The Drug Trade: Demand
• Illegal drug trade in US worth around $350
billion
• Major drugs include heroin, cocaine,
methamphetamine and marijuana.
• Since early twentieth century, US government
has waged a “war on drugs”
Drug Use in the USA
The roots of drug prohibition
• During C19, drugs including opium, heroin,
morphine and cocaine are taken as medicine
Race and anti-drugs legislation
• US anti-drugs policies have repeated linked certain out
of favor racial or ethnic groups with the use of certain
narcotics.
• 1870-90s – Chinese and opium
• 1900s – Cocaine and African Americans
• 1930s – Mexicans and marijuana
• 1980s – Crack and African Americans
Other factors
• Class and association with working class leisure
(Courtwright)
• Hygiene and urban planning (Spillane)
• Fear of “enslavement”, modernity, and
neurasthania (Hickman)
• Gender (connected to prostitutes and
homosexuality) (Keire)
The Chicago Case: The Levee District,
1903
The 1919 riots
Neurasthania
• 1909 Shanghai meeting of International Opium
Commission
• 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act – regulated and taxed
the production, importation and distribution of opiates
and coca products
• 1937 Marijuana tax act
• Creation of Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930 (run by
Harry J. Anslinger)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuUL
y9zs
Drugs and the Counterculture
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBpjUHK
XNhI
• Timothy Leary and Psychedelics
• The Beats and Marijuana
• Vietnam and Heroin
The 1970s and the War on Drugs
• During 1960s drugs became symbols of youth,
rebellion and the counterculture.
• 1971 President Nixon announced war on drugs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc47fMU8sf8
• Introduced mandatory sentences, created the DEA,
placed marijuana in most restrictive category of drugs.
• Introduced drug abuse to foreign policy
Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs
• Ronald Reagan (another President from California) revamped the
war on drugs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYWS7udm0yg
• Hysteria over crack epidemic
• Reintroduced harsh penalties (3 strikes and you’re out, more
mandatory sentencing especially for crack cocaine)
• Increased prison population of people charged with low level
offences from 50,000 in 1981 to 400,000 in 1997
• Now US holds 25 per cent of world’s prison population.
African Americans and the war on
Drugs
Mass Incarceration and Race
• Roots in harsh policing and sentencing of African Americans in
1970s, especially in New York State. (post-race riots of 1960s)
• Up to 2008, sentencing for crack was 30 times as much as for same
weight of cocaine
• 13 per cent of African American population has tried crack. 13 per
cent of Caucasian population has tried crack.
• Black male born in 1990s will have a 30 percent chance of ending
up in jail.
• 1 in 3 African Americans between 20 and 29 are under some form
of criminal justice supervision.
Other Factors
• Cash incentives
– Reintroduction of prison work schemes by 37 states (pay as low as 17c per
hour in private prisons)
– Prison labor now produces 100% all military helmets, ammunition belts,
bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens, 93% of
paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of
home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of
office furniture
– Private prisons provide jobs for failing rural towns.
• Voting
– Large prison complexes bring work for rural white poor and stop outmigration.
Thus incentives for Republican congressmen to bring them to their regions.
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0atL1HSwi8