In 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse ‘public enemy number one’— the first salvo in America’s War on Drugs. Fifty years later, with drug overdoses in the US at a record high, are we any closer to ‘victory’? The War on Drugs has a more profound effect on society than any of us really understands. It is embedded in the fabric of our culture and permeates our daily lives in visible and invisible ways – perhaps the most daunting pandemic we face.

Lava for Good’s The War on Drugs podcast, co-hosted by comedian Clayton English and Greg Glod, senior criminal justice fellow at Americans for Prosperity, examines the true cost of five decades of policy, policing, and persecution. Special guests, including diverse subject matter experts, peel back the surface of this complicated period of US history, showing the ways the War on Drugs has fueled over incarceration, exacerbated addiction and hampered economic progress. By shining a spotlight on how our communities have crumbled under the weight of this so-called ‘war,’ we can explore the politicization of public health policy, institutional racism and classism in the legislation and administration of criminal law, and how decriminalization and other alternatives could bring the fruitless ‘war’ to an end.

The War on Drugs will be available every Wednesday beginning January 25 wherever you get your podcasts.

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The War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our co-hosts Clayton English and Greg Glod, along with guest Johann Hari discuss the long-forgotten mastermind behind America’s War on Drugs: Harry Anslinger - the infamous head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics toward the end of Prohibition. Desperate to justify his agency, and secure funding from Congress, Anslinger, by all accounts a virulent racist, fabricated stories about the dangers of drugs by demonizing minority communities four decades before Richard Nixon's declaration of war on drugs.

A new episode of The War on Drugs will be available every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO TAKE PART IN OUR LISTENER SURVEY. YOUR FEEDBACK WILL HELP INFORM HOW WE MAKE PODCASTS IN THE FUTURE. AND YOUR COMPLETE AND CANDID ANSWERS WILL HELP US CONTINUE TO BRING YOU UNPARALLELED ACCESS AND INSIGHT INTO THE HEART OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA. SO PLEASE GO TO LAVAFORGOOD.COM/SURVEY
AND PARTICIPATE TODAY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

The War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the wake of college basketball star Len Bias’s death from a cocaine overdose, Congressional Democrats sought to retake the Senate by portraying themselves as tough on drugs. What resulted was one of the most destructive pieces of legislation in the entire history of the War on Drugs, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. Among its key provisions was the introduction of federal mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenses. The result was generations of men and women, disproportionately from minority communities, lost to over incarceration.

Clayton and Greg talk with Eric Sterling, the special counsel to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary from 1979-1989, who helped write the mandatory minimum sentencing laws that were part of the legislation. Clayton and Greg also talk with Eric about a little-known figure in the War on Drugs, a D.C. police officer who served as a chief investigator for Congress before he was discredited for perjuring himself hundreds of times as a government witness.

A new episode of The War on Drugs will be available every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO TAKE PART IN OUR LISTENER SURVEY. YOUR FEEDBACK WILL HELP INFORM HOW WE MAKE PODCASTS IN THE FUTURE. AND YOUR COMPLETE AND CANDID ANSWERS WILL HELP US CONTINUE TO BRING YOU UNPARALLELED ACCESS AND INSIGHT INTO THE HEART OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA. SO PLEASE GO TO LAVAFORGOOD.COM/SURVEY
AND PARTICIPATE TODAY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

The War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.