War on Drugs Really Begins: NY Rockefeller Drug Laws Enacted
The so-called Rockefeller Drug Laws — named after their champion, New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller — imposed harsh punishments for the possession and sale of drugs. Because they served as a model for similar punitive laws in other states (and which eventually extended to other crimes as well), the Rockefeller laws are regarded by many as the real beginning of the War on Drugs.
Many people regard President Richard Nixon’s earlier speech on drugs in June 1971 as the beginning of the war on drugs. But in terms of their impact on sentencing in other states and the resulting explosion of the American prison population, the Rockefeller laws established a model for sentencing laws in other states over the next thirty years. In this respect, they were far more important than either Nixon’s speech or federal policies.
The Rockefeller Drug Laws were drastically modified in April 2009, significantly reducing the harshest sentencing features.
The War on Drugs became one of the main drivers of mass incarceration, which caused the American prison population to explode beginning in the 1970s. The tough on crime policy of most states, an important part of the War on Drugs, meanwhile, was directed primarily at African Americans, causing an increase in racial disparities in the criminal justice system
Learn more about the War on Drugs: http://www.drugpolicy.org/
Be sure to read: Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary ed. (2020)
Learn more about the Rockefeller Drug laws and their reform: http://www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/rockefeller-drug-law-reform
View a timeline on the war on drugs
Read about the history of the war on drugs: Kathleen J. Frydl, The Drug Wars in America, 1940–1973 (2013)