1971 - "enemy number one" - ?

Blacks + Anti-War Left

Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana

America

Clearly defined enemy, home + foreign front, battle plan, casualties, weapons

Educate population, reduce drug-related crime, reduce health/social costs, break foreign and domestic supply.

At home: users and dealers intercepted. Border control. International: Countries/groups that cultivate, process or traffic are intercepted and attacked.

Policies based on consumption rather than production. Curb demand through education + law enforcement. Cutting off availability of drugs to raise price and choke demand.

Policies based on production rather than consumption. Police border control. International diplomacy. Blaming an outsider for problems, generally interdiction with farmers and crop eradication.

Mandatory 1 year sentence for crack cocaine. Blacks 80% of crack cocaine users.

63% of whites receive jail time compared to 71% of blacks. Blacks are 10.1 times more likely than whites to be incarcerated for drugs, even though they only make up 1/3 of those who use in America.

82%

Incarceration skyrockets costing taxpayer lots of money, combined with billions consistently wasted for worse results.

Relatively easy to do and creates short term efficient looking results.

Livelihoods destroyed, pushes prices of drugs up and forces more planting.