Enforcement History

To my cites Back to enforcement

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

A Documentary called "Addict" was produce in 1946 and it was made by the Canadian film board with the assistance of narcotics specialists in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The film's purpose was to train law enforcement and medial professionals on nature of drug addicts, addictive drugs, and drug trafficking. It also called for modest reforms of drug policy. It won also a Canadian film award. The film was cited as "bold, honest record of the drug traffic and its toll in human misery. It is as honest as it is stark. The film treats drug addiction as an illness and thus has run afoul of some who would condemn as criminals all who use drugs."
Major themes of this film
(1) that addicts and traffickers are recruited from all races and classes;
(2) that high-level drug traffickers are white;
(3) that law enforcement only targets low-level dealers;
(4) that addiction is a sickness;
(5) that addiction to legal and illegal drugs are essentially the same;
(6) that cocaine is not necessarily addictive;
(7) that law enforcement control of drugs is in the final analysis impossible.
Anslinger and the FBN didn't like the film. Anslinger wrote that a representative of the Canadian government, he said he would "strongly urge" the Canadian government not to allow this film to be sent to the United States. He also said it "would do incalculable damage in the way of spreading drug addiction.". Anslinger asked also the Canadian government prevent Mr. Lindesmith from seeing the film in Canada. The Canadian government responded "we [can]not bind ourselves to any agreement that no United States citizen should ever see the film in Canada."(29)/

During the Cold War Anslinger promoted the concept that communist where behind Opium problem. Though not based in fact, he proclaimed the purchase of Heroin supported communist regimes, addicts were communist sympathizers and political subversives(30).

old laws much like the new laws.

Mandatory minimum sentencing didn't start with Reagan's War On Drugs. The Boggs Act of 1951 named for its sponsor Boggs (D-La.), carried mandatory minimum sentences. It was repealed in 1973 because the sentences had no deterrent value(31). The act incarcerated people for two to five years for possession of marijuana or Heroin (32).

The Narcotic Control Act of 1956 allowed federal agents to "make [warrantless] arrests" when there were "reasonable grounds to believe" the person was transporting drugs(33). This statute also had mandatory minimum sentencing (34).