The story of America's "War on Drugs" usually begins with Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan. In Containing Addiction, Matthew R. Pembleton argues that its origins instead lie in the years following World War II, when the Federal Bureau of Narcotics -- the country's first drug control agency, established in 1930 -- began to depict drug control as a paramilitary conflict and sent agents abroad to disrupt the flow of drugs to American shores.
U.S. policymakers had long viewed addiction and organized crime as profound domestic and trans-national threats. Yet World War II presented new...
The story of America's "War on Drugs" usually begins with Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan. In Containing Addiction, Matthew R. Pembleton argues that...
