Drugs—A Long and Varied History - The War Goes On

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (PL 100-690) created the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), to be headed by a director—popularly referred to as the "drug czar"—who would coordinate the nation's drug policy. Federal budget documents indicate that spending for drug control rose from $4.2 billion under President Ronald Reagan to $12.2 billion in the last year of the elder President George Bush's term. As was the case during the Reagan administration, the monetary split was roughly two-thirds for law enforcement and one-third for treatment and prevention. By 1990 every state that had once decriminalized the use of marijuana had repealed those laws.

When he took office in 1993, President Bill Clinton cut the ONDCP staff from 146 to twenty-five, while at the same time raising the director of the ONDCP to cabinet status. Clinton called for one hundred thousand more police officers on the streets and advocated drug treatment on demand. White House budget documents indicate that in 1998 drug-control spending totaled $16.1 billion, with the split remaining at about two-thirds for law enforcement and one-third for treatment and prevention.

Taking office in 2001, President George W. Bush promised to continue national efforts to eradicate illegal drugs in the United States and abroad. On May 10, 2001, Bush appointed John Walters the new drug czar. Together they pledged to continue "an all-out effort to reduce illegal drug use in America," according to the White House news release announcing the appointment. Their proposed goals included increased spending on treatment, intensified work with foreign nations, and an adamant opposition to the legalization of any currently illegal drugs. The Bush administration also wove its antidrug message into its arguments for invading Afghanistan. While Bush's case was built primarily on the notion that Afghanistan's Taliban leaders had harbored terrorist Osama bin Laden, he regularly referred to Afghanistan's role as the world's biggest producer of the opium poppies from which heroin is made.

Over the course of Bush's first term, White House budget documents indicate that federal spending on drug control grew from $9.8 billion to $12.1 billion (it is important to note that in the mid-1990s, changes were made in the list of expenditures included in this tally, making it difficult to analyze historical drug control spending trends), with treatment still accounting for just under one-third of the total.

Questioning the War on Drugs

By 2005 there was considerable controversy surrounding the necessity and effectiveness of the war on drugs. Decades of effort have led to large numbers of people serving prison sentences for manufacturing, selling, or using drugs. And yet the illegal drug trade continued to thrive. Many liberal critics have argued that a different approach is necessary. Even some prominent conservatives and Bush allies, including commentator William F. Buckley and former Secretary of State George Schultz, had begun to question whether illicit drugs were an enemy worth waging war against, especially such a costly war during a time of rapidly rising federal budget deficits.