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The War on Drugs is a term for the legislative and law enforcement actions, in many countries and at various levels of government, to prevent people or punish them for using or consuming certain drugs which affect the nervous system. To prevent consumption, actions are also directed at people who supply or produce the drugs or grow the plants used to make the drugs.
Although prohibitions on various addictive substances, such as the caffeine in coffee, date back to the seventeenth century, the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 began efforts against "controlled substances" at the United States federal level. The term "war on drugs" became popular after Richard Nixon spoke about waging "an effective war against heroin addiction" in a message to Congress in 1971. The crusade continued with the "Just Say No" campaign during the Reagan presidency which led to the enacment of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 [PDF] and the establishment of Office of National Drug Control Policy two years later.
With the passage of California's Compassionate Use Act in 1996, legislation aimed at overturning the federal laws and enforcement actions began at the state level. For example, as of March 2023, 38 states allow use of cannabis for medical purposes and 22 states have made its non-medical use legal.
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