Drugs In The 1960's

The time: the 1960s. The place: United States of America. Who? The youth. Doing what? Using drugs. Why? Many reasons. The 1960s proved to be a very turbulent time in the history of American youth growing up. There were many different activist movements all over the country. The primary drug user was the male college student involved in politics. He used mostly marijuana, some cocaine or LSD and of course alcohol. The sixites culminated with perhaps the biggest public scene of drug use ever: Woodstock. American youth in the sixties turned to drugs for a variety of reasons including the Vietnam War, the feeling of rebellion, activist movements, and the general pleasure-oriented society.

Drugs first surfaced in the United States in the 1800s. After the Civil War opium become very popular and was used medicinally. Following opium was cocaine which was also used as a health remedy but near the end of the 19th century opium and cocaine abuse peaked and local governments began to prohibit opium dens and importation. In 1914 the first federal drug policy, the Harrison Narcotics act, is passed and drugs are no longer seen as harmless remedies. The act aggressively regulated the manufacturing of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. During the 50’s more federal drug policies were passed and drugs began to become more criminalized. The 60’s saw a rise in counter-culture and substances such as marijuana and LSD saw widespread use. The demand for drugs skyrocketed in the 1960s. In 1971 President Nixon declared drug abuse America 's number one enemy and proclaimed that we must wave a all out offensive. After President Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1971, the United States has spent more than a trillion dollars on this failing policy that not only has had no effect on the amount of drugs being used in the United States and has increased the number of people incarcerated on drug charges from just 50,000 to over half a million, but also has helped fuel drug cartels and foment violence and death through overdoses from uncontrolled drug potency and turf wars between street gangs.

The War on Drugs began in increments, first with President Nixon and secondly with President Reagan (Hill, Oliver, Marion, 2012). While under the Nixon administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration was developed due to the thought of how drugs can affect an individual as well as a community. Drugs did not only affect the user and the community, but also the families as well as children. Out of all the presidents, it is documented that President Nixon was one who had discussions about drugs more than any other president (Hill, et al., 2012).

In the late 1960's and early 1970's, the federal government began to increasingly tighten drug laws. In 1972, President Richard Nixon formally declared a "War on Drugs", which continues

The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 was the first of many laws due to the laissez-faire attitude toward drug use in the United States. Brecher 1972 states (as cited in Powell & Redford, 2016) society’s view on drugs was not problematic until the end of the nineteenth century. After the Civil War, a widespread epidemic of drugs swept across the nation, which fuels the drug wars of today (Powell & Brecher, 2016).

The war on drugs was and is racist for several reasons. It was used to jail African Americans and hippies in the early 1970’s, keep more people of color in jail for, and to deport immigrants. In June 1971 President Nixon declared the war on drugs to jail those who would vote against him. Two small but loud groups, hippies and African Americans and hippies were against Nixon. At the time these two groups were stereotyped as heavy marijuana users. After Nixon, jail sentences were then lengthened for possession of marijuana to unreasonable and illogical lengths. Then during the 1990’s, when Bill Clinton was president, the number of policemen was dramatically raised. The number was raised so much that there was not enough money for sufficient training

From 1940-1960, U.S. citizens viewed their country as one of the uppermost. The U.S. was the first to the moon, the first to gain nuclear power, and, to some, appeared to be the top country. The 1950s saw a decrease in the divorce rate to only around 21%, further enforcing the public image of happily married couples. After the end of WWII, the U.S. felt like it could do anything, and winning the space race just filled its citizens with even more confidence. As the U.S. drew closer to the next decade, it felt unstoppable. However, with the start of the Vietnam war and other issues, this image would soon be shattered.

Drugs prior to the new millenia were becoming more prominent as decades pass. In the 1960s drugs, specifically marijuana was primarily used by jazz musicians and hip characters in the inner cities, this was known as the beat generation. As the late 1960s progressed into the early 1970s the war on drugs had begun. To be specific in 1971 President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. As the war on drugs progressed through the 1970s and grew into the 1980s many different drugs surfaced and reared their ugly heads and caused the drug panic.

