September 30, 2006


A History of Drug Prohibition

. . . and a prediction for its abolition and replacement from the Transform Drug Policy Foundation (UK).

1969. USA - Mexico.

‘Operation Intercept’ targets the smuggling of cannabis into the USA over the Mexican border. The two-week operation (involving a three-minute inspection for every vehicle passing over the border) adversely impacts the local economy on both sides, and has a ‘negligible’ [4] effect on cannabis supply to the US.

The zeal with which Operation Intercept is conducted is at odds with its short timescale and relatively low effectiveness in stemming the flow of cannabis, adding weight to the impression that the drug ‘problem’ is being used for geo-political leverage. G. Gordon Liddy writes in his autobiography: ‘The Mexicans, using diplomatic language of course, told us to go piss up a rope. The Nixon administration didn’t believe in the United States taking crap from any foreign government. Its reply was Operation Intercept.’ [5]

[4] Letter from Mexican Foreign Secretary, Antonio Carrillo Flores, to US President Nixon in September 1969

[5] Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 1998) p.185, quoted in Doyle, K, Operation Intercept: The Perils Of Unilateralism (2003)

This timeline contains a selection of events that were felt to be of significance in the history of prohibition and the campaign for drug law reform. It is not intended to be a historically comprehensive document, but to give a sense of narrative and progress; to shed some light on why we are where we are with regard to the drug laws, and more importantly, how we can use this experience to move forward.

The final section 2007-2026 looks into the future and contains Transform’s predictions for how absolute prohibition will be replaced by regulated drug markets over the coming years.

posted by Sheila Ryan in drugs, history, public policy 

comments

2 Responses to “A History of Drug Prohibition”

  1. Lee Willcock on October 1st, 2006 at 11:50 am

    While lazing in the air-conditioned stacks of the Graduate Library, Univ. of Florida, in the 1960s, I found a book written sometime between 1920 and 1940 in which an anti-drug zealot told an unbelievable story that presumptively took place in the 1920s. Part, I think, of the build-up toward the rule of H. J. Anslinger and J. E. Hoover.

    OK, this fledgling narc infiltrates the drug culture of the Deep South somewhere, and finds that Negroes are having fun. I can’t remember how the narc or fed of some kind got to see this, but he says that a white guy pharmacist allowed Negroes to use cocaine in the back of his store. The druggist (love that nomenclature) gets money from the people sitting in a circle and using cocaine in some fashion that I also don’t remember. But here’s the charm, picture this, the cocaine users get up and dance around madly and then quickly fall asleep on the floor. Some skip the dancing and just tip out of their chairs to the floor in a cocoloco dream. I swan! Does this sound like a cocaine party? Or does the author mistake heroin for cocaine?

    OR IS HE A BIG FAT FEDERAL LIAR?

    I would have to spend a week in Gainesville to track this down, but I do remember the description of the revelers and the druggist. Pass it on.

  2. Sheila Ryan on October 1st, 2006 at 11:53 am

    BIG FAT FEDERAL LIAR is almost always a good surmise.