The drug wars in America, 1940-1973
By: Kathleen J. Frydl
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 458
ISBN-13: 9781107013902; 9781107697003
Subjects: Drug control; Drug abuse; Government policy
Description: "The Drug Wars in America, 1940-1973 argues that the US government has clung to its militant drug war, despite its obvious failures, because effective control of illicit traffic and consumption were never the critical factors motivating its adoption in the first place. Instead, Kathleen J. Frydl shows that the shift from regulating illicit drugs through taxes and tariffs to criminalizing the drug trade developed from, and was marked by, other dilemmas of governance in an age of vastly expanding state power. Most believe the 'drug war' was inaugurated by President Richard Nixon's declaration of a war on drugs in 1971, but in fact his announcement heralded changes that had taken place in the two decades prior. Frydl examines this critical interval of time between regulation and prohibition, demonstrating that the war on drugs advanced certain state agendas, such as policing inner cities or exercising power abroad."--Publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Trade in war; title: Presumptions and pretense : international trade in narcotics; title: A society which requires some sort of sedation : domestic drug consumption, circulation, and perception; title: Review and reform : the Kennedy Commission; title: Police and clinics : enforcement and treatment in the city, 1960-1973; title: The cost of denial : Vietnam and the global diversity of the drug trade.