Gerald Ford and the "War on Drugs"
Former president Gerald Ford’s passing is regrettable, of course, and I’m sure the media will bombard us with all sorts of tributes to the man, many of which may be deserved. I write here, however, of his pivotal role in the unfortunate escalation of the so called “War on Drugs”, and its aftermath.
From his April 27th, 1976, Special Message to Congress address:
When this problem exploded into the national consciousness in the late 1960's, the response of the Federal Government was swift and vigorous. Federal spending on a comprehensive program to control drug abuse grew from less than $100 million in 1969 to over three-quarters of a billion in 1974; specialized agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse were created; and international diplomatic efforts to mobilize the assistance of foreign governments in a world-wide attack on drug trafficking were intensified.
With the help of State and local governments, community groups and our international allies in the battle against narcotics, we were able to make impressive progress in combatting the drug menace. So much so that by mid-1973 many were convinced that we had "turned the corner" on the drug abuse problem.
Unfortunately, while we had won an important victory, we had not won the war on drugs. By 1975, it was clear that drug use was increasing, that the gains of prior years were being lost, that in human terms, narcotics had become a national tragedy. Today, drug abuse constitutes a clear and present threat to the health and future of our Nation.
The time has come to launch a new and more aggressive campaign to reverse the trend of increasing drug abuse in America. And this time we must be prepared to stick with the task for as long as necessary.
Ford goes on to ask Congress to pass legislation mandating prison instead of probation, to enact mandatory minimums, even to deny bail to persons accused of certain drug crimes. (Yes, bail is for the accused, not the convicted, and theoretically the right to reasonable bail is protected by the eighth amendment.)
Perhaps in 1976, it was too early to know that an expensive, arbitrary, and severely punitive solution would utterly fail when it came to attacking the problem of drug abuse. Thirty years later, however, there is no excuse. We have been hearing the same thing for over 3 decades, and we do now know that incarceration and mandatory minimums are both ineffective and immoral.
The time has come for a different “solution”.
