IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 747 

Acknowledging that the War on Drugs has been a failed policy in achieving 

the goal of reducing drug use, and for the House of Representatives 

to apologize to the individuals and communities that were victimized 

by this policy. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 6, 2019 

Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN (for herself, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. 

NORTON, Mr. LEWIS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. MOORE, Ms. PRESSLEY, 

Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. 

HORSFORD, Ms. JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. FUDGE, Ms. BASS, Mr. BROWN

of Maryland, Ms. ADAMS, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. 

DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, and Mr. POCAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, 

and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be 

subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 

of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Acknowledging that the War on Drugs has been a failed 

policy in achieving the goal of reducing drug use, and 

for the House of Representatives to apologize to the 

individuals and communities that were victimized by this 

policy. 

Whereas, until the early 1900s, most of today’s illegal substances were not regulated by the Federal Government, 

and there was no ‘‘War on Drugs’’; 


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•HRES 747 IH 

Whereas, in the 1930s, the first Commissioner of the Federal 

Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, who was a 

strong opponent to marijuana, pushed a heavy propaganda campaign to demonize marijuana use, stating that 

it caused people to become violent and criminals; 

Whereas much of this propaganda was racially charged 

against the Mexican-American community, for example, 

as Commissioner Anslinger testified to the 75th Congress 

in 1937 that, ‘‘I wish I could show you what a small 

marijuana cigarette can do to one of our degenerate 

Spanish speaking residents. That’s why our problem is so 

great; the greatest percentage of our population is composed of Spanish-speaking persons, most of who are low 

mentally, because of social and racial conditions’’; 

Whereas, in 1937, the 75th Congress passed the Marijuana 

Tax Act which criminalized marijuana, and laws passed 

during the following years were introduced to institute 

mandatory minimum sentences for those who bought, 

sold, and used the drug; 

Whereas over the course of the next few decades, studies conducted by scientists did not find any connection between 

the use of marijuana and violent behaviors, and in 1973 

the Shafer Commission Report on Marijuana and Drugs 

concluded that, ‘‘The Commission believes that the contemporary American drug problem has emerged in part 

from our institutional response to drug use . . . We have 

failed to weave policy into the fabric of social institutions.’’; 

Whereas despite mounting evidence, the Federal Government’s approach to the abuse of drugs continued to be 

one of criminalizing drug abuse instead of treatment; 


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•HRES 747 IH 

Whereas, on June 18, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs, stating that drug abuse is 

‘‘public enemy number one’’; 

Whereas the Federal Government’s attitude toward drug use 

as a criminal problem only intensified with stricter drug 

laws, and the Government put little to no focus on treating those impacted; 

Whereas the War on Drugs was admitted to be a move by 

the Nixon administration to attack his political opponents, and in 1994, President Richard Nixon’s aide John 

Ehrlichman admitted in an interview that the War on 

Drugs was a tool to arrest and manipulate Blacks and 

liberals stating, ‘‘We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to 

be either against the war or black, but by getting the 

public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks 

with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could 

disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, 

raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify 

them night after night on the evening news. Did we know 

we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.’’; 

Whereas, in 1986, the 99th Congress passed the Anti-Drug 

Abuse Act establishing, for the first time, mandatory 

minimum sentences for those convicted of having specific 

amounts of cocaine; 

Whereas, in 1989, drug czar William Bennett announced a 

$7,900,000,000 plan to combat the drug epidemic, but 

70 percent of that amount went to hiring more law enforcement personnel and building prisons; 

Whereas that money could have been better used to help provide treatment to those on heroin, cocaine, and other 

drugs; 


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Whereas, in 1986, the 99th Congress increased the sentences 

for dealing and possessing crack cocaine, and in a few 

years, enhanced law enforcement presence loomed over 

and aggressively policed communities of color; 

Whereas, to this day, these laws greatly target communities 

of color, dramatically increasing the incarceration rate of 

these communities and imposing a stigma that people of 

color are the main users of drugs, despite White Americans using drugs at a similar if not greater rate; 

Whereas Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Craig Reinarman, and Professor of 

