Origins of the War on Drugs
What U.S. president officially declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971?
Who is Richard Nixon?
What 1986 law under President Reagan increased mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses?
What is the Anti-Drug Abuse Act?
Which racial group has historically faced disproportionately higher arrest rates for drug possession in the U.S.?
Who are Black Americans?
The U.S. “Plan Colombia” primarily aimed to reduce production of what drug?
What is cocaine?
What term describes the movement to make marijuana use legal for medical or recreational purposes?
What is legalization?
Before the 1970s, which drug was targeted most heavily by early U.S. anti-drug campaigns in the 1930s?
What is marijuana?
The “Three Strikes” law increased sentences for repeat offenders. What decade was this policy popularized?
What is the 1990s?
Despite similar usage rates, Black Americans have been arrested for marijuana possession about how many times more often than white Americans?
What is 3 to 4 times?
Which country’s 1980s “cocaine kingpins,” including Pablo Escobar, were a target of U.S. anti-drug efforts?
What is Colombia?
“Harm reduction” policies focus on what primary goal?
What is reducing the negative effects of drug use without necessarily eliminating it?
Nixon described drug abuse as “public enemy number one.” What was the primary government agency created to enforce drug laws in 1973?
What is the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)?
The “crack vs. powder cocaine” sentencing disparity punished possession of crack cocaine how many times more harshly than powder cocaine?
What is 100 times?
What term describes the system of mass incarceration resulting from punitive drug laws?
What is the prison-industrial complex?
The 1970s–2000s saw major U.S.-funded anti-narcotics efforts in which Southeast Asian region known for opium production?
What is the Golden Triangle?
Name one U.S. city known for piloting safe consumption or overdose prevention sites.
What is New York City, San Francisco, or Philadelphia?
In the early 20th century, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (1914) primarily targeted what two substances?
What are opium and cocaine?
In what year did the Controlled Substances Act classify drugs into “schedules” based on medical use and potential for abuse?
What is 1970?
Which 2010 law reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses?
What is the Fair Sentencing Act?
What was the major negative consequence of U.S.-funded anti-drug operations in Latin America, especially for civilians?
What is violence and human rights abuses?
Which European country’s drug decriminalization model is often cited as a success for reducing overdose deaths and HIV transmission?
What is Portugal?
Which confidential Nixon aide later admitted that the drug war was used to criminalize Black people and antiwar activists?
Who is John Ehrlichman?
Which U.S. Supreme Court case (2005) ruled that federal drug laws could override state medical marijuana laws?
What is Gonzales v. Raich?
What author wrote The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness?
Who is Michelle Alexander?
Which 21st-century country decriminalized all drugs in 2001 as a public health measure rather than a criminal one?
What is Portugal?
What policy approach views drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal one?
What is the public health model?