The 1980s drug war shifted enforcement from borders to domestic streets

Evidence

The observed changes in the intensity and racial disparities in drug law enforcement are largely due to policy changes adopted as part of the “War on Drugs” of the mid-1980s. Following the cocaine-related deaths of two prominent athletes, Don Rogers and Len Bias, and the associated growing public concern about crack cocaine use, federal policymakers launched a new War on Drugs. Unlike previous drug wars that focused on source countries (e.g., crop eradication), transportation routes (e.g., disrupting the “French Connection”), and interdiction at the borders, the drug war of the mid-1980s added domestic, street-level drug enforcement as a new front (see, for example, Boyum & Reuter, 2005; Musto, 1999). The philosophy guiding the reinvigorated drug war is exemplified by the first National Drug Control Strategy, which stated, “Making streets safer and drug users more accountable for their actions requires the criminal justice system to expand and reform in an unprecedented way. Effective street-level enforcement means dramatically increasing the number of drug offenders arrested” (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 1989, p. 24). The War on Drugs’ philosophy also called for greater use of incarceration and longer terms of imprisonment for drug offenders (ONDCP, 1989) in order to deter drug offending and drug-related crime. This philosophical change in the War on Drugs provided both a plan of action and a rationale for these actions. According to this philosophy, the solution to drug problems was to hold individual users accountable for their actions using harsh sanctions; America needed more drug arrests, more prosecution of drug cases, and more punitive sentences for drug offenders—not drug treatment or other social services. Thus, the War on Drugs spurred police, prosecutors, and judges to increase their emphasis on drug offenders and to use punishment to cure individual and societal drug problems. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1059 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

These refugees typically ended up in the poor neighborhoods of cities like Los Angeles. Once there, many impoverished boys and young men (and, to a lesser extent, girls and young women) found themselves joining U.S.-born-and-bred gangs. In addition to terrorizing U.S. neighborhoods, these refugee gang members were often arrested and deported back to their home countries, where they soon established new branches of their U.S.-based gangs. In turn, these gangs became centrally involved in the growth in drug trafficking in Central America—which the Contras helped kick-start—as drug traffickers took advantage of the region’s poverty and instability to create a new transshipment hub between South American producers and North American points of sale. The main result of the U.S. drug war has been merely to shift transportation routes while increasing violence and doing little to affect consumption. Squeezing trafficking in one place has created a “balloon effect,” pushing the trade from the Caribbean to Honduras and other parts of Central America. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 313 (#complicates, via linked claim)

In 1983, the first available data year, the National Corrections Reporting Program indicates that less than 20,000 inmates were admitted to prisons in the 32 reporting states on a drug offense (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1983–2015). Notably, even in this period of infrequent imprisonment of drug offenders, African Americans’ rate of prison admissions per 100,000 (~13 per 100,000) on a drug offense were more than four times higher than that of Whites (~3 per 100,000). The rate at which African Americans were admitted to prison on a drug crime exploded throughout the remainder of the 1980s, stabilized in the 1990s, peaked around 2,000, and dropped precipitously thereafter. Yet, the Black rate of drug prison admissions currently (~100 per 100,000) is considerably higher than it was in the early 1980s (~13 per 100,000). By contrast, Whites’ rate of prison admission for drug offenses grew relatively slowly in the 1980s and 1990s, continued growing until the mid-2000s, and stabilized thereafter at roughly 30 per 100,000 White Americans. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1042 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The 1980s War on Drugs created street-level policing as a new enforcement front — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 1059; Reagan launched the drug war in 1982 when drug crime was already declining — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 1084; U.S.-funded Central American wars increased drug trafficking and migration to the U.S. (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The 1980s War on Drugs created street-level policing as a new enforcement front #corroborates (0.95) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1059
• The U.S. drug war shifted trafficking routes without reducing consumption, creating a balloon effect #complicates (0.80) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 313
• Racial gaps in drug prison admissions predate the War on Drugs. #complicates (0.75) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1042