Federal drug policy of the United States
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Drug use has increased in all categories since prohibition[1] except that opium use is at a fraction of its peak level. The big decline in use of opium started already after the Harrison Act of 1914.[2] Use of heroin peaked between 1969 and 1971, cocaine, between 1987 and 1989 and marijuana between 1978 and 1979.[3]
Between 1972 and 1988, the use of cocaine increased more than fivefold.[4] The usage patterns of the current two most prevalent drugs, amphetamines and ecstasy, have shown similar gains.[1]
Despite the Reagan administration's high-profile public pronouncements, secretly, many senior officials of the Reagan administration illegally trained and armed the Nicaraguan Contras, which they funded by the shipment of large quantities of cocaine into the United States using U.S. government aircraft and U.S. military facilities.[5][6] Funding for the Contras was also obtained through the illegal sale of weaponry to Iran.[7][8] When this practice was discovered and condemned in the media, it was referred to as the Iran-Contra affair.
In 1996, 56% of California voters voted for Proposition 215, legalizing the growing and use of marijuana for medical purposes. This created significant legal and policy tensions between federal and state governments. Courts have since decided that state laws in conflict with a federal law about cannabis are not valid. Cannabis is restricted by federal law (see Gonzales v. Raich). In 2010 California Proposition 19 (also known as the Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act) was defeated, with 53.5% of California voters voting "No" and 46.5% voting "Yes."[9]
[edit] See also
- Office of National Drug Control Policy
- Drug Enforcement Administration
- National Institute on Drug Abuse
- War on Drugs
- Drug Prohibition
- Arguments for and against drug prohibition
- Drug court
- Legal issues of cannabis
- Medical cannabis
- Decriminalization of marijuana in the United States
- Legal history of marijuana in the United States
- Cannabis rescheduling in the United States
[edit] References
- ^ a b Monitoring The Future
- ^ Stephen R. Kandall, M.D.:Women and Addiction in the United States—1850 to 1920
- ^ WGBH educational foundation. Interview with Dr. Robert Dupoint
- ^ Controlling Cocaine: Supply Versus Demand Programs
- ^ "The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations / Documentation of Official U.S. Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras". The National Security Archive, The George Washington University. http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm. Retrieved 2006.
- ^ Cockburn, Alexander; Jeffrey St. Clair (1998). Whiteout, the CIA, Drugs and the Press. New York: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-258-5.
- ^ The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations
- ^ "Excerpts From the Iran-Contra Report: A Secret Foreign Policy". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/29/reviews/iran-transcript.html.
- ^ "Supplement to the Statement of Vote Statewide Summary by County for State Ballot Measures". Secretary of State's office. January 6, 2011. http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2010-general/ssov/ballot-measures-summary.pdf. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
[edit] External links
- Office of National Drug Control Policy
- Drug Enforcement Agency
- NATIONAL DRUG POLICY: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Prepared For The Senate Special Committee On Illegal Drugs - Report for the Canadian Parliament
- Human Rights Watch Racially Disproportionate Drug Arrests
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