the widespread threat that drugs posed to all of America’s youth and offered the CSA as an antidote to this threat and a savior of the children.
Ultimately, much of what Richard Nixon wanted would come to fruition. Public opinion would rally behind the effort to control drugs and drug abuse, and the CSA would dramatically change the nature of drug policy in the United States. This legislation has influenced public policy to this day.
A “Declaration” of War on Drugs
The CSA gave President Nixon the statutory means to begin a broad-based, long-term effort to rid the nation of drugs, drug abuse, and drug users through regulation, criminalization, and (a low priority) treatment. The president was on a mission. This mission would not be isolated or concentrated. It would not be a surgical strike or a special ops mission. It would be a war.
Under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress has the power to declare war. Of course, it’s hard to declare war on a plant or a cigarette or a bottle of pills or a group of users within the borders of the United States. Yet to President Nixon and many in Congress, drugs such as marijuana were as dangerous as any foreign enemy, putting at risk the lives and well-being of millions of Americans.
Nixon declared his War on Drugs on June 17, 1971, less than eight months after the passage of the Controlled Substances Act. On that day, President Nixon also announced the appointment of Jerome Jaffe as special consultant to the president for narcotics and dangerous drugs and issued Executive Order No. 11599, which established the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention, created the new position of director to lead the office, and outlined the mission and jurisdiction of the office.
Even though the declaration of war was informal, the way the War on Drugs was waged—the funding, organization, planning, strategy, and missions—looked at times like the waging of war in Vietnam or Korea and other foreign conflicts. And Nixon used language to match. His words dripped with the language of war—as if the Pentagon had punched up these messages to Americans. In his remarks at a White House press briefing in June 1971, Nixon stated,
America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive. I have asked the Congress to provide the legislative authority and the funds to fuel this kind of an offensive.… If we are going to have a successful offensive, we need more money.… Finally, in order for this program to be effective, it is necessary that it be conducted on a basis in which the American people all join in it.11
The phrase “drug abuse” could have been replaced with “Nazis” and the message easily confused with a World War II–era statement sent from the FDR White House. It combined a focus on an enemy, a request for money—the equivalent of an emergency war supplemental—and a rallying of Americans to a cause reminiscent of exhortations to purchase war bonds and cultivate victory gardens.
In his “Special Message to Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control,” Nixon claimed that the new Controlled Substances Act was insufficient to the broader task and made an emotional appeal to rally Congress to approve his war funds:
Narcotics addiction is a problem which afflicts both the body and the soul of America. It is a problem which baffles many Americans. In our history we have faced great difficulties again and again, wars and depressions and divisions among our people have tested our will as a people—and we have prevailed. We have fought together in war, we have worked together in hard times, and we have reached out to each other in division—to close the gaps between our people and keep America whole. The threat of narcotics among our people is one which properly frightens many Americans. It comes quietly into homes and destroys children, it moves into neighborhoods and breaks the fiber of community which makes neighbors.… The final issue is not whether we will conquer drug abuse, but how soon. Part of this answer lies with the Congress now and the speed with which it moves to support the struggle against drug abuse.12
President Nixon identified the enemy, laid out a plan of attack, and asked for the support to accomplish the task, but he also built in a strategic effort to help guarantee his success. He immediately distinguished himself as a leader, ready to fight an insidious enemy, and shifted responsibility for fighting this enemy (and prospective blame in the case of failure) to Congress.
Ultimately, Richard Nixon’s efforts were resoundingly successful in a political sense. Less than a year after Nixon declared his War on Drugs, Congress approved his “war supplemental.” On March 16, 1972, the House and Senate approved the Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act of 1972. The House vote was 366–0; the Senate’s, 92–0.13 The appropriations contained in this legislation gave Nixon the additional funding he needed to prosecute the war as he saw fit. And so the United States entered an unprecedented War on Drugs—one that historically was a series of smaller-scale battles. President Nixon ramped up the campaign and ultimately handed the war off to his successors, who as commanders-in-chief would strategize and prosecute this war in their own ways.
5
Prosecuting the War on Drugs
One of the early battles Nixon faced grew out of the Controlled Substances Act itself, Section 601, which established the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. Nixon, who appointed nine of the commission’s thirteen members, likely saw the commission as an opportunity to produce propaganda in support of the War on Drugs; the commission was tasked with producing a report on drug use.1 Many members of Congress