How Drug Laws Change in Response to Social Change

Drug Laws: The Impact of Changing Social Norms and Shifting Morality
There is a veritable universal consensus that the federal government’s half century-long “war on drugs” has been a dismal failure, and there has been a corresponding sea change in public opinion concerning the use of cannabis and other formerly illicit drugs in recent years. Indeed, two-thirds of the states in America have already legalized marijuana in some fashion, and many others are considering this harm-reduction approach for their own citizens as well. This trend is being driven in part by the recognition that enormous tax revenues can be generated from commerce that was conducted on the black market in the past, and it is reasonable to suggest that these trends will continue well into the foreseeable future. To gain some fresh insights the antecedents of these trends, the purpose of this paper is to examine how shifting morality affected the nation’s response to drug control during the period between the enactment of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 and the “war on drugs” launched by the Nixon administration in 1971. In addition, an analysis concerning the reasons behind the nation’s ongoing opioid crisis and the increasing number of states that have legalized recreational marijuana in recent years is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning these trends and their implications for the future in the conclusion.
Review and Analysis
How shifting morality affected the nation’s response to drug control between the passing of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA) and the “War on Drugs” started by the Nixon administration in 1971
In many ways, the events that transpired during the brief period between the passage of the CSA and the Nixon administration’s launch of the “war of drugs” resembled other seminal events in the nation’s history such as the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in late 1905 followed by the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act in June 1906 or the enactment of the USA Patriot Act immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In sum, the U.S. Congress and executive branches are capable of taking action when the nation’s well-being and security are threatened, and it turns out that this was essentially the case with the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
During late 1970 and early 1971, the Nixon administration was faced with a nation seemingly tearing itself apart at the political seams, and it is reasonable to posit that he felt compelled to do something – anything – to help restore law and order during this restive period in American history (Doyle, 1993). In other words, Nixon needed a handy target to focus the nation’s anger and anxiety and African Americans in general and draft-dodging, pot-smoking, LSD-tripping hippies, YIPPIES, Weathermen and the Black Panthers in particular fit this bill perfectly (St. John & Vanessa, 2019). For example, according to Ludlum, and Ford (2019), beginning in early 1970, Nixon launched his doomed “war on drugs” in response to these high-profile social trends: “States implemented racially charged anti-marijuana laws [and] under Richard Nixon, the War on Drugs reached its climax, culminating with the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, making marijuana illegal in all states” (p. 56).
Likewise, instead of Americans hearing about another American soldier killed in Vietnam on the evening news from Uncle Walt, the body count was mounting, there were riots in the streets and people were fearful for the future of their country. Despite appropriating increasing amounts of taxpayer resources to wage the war on drugs, it became increasingly apparent to social science researchers that these monies were not only being wasted (Doyle, 1993), the war on drugs was possibly making the drug abuse problem in America even worse (Ludlum & Darrell, 2019). Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that the United States has experienced a continuing increase in the severity of certain types of drug abuse and these issues are discussed further below.
Why the nation’s opioid abuse and overdose is at historically high levels, yet marijuana has been legalized for recreational use in eight states and how shifting societal values have influenced this trend
As can be discerned from the disturbing trends depicted in Figure 1 below, while some progress has been made in reducing abuse rates for some categories of drugs, the abuse rates and corresponding overdose and death rates for opioids are at unprecedented high levels
Figure 1. National drug overdose deaths: number among all ages by gender – 1999-2018
Source: U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse at https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
Note: “Any opioid” includes prescription opioids (and methadone), heroin and other synthetic narcotics (mainly fentanyl or fentanyl analogs).
As of end of year 2018, more than 67,300 Americans had lost their lives as a result of a opioid overdose, a figure that includes both prescription and illicit drugs (Overdose death rates, 2020), a total that nearly double the lives claimed by traffic accidents in the U.S. each year (Reduced fatalities for third consecutive year, 2020). Unlike the Nixon administration’s response to the growing social unrest in the country, though, public opinion concerning opioid use was heavily influenced by health care practitioners that not only encouraged their patients to take these powerful analgesics but facilitated their continuing access to them as well despite knowing about the addictive qualities of these substances. Moreover, because legitimate opioids were prescribed by licensed physicians, the American public assumed these drugs were safe and this misguided perception extended to illicit versions as well (Hodge et al., 2019).
A particular noteworthy trend that has paralleled the rise in opioid overdoses and addictions is the number of marijuana-related arrests and incarcerations that are made each year, due primarily to fundamental changes in state laws that have legalized cannabis products for medicinal and/or recreational purposes in 70% of the states at present, with more lining up to normalize their marijuana laws and reap the associated taxation benefits (Anderson, 2020). Two landmark pieces of legislation that are currently pending in the U.S. Congress that will legalize marijuana at the federal level include the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act (H.R. 420) and the Marijuana Justice Act of 2019 (S. 597 & H.R. 1456), both of which see to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substance Act’s Schedule I list of drugs with no known medical applications.
Conclusion
As the existential threats of climate change and the global Covid-19 virus pandemic continue to ravage the nation and exact a heavy toll on front-line workers and the public’s already fragile psyche, it is easy to lose sight of how other social problems are adversely affecting tens of millions of Americans each year, including the tens of thousands that die from an opioid overdose. The research was consistent in showing that the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 and the Nixon administration’s “war on drugs” in 1971 were largely in response to perceived threats against the national interest, but the history record also shows that while this threat was real, it emanated from the nation’s capital rather than bongs and rolling papers..
References
Adler, F., Mueller, G.O., & Laufer, W.S. (2018). Criminology (ninth edition). McGraw Hill Education.
Anderson, P. L. (2020, January). Blue smoke and seers: Measuring latent demand for cannabis products in a partially criminalized market. Business Economics, 55(1), 26-31.
Doyle, K. (1993, Fall). Drug war: A quietly escalating failure. Reports on the Americas, 313-317.
Hodge, J. G. et al. (2019, Spring). Innovative law and policy responses to the opioid crisis. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 47, 173-117.
Ludlum, M. & Ford, D. (2019, January 1). The year in Pot: 2018. Southern Journal of Business and Ethics, 11, 96.
Overdose death rates. (2020). National Institutes on Drug Abuse. Retrieved from https://www. drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.
Reduced fatalities for third consecutive year. (2020, May 5). Reduced fatalities for third consecutive year. United States Department of Transportation. Retrieved from https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/early-estimates-traffic-fatalities-2019.
St. John, V. J. & Lewis, V. (2019, January 1). "Vilify them night after night": Anti-Black drug policies, mass incarceration, and pathways forward. Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, 20, 18.