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Reagan Intensified War On Drugs Essay

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Reagan’s Intensified War on Drugs In the 1970’s and 1980’s, a problem arose. Drugs became an issue as they had become widespread and heavily used. Both legal and illegal drugs were being abused. In 1971, President Nixon started a War on Drugs that would combat this issue. Later in the 1980’s, President Reagan revamped this, with it being called Reagan’s Intensified War on Drugs. The issue was that some people believed Reagan had intended certain consequences with this “war” while others disagreed. Things such as police brutality rose and so did arrests on non-violent drug use. That being said, Reagan’s Intensified War on Drugs had more unintended consequences than it did intended ones. Throughout the war on drugs, police were getting bonuses for every drug case they worked on, getting paid a $500 bonus for overtime. This led to police planting evidence to create good cases so that they could get those bonuses from overtime. In the Hofstra Law Review, written by Micheal Z. Letwin, it is stated that the need to create these good cases for bonuses “...resulted in planting evidence, lying, and set-ups by cops.”. This quote shows how the war on drugs fed into the government and caused innocent people to be arrested, as well as more illegal activity stemming from the government itself. This …show more content…

They would be aggressive in attempts to detain civilians, even if they were innocent to the point they were severely injured or killed. Coming from the Hofstra Law Review written by Micheal Z. Letwin, he wrote that “It has often resulted in the death of civilians under questionable circumstances. This quote shows us how the police would use their power to turn situations into their favors. This source is reliable because the author provides information on how the police acted towards the situations and how even looking at today’s police, they are still violent towards the public, especially

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