The DEA: Enforcer not Lawmaker
The DEA is an enforcer, not a lawmaker. The bulk of the blame for the War on Drugs must go back to a horrible and corrupt decision by then-President Richard Nixon in 1970. He is responsible for the Controlled Substances Act. Repealing the CSA and replacing it with modern legislation is the ideal thing to do now.
Nixon put himself first while in a job where he took an oath to serve all Americans. Never forget, Nixon temporarily placed marijuana in Schedule I, the most restrictive category of drugs. In doing so, Nixon ignored the review by a commission he appointed led by Republican Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer. On March 22, 1972, that commission presented a report to Congress entitled "Marihuana, a Signal of Misunderstanding," which favored ending marijuana prohibition and adopting other methods to discourage use. The report was republished as a Signet Books New American Library paperback in 1972.
History is not the most reliable teller of truth; it is often very biased, so biased that it is untrue. People try to rewrite history every day. One must always consider the source when attempting to evaluate whether a claim is valid. For all the positive things Nixon did, like visiting and opening up a dialogue with China and retiring the gold standard, ignoring the findings of the commission he created, his paranoia-driven decision will forever retain a black mark of death. Many politicians from both sides followed in a lemming-like fashion to continue the futile war. Such is the self-destructive drift of humanity.
In 1994 Joe Biden considered the legislation he sponsored to continue and escalate the War on Drugs his signature legislation. He turned a blind eye to countless people harmed by ill-conceived and untested legislation. In 2020 he recanted by admitting, “[The crime bill] worked in some areas. But it failed in others. ... The violent crime rate was cut in half in America.” Was it? “The violent crime rate has been nearly cut in half — down 46% — from 1994 to 2017, but Biden’s suggestion that the 1994 legislation should be credited is misleading. Factcheck.org looked into a similar claim from Bill Clinton in 2016 and found experts pointed to other factors for most of that crime decrease."1 Multiple variables influence the crime rate. It is disingenuous to suggest a single factor.
Others continue to rationalize the expansion of the War on Drugs, wasting our tax dollars. The War on Drugs is a living travesty that continues to infringe on the rights and freedom of millions of decent Americans. Joe Biden has had his eyes opened; we all have, at least those who are willing to take an objective look at the state of the nation.
In 1972 Watergate got all the press. For months it was all the rage in Washington DC. Nixon, not a crook? Draw your conclusions. For me, Richard Milhouse Nixon, a politician who I once admired, goes down in history as one of the worst criminals of all time. Nixon did his dirty work covertly, and my bet is he continued to discount the harm his policies caused millions of Americans until the day he died. It is the unconscious behavior of all megalomaniacs.
With Nixon out of office, the menace he created continued to ramp up 50 years. The same mentality that extended the Vietnam War was infectiously active in the War on Drugs. Why throw more lives and money at an unwinnable war? Would stopping the War on Drugs harm the economy? No! Just the opposite. Look no further than the impact of the decriminalization of marijuana here and in other countries around the world.
1 Lori Robertson, Biden on the 1994 Crime Bill, July 12, 2019, FactCheck.org, https://www.factcheck.org/2019/07/biden-on-the-1994-crime-bill/