The War on Drugs Started HERE—And You’ll Never Guess Who’s to Blame
Who really started the War on Drugs?
The War on Drugs has become a defining feature of U.S. policy. Indeed, there are few Americans still alive today who lived in an era in which our federal, state, and local governments were not actively waging war against narcotics.
Among supporters, it has been lauded as the type of tough solution the nation needs to combat addiction and social degeneracy. Conversely, critics argue that America’s government-led crusade against drugs has created far more problems than it has solved.
Decades after the War on Drugs began, it is clear that those in the latter category have been proven to be correct: It has been an unmitigated disaster.
But when did this bizarre obsession with persecuting drug users begin?
I asked this question on X and created a poll asking under which president the War on Drugs started. The options were Richard Nixon, Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and Woodrow Wilson.
As expected, most people (71.9 percent) chose Nixon.
I’ll admit it: It was sort of a trick question. Yes, Nixon was the first to apply the “War on Drugs” moniker to the government’s quest to eradicate addiction through state force.
However, the actual war began much earlier.
You might not be surprised to find that Woodrow Wilson, one of the most evil presidents in American history, was the one who signed the first major piece of drug legislation. The bill was known as the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, which Wilson signed into law on December 17, 1914.
What ensued after the Wilson era was a rapid and sweeping expansion of the government’s anti-drug jihad that began with the Harrison Act. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Francis Burton Harrison and imposed a tax on the production, distribution, and sale of opiates such as opium and heroin and coca products, such as cocaine.
The legislation mandated registration and record-keeping for doctors, pharmacists, and distributors, framing itself as a revenue measure. However, it would not be long before its enforcement became the first iteration of the Prohibition Era in America.
The original law contained a loophole allowing doctors to continue prescribing opiates and other narcotics to addicted patients, according to author Johann Hari in his book “Chasing the Scream.”
It said that doctors, vets, and dentists had the right to continue giving out these drugs as they saw fit—and that addicts should be dealt with compassionately in this way. Yet the loophole was tossed onto the trash heap of history, as if it didn’t exist.
The Treasury Department, charged with implementing the new law, interpreted the act to bar physicians from prescribing narcotics to maintain addicts’ habits—a stance upheld by the Supreme Court in Webb v. United States (1919). This effectively criminalized addiction, shifting drug use from a medical issue to a legal battleground.
Crime, Criminalization, and the Empowerment of the Wicked
The Harrison Act and its enforcement under Wilson triggered a cascade of unintended (or intended) consequences that would define the drug war’s legacy. For all intents and purposes, prohibition was now the new normal.
By eliminating legal narcotics use, manufacture, and distribution, the Harrison Act birthed an illicit trade. Pharmacies and doctors were swiftly replaced by unsavory street dealers, and organized crime began to flourish.
Violence surged as gangs vied for control of the profitable underground market, mirroring the chaos of alcohol Prohibition. Bullet-riddled bodies in the streets became more common as these forces sought to carve out their pieces of the illicit drug trade. The Treasury’s Narcotics Division, established in 1919, struggled to contain this new criminal ecosystem.
The legislation transformed addicts in need of help into felons and viciously punished doctors who sought to treat them. Nonviolent users found themselves behind bars, and enforcement often targeted marginalized groups—immigrants, minorities, and the poor—as it does today.
The illegal market enriched traffickers and corrupt officials alike. Drug purity plummeted, causing overdoses, while criminal syndicates amassed considerable wealth and power.
The Expansion of the Drug War After Wilson
Wilson’s policies were a launching pad for an expanding drug war, shaped by subsequent leaders like Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon, who I mentioned in the poll.
Herbert Hoover escalated federal drug enforcement by establishing the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) in 1930, appointing Harry Anslinger as its first commissioner. Anslinger, a devout anti-drug zealot, was now unleashed. He transformed the FBN into a propaganda and enforcement juggernaut.
He pushed a narrative of drugs as a moral and racial threat, targeting marijuana with particular fervor. He had a burning hatred for Blacks, Mexicans, and the Chinese, and showed no qualms with using the power of government under the drug war to brutally target them.
Anslinger’s efforts culminated in the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 (passed under FDR), but Hoover’s backing gave Anslinger the institutional power to expand the Harrison Act’s scope. Hoover saw drug control as part of his broader law-and-order agenda, amplifying the punitive framework Wilson began.
John F. Kennedy’s administration took a more nuanced approach, balancing enforcement with early hints of reform. In 1962, he convened the White House Conference on Narcotics and Drug Abuse, which acknowledged addiction as a health issue—a departure from pure criminalization.
Kennedy was still a fan of prohibition, however. He tightened controls on amphetamines and barbiturates via the Drug Abuse Control Amendments of 1965 (passed after his death), but Kennedy resisted Anslinger-style hysteria. Still, enforcement remained dominant, and the drug war’s punitive core remained – and grew.
Richard Nixon formally declared the War on Drugs after he won the presidency, calling drug abuse "public enemy number one" in 1971. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 established the modern drug scheduling system, while the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973 centralized federal efforts.
Nixon’s policies, later revealed to target political foes and minorities, ballooned incarceration rates and militarized enforcement. Building on Wilson’s and Anslinger’s legacies, Nixon turned a regulatory misstep into a full-scale war that destroyed and ruined lives, leaving an untold number of victims in its wake.
Since Nixon, the War on Drugs has expanded even further, with Democrats and Republican officials adamantly supporting it. They have passed several laws further criminalizing those who use and sell drugs. Meanwhile, violent gangs have continued to enjoy an immense level of success in the United States – and in Mexico, where drug cartels rule the nation.
As it stands today, over one hundred years after the Harrison Act passed, hundreds of thousands of Americans are currently in prison for drugs. Taxpayers spend at least $182 billion every year to prosecute the War on Drugs. Yet, as I pointed out in another article, drug use has not declined. Overdose deaths have risen – and not just because of fentanyl.
It is clear that change is needed. The question is: Are Americans ready to start answering some tough questions about drugs, addiction, and policy?