While laws prohibiting the use of drugs, in one form or another, can be traced back to the 1870s, it was not until 1968, when Richard M. Nixon was elected President, that our current drug war was conceived. In 1970 Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act.(2) With an

Ever since the adoption of drugs being dangerous for our society, the acceptance of people have fluctuated. At the being of the 70’s and 80’s people would not allow or accept the usage of Marijuana. But the drug would only increase in popularity and surround youngster and celebrities at the time. Celebrities such as John Lennon, known worldwide consumed Marijuana. Putting the blame on this lead singer from The Beetles for popularizing the drug, Federal agents tried to take them down with home raids and privacy invasion. During the 70’s this occurred more than often as the Drug Policies were strict and government officials were trying to keep a hard hand on those whom were seen with any drugs. Another Celebrity that was portrayed the popularization

Since the early 1960’s there have been an alarming increase in drug use in the United States in 1962, four million Americans had tried an illegal drug. By 1999, that number had risen to a staggering 88.7 million, according to the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

America has been fighting drug abuse for over a century. Four Presidents have waged a “War on Drugs” and unfortunately, this war continues to be lost at an alarming magnitude. Drug abusers continue to fill our courts, hospitals, and prisons. The drug trade causes violent crime that ravages our neighborhoods. Children of drug abusers are neglected, abused, and even abandoned. The current methods of dealing with this issue are not working. Our society needs to implement new and effective laws and programs to address the problem of drug abuse. Drugs first surfaced in the United States in the 1800’s, with the use of opium during and after the Civil War. Cocaine followed in the 1880’s and the abuse of these drugs at the end of the 19th century reached epidemic proportions. Morphine was discovered in 1906 and soon became a huge problem as well. Drugs were no longer being viewed as harmless remedies for aches and pains. The Harrison Narcotics Act, passed in 1914, was the United States’ first federal drug policy. The aggressively enforced act restricted the manufacture and sale of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. During this time there was a worldwide movement limiting opium and coca crops and by World War II, American drug use had become a rare, marginal social problem. During the 1960s, drugs like marijuana, amphetamines, and psychedelics were developed and a new generation was exposed to drugs. Marijuana became fashionable on college campuses and users sought to expand

Drugs have been around for a lot longer then many would believe. Some of the first drugs to be used by mankind were opioids as far back as 5000 bc by the Sumerians during religious rituals (Timeline). Since then drugs have been used by almost every culture on the Earth. One of the first large scale drugs issues to have happened in the past 500 years was in China with opium that was bought through the British traders. The British started the war over Chinese produced teas The war disrupted the opium trade that Britain had with China. Those addicted to opium in China had no where to get their drugs and many died from the side effects of withdrawal from the drug. After a few hundred years the US began having its own issues with tobacco, alcohol and many new drugs that were first used for medical purposes but were quickly deemed harmful and addictive (Cannabis). First attempt to fix this was prohibition

The history of the War on Drugs has come an extensive way as it began in the 1960s and continues to this day. As the Republican Party were in favor of strict drug laws, they became in favor of Nixon’s policies. On July 14th, 1969 President Nixon announced to the public that the War on Drugs was a serious nationwide threat to our country with the abuse of drugs and criminal behavior developing into street crime. As an attempt to control addictive drugs use president Nixon, enacted the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) which was signed in 1970 by President Nixon. The CSA was shaped through five schedules that targeted and justify criminal convictions. Over 200 drug laws

On Thursday June 17, 1971, United States President Richard Nixon gave a press conference to publicize the publication of the special message that was given to Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control. During this he declared drug abuse "public enemy number one" (Nixon, 1971). In the message to Congress Nixon states that the United States should dedicate more federal resources to “the "prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted” (Nixon, 1971). This part did not receive equal public attention as the term "war on drugs". This where the term “war on drugs” was popularized by the mass media, even though Nixon had officially declared a war on drugs, two years prior in 1969. There is a long history of America’s war on drugs that’s dates back to the post-Civil War reconstruction era. The war started locally in San Francisco when the city passed the nation’s first anti-drug law making it a misdemeanor to possess opium (Gieringer, 2000). Several years later in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the first nationally enacted law prohibiting drugs was created called the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (1914). This was a federal law that regulated and taxed the manufacture, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products. (ADD TRANSTITION)