The War on Drugs is an initiative undertaken in the United States to carry out an "all-out offensive" (as President Nixon described it) against the prohibited use of certain legally controlled drugs. The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress noted in a 1989 report that the nation's war on drugs could be considered to have started in public policy dating to November 1880, when the U.S. and China completed an agreement which prohibited the shipment of opium between the two countries. By February 1887, the 49th Congress enacted legislation making it a misdemeanor for anyone on American soil to be found guilty of violating this ban.
Around the turn of the 20th century, a perception of widespread abuse of cocaine caused policy-makers in the U.S. to consider drug abuse a serious social problem rather than as cases of personal failures.
Nixon's modern-day "War on Drugs" began in 1971. He characterized drug abuse as "America's public enemy number one." Nixon's new initiative was another milestone for the U.S. in the consideration of drug addiction as a public problem.
In 1988, towards the close of the Reagan Administration, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was created to centrally coordinate legislative, security, diplomatic, research and health policy throughout the government. In recognition of his central role, the director of ONDCP is commonly known as the Drug Czar.
Another milestone occurred in 1996, when 56% of California voters voted yes to Proposition 215, legalizing the growing and use of marijuana for medical purposes. This act has created significant legal and policy tensions between the Federal and State governments. Courts have since decided that neither this, nor any similar acts, will protect users from federal prosecution.
For U.S. public policy purposes, drug abuse is any personal use of a drug contrary to law. The definition includes legal pharmaceuticals if they are obtained by illegal means or used for nonmedicinal purposes. This differs from what mental health professionals classify as drug abuse per the DSM-IV, which is defined as more problematic drug misuse, both of which are different from drug use.
A report released in December 2005 by the Government Accountability Office showed that, despite U.S. law to the contrary, the more than 50 plus agencies working on the problem have little effect on the overall production and consumption of illegal drugs [2].
The United States has also initated a number of military actions as part of its "War on Drugs", such as the 1989 invasion of Panama codenamed Operation Just Cause involving 25,000 United States troops. The U.S. alleged that Gen. Manuel Noriega, head of government of Panama, was involved in drug trafficking (Panama). As part of Plan Colombia, the U.S. has funded coca eradication through private contractors such as DynCorp and helped train the Colombian armed forces to eradicate coca and fight the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
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![Operation Mallorca, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 2005 [1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DEA_Operation_Mallorca%2C_2005.jpg)