The War On Drugs

"The War on Drugs is a War on You"

 A Brief Timeline of the War on Drugs

Detailed timeline can be found here.

1968: Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) is created. 

1970: Keith Stroup founds the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

October 27, 1970: The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act is passed by Congress.

June 17, 1971: Official "war on drugs" is declared by President Nixon.

January 1972: The Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement is created. 

July 1973: The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is created.

November 22, 1975: Medellin Massacre happens. 

1981-1982: The Medellin cartel increases power and creates alliances with the Ochoa family, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha.

January 28, 1982: The South Florida Drug Task Force is created.

Early-1980s: Crack cocaine begins to be developed.

1984: "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign launched by Nancy Reagan.

Mid-1980s: The Mexican border experiences in increase in the amount of cocaine being trafficked into the United States.

October 27, 1986: The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 is signed by President Reagan.  Mandatory minimum penalties are created.

1989: The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is created by President H.W. Bush.

January 25, 1990: Military spending is increased by 50% by President H.W. Bush to combat the war on drugs.

November 1993: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed by President Clinton.

May 1995: A report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission details the sentencing differences between cocaine and crack and the impact on different racial groups.  Congress disagrees and makes no changes.

August 2000: $1.3 billion in aid is given to Colombia through President Clinton's administration in effort to decrease cocaine production.

April 2003: The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act is signed.

Sources
Frontline/PBS. (n.d.). Thirty years of America's drug war: A chronology. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/ 

NPR. (2007). Timeline: America's war on drugs. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9252490

Infographic can be found here.