The War on Drugs – It’s Not Working

The War on Drugs as we know it, today, “officially” began in 1973 when with passage of New York’s strict sentencing guidelines “known as the ‘Rockefeller drug laws’ — after their champion, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller — that put even low-level criminals behind bars for decades,” according to Brian Mann’s NPR story, today, “The Drug Laws That Changed How We Punish.” Until this sudden, about-face, Governor Rockefeller had been “a champion of drug rehabilitation, job training and housing” as the answer to drug-related crime. “He saw drugs as a social problem, not a criminal one,” says Mann.

So why the Directional Shift in Governor Rockefeller’s War on Drugs?

So what happened to change the Governor’s mind? And how did the “Rockefeller Drug Laws” so radically change our sentencing laws. How successful have these laws been in the war on drugs?

For the print copy of Brian Mann’s story, click here.

Check NPR.org for a podcast of the story. Just 7 minutes and 47 seconds long – it goes a long way to helping us understand the history and from there opening our minds to what we should / could be doing instead.

Lisa Frederiksen

Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com
Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.
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4 Comments

  1. momcat on February 14, 2013 at 11:25 am

    Insanity! I remember the ‘war on drugs’ well. I was a 1973 high school graduate and drugs were free and easy . . . too many kids went to prison.

    • Lisa Frederiksen on February 14, 2013 at 3:18 pm

      I remember those days, as well – so crazy and now that we know it doesn’t work – that it’s a brain disease and that the key risk factors for developing the disease can be addressed | prevented | interrupted… – we have the science to rethink this and do it a different way. Let’s hope we’re on that path, FINALLY!

  2. Bev on February 15, 2013 at 5:25 am

    Today there are more and more voices on the internet, educating others about addiction, giving support to both the addict and families and refuge from the ignorance of stigma. Where do we go from here? How can the average person support change? Do we need a campaign like breast cancer to make that change? It still makes me cringe hearing the word ‘drunk’. I relate it to hearing a person with down syndrome being called ‘dummy’. Of course that doesn’t happen any more because society has become educated about down syndrome. What can we do to educate the public about addiction? How long will it take to make the word ‘drunk’ unacceptable?

    slawoszewski (at) yahoo.com

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