Mythbusting the “War on Drugs”

Contrary to the popular narrative, President Nixon’s comprehensive approach to drug policy provided an effective solution to a growing problem.

In the 1970s, the United States faced a growing heroin epidemic. By 1970, there were an estimated 600,000 heroin addicts and 7,200 overdose deaths—a crisis that demanded a national response.

President Richard Nixon took decisive action to address this crisis. While he did  declare drug abuse “public enemy number one,” the phrase “war on drugs” was largely a media invention. The public perception that Nixon launched a punitive campaign against drugs has overshadowed the more nuanced reality of his policy and its measurable success.

Judge Robert Bonner, former DEA administrator and U.S. District Court judge, addressed this misconception during remarks at the Nixon Library on August 22,  2023. In his research into President Nixon’s drug policy, Bonner found that Nixon used the term “war on drugs” only once—in a little-known speech to Customs personnel in Texas. As Bonner put it, “The ‘war on drugs’ is a horrid metaphor. We’ve never treated it as a war, never funded it like one, and there’s no ultimate victory.” 

Journalist Charles Fain Lehman, a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow, echoed this sentiment: “Despite what critics claim, there is no fifty-year straight line from Nixon to Reagan’s drug war.”

Instead of approaching the acute drug crisis like a war, President Nixon developed a strategic, two-pronged approach aimed at reducing heroin addiction in America. His strategy targeted both demand and supply. On the demand side, he expanded treatment and prevention programs. On the supply side, he cracked down on drug trafficking through law enforcement and international diplomacy. As Lehman puts it, “his policy agenda was responsive to a real and substantial drug epidemic, one which merited a proportional government response.”

One of President Nixon’s earliest legislative achievements was the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, the first comprehensive federal drug law. Contrary to later tough-on-crime narratives, this law actually eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses—sentences that would only return with the Drug Abuse Act of 1986 under a different administration.

To enforce drug laws more effectively, President Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the first federal agency with a singular mission to combat drug trafficking. Under his leadership, the DEA partnered with international allies to curb the global heroin trade. In just two years, Nixon’s team helped disrupt heroin routes through France and negotiated efforts to ban opium production in Turkey. According to Bonner, these efforts helped reduce the number of heroin addicts in the U.S. from approximately 600,000 to fewer than 100,000—a number that remained low for over a decade.

Further busting the myth of a drug war, compassion was core to President Nixon’s drug policy. “Heroin addiction is a problem that demands compassion, not simply condemnation,” he said. To put that compassion into action, he created the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention and appointed Dr. Jerome Jaffe—a pioneer in addiction treatment—to lead it. One of the key objectives President Nixon assigned to Jaffe was addressing the treatment of servicemen returning from Vietnam with heroin addiction—an issue that, according to a 1971 congressional report, affected an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 veterans. Under President Nixon’s leadership, federally funded heroin treatment and education programs expanded dramatically. As Lehman noted, “Nixon spent more on drug treatment than enforcement year after year, and pioneered the use of methadone maintenance treatment.”

Richard Nixon’s approach—combining treatment, enforcement, and diplomacy—laid the groundwork for a more balanced and effective drug policy. As Bonner concluded, “In short, Nixon understood the problem. He also did something about it. It was a whole government effort—and it worked.”

View Judge Robert Bonner’s full remarks:

Sources

Bonner, Robert. Judge. 23 August 2023. Keynote Remarks by Judge Robert Bonner, YouTube, August 23, 2023.

Lehman, Charles Fain. “What Was the War on Drugs? Part I.” The Causal Fallacy, May 6, 2025.

Lehman, Charles Fain. “What Was the War on Drugs? Part II.”The Causal Fallacy, May 7, 2025.