Even before President Nixon officially declared a war on drugs, his drug policy shifted in dramatic ways, in part rhetorical and in part statutory. In his first year in office, Nixon discussed combatting drug use on numerous occasions—in speeches, in messages to Congress, and through executive actions. On July 14, 1969, Nixon told Congress that drug abuse was “a serious national threat to the personal health and safety of millions of Americans.”2 With the commonplace rhetoric of drug policy, he went on to put the consequences into a horrifying yet digestible context for Congress and the public: “Street robberies, prostitution, even enticing of others into addiction to drugs—an addict will reduce himself to any offense, any degradation in order to acquire the drugs he craves.”3 Nixon’s address included a ten-point plan that focused largely on empowering law enforcement and expanding punishment. Only one plank of the plan addressed rehabilitation of addicts, but with the explicit caveat that “this sickness cannot excuse the crimes they commit.”4
Nixon’s actions went beyond rhetoric. The first shot in what would become Nixon’s new War on Drugs began in response to a court case. On May 19, 1969—less than four months into the Nixon presidency—the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in Leary v. United States.5 The case was significant for the future of drug policy and likely had a substantial effect on what would become Nixonian activism on the issue. Timothy Leary, a Harvard professor, was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border for possessing marijuana and charged with violating the Marijuana Tax Act. He sued, claiming that the law violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, as it required him to admit possessing an illegal substance because he had an obligation to pay taxes on it under the act. Ultimately the Supreme Court agreed and ruled as unconstitutional the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937—one of the country’s most significant pieces of marijuana legislation.
Just a few months later, in September 1969, Nixon and John Ingersoll, the head of the new Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (the successor to the Bureau of Narcotics), authorized Operation Intercept, a multiday effort to shutter the U.S.-Mexico border to search vehicles for illegal drugs. The expensive operation yielded relatively little in terms of seizures of contraband, led to an aggressive counteroperation by the Mexican government, and was widely considered a failure—except within the White House.6 On October 23, 1969, President Nixon organized the Bipartisan Leadership Meeting on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and after delivering opening remarks, he introduced Ingersoll and offered him an opportunity to heap praise upon Operation Intercept. Nixon explained, “Operation Intercept was very, very successful. While it was in effect, and even to this day, the flow of narcotics and marihuana from Mexico into this country was substantially curtailed. Marihuana is still in short supply in the United States, and in most places where it is available, at least the Mexican form, the prices have doubled and in some cases tripled.”7 Contemporary and historical accounts of Operation Intercept suggest that Nixon was divorced from reality in making these comments.8
Arming General Nixon and His Conscripts
Besides his rhetorical efforts to put the drug problem into his preferred context and his cheerleading for the administration’s drug control efforts, the president also sought legislative paths toward expanded federal power to control drugs. In 1970 Nixon took up the cause of bringing the United States into line with the UN’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Working with Congress, the president signed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, more commonly known as the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).9
This law formalized the drug scheduling construct prescribed in the Single Convention. Under CSA, there would be five drug schedules ranging from Schedule I to Schedule V. Schedule I would be reserved for what Congress and subsequently 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
