Nixon's Rationale for Starting the "War on Drugs"

In the 1960s I really didn't understand why the US stepped up the "drug war." Yes, we heard stories about drug abuse. But during my 5 years of college, I had never seen anyone have, buy, sell, or use drugs. Of course, we did tap an occasional keg of beer at our fraternity on Saturday night. There was a news report that Penn State police arrested someone for selling marijuana, but it turned out the man was selling oregano, so he was released. I understand that to prevent similar embarrassment many states later passed laws to make selling of non-drugs as drugs illegal. As I became an officer in the Air Force in 1968, the military gradually ramped-up drug abuse training & surveillance. Yes, we certainly didn't want people flying planes, piloting ships, or carrying guns under the influence of drugs. In the "civilian world" though, it seemed that the Government's efforts were only making the drug problem worse, and the Government was gradually taking away our rights with the "drug war" as justification. It always seemed like a mystery how Government could get away with violating so many of our constitutional rights to prevent people from doing something that affected only themselves in the privacy of their own home.

Last week, Dan Baum published an article in Harper's entitled "Legalize It All:  How to Win the War on Drugs/" Dan Baum says that in a 1994 interview he had with John Ehrlichman, he finally resolved the mystery. Ehrlichman said that Richard Nixon stoked the fires of the drug war in order to continue his war in Vietnam, and his battle against Blacks. Once he got the drug war going, it was hard to stop. All subsequent administrations found it useful to continue. Since that time, the drug war-industrial complex has grown HUGE. I don't think that anyone has ever been able to add up the amount of money spent each year by all levels of government involved in the drug war. I don't believe there is any branch of our government, at any level that doesn't have to consider some aspect of the drug war in their operations or budget.  Even neighborhood parks have to consider the drug war in their design and operation. Ehrlichman's statement, if true, does make sense, and at least partially explains why the Government did what it did.  Each participant in the "drug war" has continued to do what they think is the right thing to do to fight that war.  As a result, we now allow the Government to search everyone going in and out of our borders for money and drugs using both expensive and sophisticated equipment and highly trained dogs.  We use powerful computers to monitor all of our money transfers through the banking system, and monitor and track all of our travel, phone calls, and internet browsing.  When will it stop?  How much further will they go?  If we can't keep drugs out of prisons, how can we keep them from the public.  

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