The Drug Wars in America, 1940ÔÇô1973

EAN: 9781107013902
Published 04/07/2013
Language: English

The Drug Wars in America, 1940–1973 argues that the US government has clung to its militant drug war, despite its obvious failures, because effective control of illicit traffic and consumption were never the critical factors motivating its adoption in the first place. Instead, Kathleen J. Frydl shows that the shift from regulating illicit drugs through taxes and tariffs to criminalizing the drug trade developed from, and was marked by, other dilemmas of governance in an age of vastly expanding state power. Most believe the 'drug war' was inaugurated by President Richard Nixon's declaration of a war on drugs in 1971, but in fact his announcement heralded changes that had taken place in the two decades prior. Frydl examines this critical interval of time between regulation and prohibition, demonstrating that the war on drugs advanced certain state agendas, such as policing inner cities or exercising power abroad.

Part I. 1940–60
Preface
Introduction
1. Trade in war
2. Presumptions and pretense
international trade in narcotics
3. 'A society which requires some sort of sedation'
domestic drug consumption, circulation, and perception
Part II. 1960–73
4. Review and reform
the Kennedy commission
5. Police and clinics
enforcement and treatment in the city, 1960–73
6. The cost of denial
Vietnam and the global diversity of the drug trade
Conclusion
war on trade.