Sociology at Queens College, Harry G. Levine, studied 

the use of crack cocaine in the United States and later 

published in their book, entitled ‘‘Crack in America’’, 

which stated that, ‘‘In the spring of 1986, American politicians and news media began an extraordinary anti-drug 

frenzy that ran until 1992. Newspapers, magazines and 

television networks regularly carried lurid stories about a 

new ‘epidemic’ or ‘plague’ of drug use, especially of crack 

cocaine. They said this ‘epidemic’ was spreading rapidly 

from cities to the suburbs and was destroying American 

society. It is certainly true that the United States has 

real health and social problems that result from illegal 

and legal drug use. But it is certainly also true that the 

period from 1986 through 1992 was characterized by 

anti-drug extremism.’’; 

Whereas the use of opiates such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, 

methadone, heroin, and fentanyl has skyrocketed since 

the late 1990s and the amount of prescription opioids legally sold nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2010, despite 

no change in the amount of pain that Americans reported; 


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Whereas the National Center for Health Statistics suggested 

that there were more than 70,200 drug overdose deaths 

in 2017, and that a majority of these deaths come from 

synthetic opioids like fentanyl; 

Whereas these drug overdoses have become the leading cause 

of accidental death, surpassing car accidents; 

Whereas, on March 29, 2017, President Donald Trump 

signed an Executive order to establish the President’s 

Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the 

Opioid Crisis, and in a preliminary report the Commission has recommended that the opioid crisis, among other 

things, should be ‘‘declared a national emergency under 

either the Public Health Service Act or the Stafford 

Act’’; 

Whereas many scholars, journalists, and civic leaders have 

addressed the strong contrast to the urgency of helping 

those impacted by opioids compared to those who were 

impacted by crack cocaine and other substances during 

the War on Drugs; 

Whereas the terminology used to describe those impacted by 

the opioid epidemic is ‘‘victims’’, and the terminology 

used to describe those impacted by the War on Drugs is 

‘‘criminals’’; 

Whereas if the concept of equity was considered, meaning 

that individuals fairly receive what they need in order to 

create a level playing field, the same funds and support 

going to help those impacted by opioids will also go to 

help those impacted by heroin, cocaine, and the other 

drugs classified in the War on Drugs; 

Whereas as stated by Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson, ‘‘White brothers and sisters have been 


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medicalized in terms of their trauma and addiction. 

Black and brown people have been criminalized for their 

trauma and addiction.’’; 

Whereas after almost 50 years, the War on Drugs has yet 

to achieve its goal; and 

Whereas there has been no formal action by the United 

States Government to treat the epidemic of overall drug 

abuse and to treat the War on Drugs as a health issue: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that— 

3 (1) the War on Drugs has failed to achieve its 

4 goal of reducing drug use; 

5 (2) the War on Drugs has created conditions in 

6 the United States that have allowed the opioid epi7 demic to be as deadly as it is; 

8 (3) the War on Drugs is a racially charged pol9 icy that has led to the mass incarceration of millions 

10 of Americans, disproportionately affecting commu11 nities of color, has stigmatized these communities as 

12 the cause of the drug problem, and has economically, 

13 politically, and socially crippled these communities 

14 for decades; 

15 (4) the House of Representatives condemns the 

16 actions and role Harry J. Anslinger played in cre17 ating the War on Drugs; 


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1 (5) in order to help those impacted, drug use 

2 has to be seen as a health issue and not a criminal 

3 issue; 

4 (6) the House of Representatives should imme5 diately halt any and all actions that would allow the 

6 War on Drugs to continue; 

7 (7) the House of Representatives encourages 

8 the creation of a select committee that would be 

9 tasked in reviewing all laws associated and con10 sistent with the War on Drugs and prioritizing effec11 tive, evidence-based health policy solutions for indi12 viduals and communities suffering from addiction; 

13 (8) the House of Representatives should pass 

14 legislation that would provide civil remedies and re15 storative justice for any individual who has been in16 carcerated or otherwise punished through the Fed17 eral criminal justice system due to laws associated 

18 and consistent with the War on Drugs; 

19 (9) the House of Representatives affirms that 

20 all individuals suffering from the disease of addic21 tion be treated humanely, and with the same respect 

22 as all people struggling with any other health mat23 ter; and 

24 (10) the House of Representatives hereby 

25 apologizes to the individuals and communities 


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1 harmed through the War on Drugs and acknowl2 edges that actions by this body have demonized and 

3 criminalized addiction for more than 80 years in4 stead of accurately treating it as a health concern. 

Æ 


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