Argumentative Essay: The War On Drugs

The “War on Drugs” began in June of 1971 and was brought about by President Nixon. He used this powerful statement to begin increasing federal drug control agencies across America. He even temporarily placed marijuana in Schedule One, which was the most prohibited category of drugs. Nixon’s extreme criminalization of marijuana was placed under review by a commission that he appointed, but in 1972 this commission unanimously agreed that possession and distribution of marijuana for personal use should be decriminalized. Nixon ignored their suggestion.
Unfortunately for Nixon many states disagreed with his decision and between 1973 and 1977 eleven states decriminalized possession of marijuana. The tables turned just a few years later as high rates of marijuana use by teenagers shocked parents. Today as many Americans push for not only the decriminalization of marijuana but also the legalization of the drug, the discovery of extremely high rates of marijuana usage by teens is much less scandalous. So far twenty-six states have legalized marijuana in some form. Out of those twenty-six only eight states have legalized marijuana for recreational use including California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, and Alaska.

This drug was not focused on by many until the 1980s when Ronald Reagan took office and his wife began an anti-drug campaign and coined the statement many have heard today “Just Say No.” This campaign set the stage for the zero tolerance policies implemented in the mid-to-late 1980s. (History of… ) In 1985 a poll to determine the “number one problem” in America, a maximum of 6% of people saw drug abuse as this problem. This insignificant 6% grew through the remainder of the 1980s where it capped out at a whopping 64%, but as the media lost interest the figure dropped back down to around