In the early 1970s, U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs.” The idea was simple: criminalize, police, and punish drug use until it disappeared. Billions were spent, prisons swelled, and the policy spread across the globe. For decades, the war defined entire legal systems, fueling mass incarceration and militarized policing.
But the drugs never disappeared. Cocaine, heroin, meth — and later opioids — surged anyway. The crackdown hit hardest in poor and minority communities, creating cycles of poverty and crime that law enforcement alone could never solve. Meanwhile, the cartels and underground markets thrived, sometimes stronger than the states trying to crush them.
Today, the War on Drugs looks less like a solution and more like a cautionary tale. Cannabis is legalized in much of the West, psychedelic therapy is reemerging, and “harm reduction” is replacing punishment in public policy. What began as a crusade is ending as a reckoning — proof that fighting substances with prisons only multiplies the harm.