Crime Overview - Drug War Trends: Arrests

Between 1982 and 2000, the population in the United States increased 19.2%. Arrests for drug-related charges were up 127% during the same period. Arrests for the "possession" — of marijuana, cocaine powder, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and other opiates, and other drugs (barbiturates, stimulants, and hallucinogens) — were up most, 136%; arrests for sale and manufacturing of illegal substances were up 122%.

The majority of arrests were for the possession of illegal substances, although the ratios shifted over time. In the 1982 to 2000 period, just under three-quarters of arrests were for possession on average, although in the middle of this period (1989-1992), rates dropped into the high 60% range.

It may be well to put these steeply rising curves into some kind of perspective. The table on the beginning on the following page does the job.

It is clear from the table that the "war on drugs," which began officially in 1971, had started well before that date. Since then 13 major legislative actions at the national level have tried to bring drugs — and drug users — under control. Before that time, to the start of the 20th century, 12 other significant events took place. Not shown is the biggest single legislative effort ever to try to change our consumption of "substances" — the prohibition of alcohol (1920-1933). It required a constitutional amendment to establish (the 19th, also known as the Volstead Act of 1919) and to remove (the 20th Amendment, passed in 1933).

Key Events in the "War on Drugs"

Year	Event	Year	Event
1914	Harrison Act. Outlaws opiates, cocaine.	1972	Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act — introduces Federal prevention, treatment programs.
1915	First anti-marijuana law passed in Utah by the state legislature dominated by Mormons.	1973	Methadone Control Act, Heroin Trafficking Act. Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) established.
1922	Narcotic Drug Import and Export Act -intended to eliminate narcotics except in medicine.	1974	Drug Abuse Treatment and Control Amendments.
1924	Heroin Act -Prohibits manufacture of heroin.	1978	Alcohol and Drug Abuse Education Amendments. Department of Education gets a role. CDACA amendments allow authorities to seize drug traffickers' assets.
1937	Marihuana Tax Act. The legislation extends controls over marijuana modeled on the control of other narcotics.	1980	Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation Amendments — expands education and treatment programs.
1942	Opium Poppy Control Act -licenses growing the poppy.	1984	Drug Offenders Act — authorizes special offender treatment programs.
1951	Harrison Act Amendment -imposes mandatory sentences for narcotics violations.	1986	Analogue (Designer Drug) Act — makes illegal substances that mimic in effect or function natural drugs.
1956	Narcotics Control Act — increases penalties for violation of narcotics laws.	1988	Anti-Drug Abuse Act — establishes an oversight policy for the National Drug Control Policy.
1965	Drug Abuse Control Amendments (DACDA) — bring LSD, barbiturates, amphetamines under control.	1989	America's first Drug Czar is William Bennett under the first Bush administration.
1966	Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act — treatment permitted as alternative to incarceration.	1992	ADAMHA Reorganization. New organization is Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). From Uncle Adam to Uncle Sam?
1968	DACDA Amendments. Liberalizes punishments for non-repeaters.	1995	Congress overrides U.S. Sentencing Commission recommendation to correct racial imbalances in white/black sentencing for cocaine, crack.
1970	Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act (CDACA)— includes Controlled Substances Act. "No-knock" searches authorized.	1996	General Barry McCaffrey as new drug czar under the Clinton administration.
1971	Nixon declares "War on Drugs," creates the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP).

Also omitted are laws and regulations attempting to curb Americans' consumption of tobacco. Tobacco and alcohol are unquestionably two "drugs" that cause more premature deaths in the nation than all other "substances" combined. The war against tobacco is still in its warm-up stages (cigarette "speak-easies" haven't appeared yet). The war on drugs is in full cry. We capitulated to alcohol 70 years ago.

To some extent a tongue-in-cheek characterization is justified: as a nation we seem adamantly determined to hang on to our chemical crutches — and our drugs of choice appear to pass, over the decades, from permissible enjoyments into criminal consumption then back into legality again. Meanwhile, in every instance, crime waves arise and then only subside again after legalization.

In the next panel we look at the consequences of these arrests — how they turn into incarcerations.

Sources: Arrest statistics from U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, accessible at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/00cius.htm. Timelines from Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, "Drug Law Timeline," http://www/druglibrary.org and Public Broadcasting System, "Thirty Years of America's Drug War," www.pbs.org.