Since the early twentieth century, the United States has led a global prohibition effort against certain drugs in which production restriction and criminalization are emphasized over prevention and treatment as means to reduce problematic usage. This “war on drugs” is widely seen to have failed, and periodically decriminalization and legalization movements arise. Debates continue over whether the problems of addiction and crime associated with illicit use of drugs stem from their illegal status or the nature of the drugs themselves. In The Long War on Drugs Anne L. Foster explores the origin of the punitive approach to drugs and its continued appeal despite its obvious flaws. She provides a comprehensive overview, focusing not only on a political history of policy developments but also on changes in medical practices and understanding of drugs. Foster also outlines the social and cultural changes prompting different attitudes about drugs; the racial, environmental, and social justice implications of particular drug policies; and the international consequences of US drug policy.

Anne L. Foster is Associate Professor of History at Indiana State University, author of Projections of Power: The United States and Europe in Colonial Southeast Asia, 1919–1941, and coeditor of The American Colonial State in the Philippines: Global Perspectives, both also published by Duke University Press.

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction. The Meaning of Drugs  1
1. The Many Uses of Drugs  5
Part I. The Battle for Prohibition, 1870–1940  15
2. Identifying the Problem  19
3. Deciding on Prohibition  31
4. International Conferences  42
5. Changing Practice and Policy in Medicine and Public Health  55
Part II. To a Declaration of a War on Drugs, 1940–1980  67
6. Opportunities of World War II and Its Aftermath  71
7. US Laws and International Conventions  82
8. Who Is Using?  96
9. War on Drugs Declared  109
Part III. Blurring the Lines, 1980–Present  123
10. Mandatory Minimums  127
11. Environmental Effects of the War on Drugs  139
12. Marijuana’s Different Path  152
13. New Challenges to the War on Drugs  164
Conclusion. Never-Ending War on Drugs?  175
Glossary  179
Notes  181
Suggestions for Further Reading  193
Index  199