Post #2343397
2026-05-04 22:04 UTC
Has the goal of the war on drugs ever really been to eliminate drugs?
I think it's always been more of a pork barrel and geopolitical show. Because if you want to portray yourself as a hero saviour you're going to need an enemy everyone else hates too.
Of course Trump dialled it all to 11 just like he does with everything.
Replies (2)
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@frongt@lemmy.zip 2026-05-04 23:43
It's mostly to oppress people. Minorites, the poor, etc. The rich and well-connected get a pass on their drug habits.
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@imrighthere@lemmy.ca 2026-05-05 00:12
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people. You understand what I’m saying? 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.”