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My understanding is that there's the war on drugs and then there's the War on Drugs, and the latter is what is (correctly?) attributed to Nixon, even when it is

My understanding is that there's the war on drugs and then there's the War on Drugs, and the latter is what is (correctly?) attributed to Nixon, even when it is not bothered to be capitalized.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
Another context for the same words: Vietnam could be considered the war on drugs. If what I've read is correct, US soldiers were given amphetamine pills "like candy".
- vidarh 9y ago
  A huge proportion of US soldiers (20% according to some sources) also used heroin while in Vietnam, giving rise to one of the more interesting studies of addiction related to heroin [1] that also taught us a great deal about how to kick addictions and change behaviors (the short of it being that a change of environment makes breaking habits far easier) [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/01/02/144431794/what-vietnam-taught-us-about-breaking-bad-habits http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/01/02/14443179...
  - jandrese 9y ago
    It really shouldn't be a surprise that if someone's life is so shitty that they feel they need to do Heroin to escape it, then putting them through a grueling recovery process and then sending them back to their shitty life with no prospects is tremendously counterproductive.
    - vidarh 9y ago
      And yet it apparently amazingly is still surprising to a lot of people.
- smallnamespace 9y ago
  They were just following the tradition set by the Germans in WW2: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/pilots-salt-the-third-reich-kept-its-soldiers-alert-with-meth/276429/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/pilot...
  - TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
    Good point, don't know how I forgot that. I'm fairly convinced Hitler was on the gear too.
    - saiya-jin 9y ago
      Most probably yes, and also on cocaine as his fellow Goring. These things were considered not harmful and you could buy it anywhere. Amphetamines were still used in 60s as enhancers for mountaineering for example. Most of traditional expeditions to 8000m peaks had the top party high on this, somehow balancing the rush and mental strength it presumably gave with existing in total exhaustion for days and pushing further up. One example out of many is Hermann Buhl climbing Nanga Parbat, solo, hallucinating, as a first ever ascent of the killer mountain. People like Messner refused to use these, championing clean 'alpine' ascents, without support, just men with their skills and mental+physical strength facing mountains.
    - HarryHirsch 9y ago
      Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Morell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Morell
MaxfordAndSons 9y ago
I think the point is that, while yes the naming of the 'War on Drugs' is fairly attributed to Nixon, almost none of the significantly harmful policies we've come to associate with it were actually enacted on his watch - i.e. things like three strike laws or mandatory minimum sentencing or drug raids conducted by SWAT teams. It's really Reagan who should get the "credit" for most of that. And Clinton kept things trending in the same direction, to be fair.

My understanding is that there's the war on drugs and then there's the War on Drugs, and the latter is what is (correctly?) attributed to Nixon, even when it is not bothered to be capitalized.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago

Another context for the same words: Vietnam could be considered the war on drugs. If what I've read is correct, US soldiers were given amphetamine pills "like candy".

vidarh 9y ago
A huge proportion of US soldiers (20% according to some sources) also used heroin while in Vietnam, giving rise to one of the more interesting studies of addiction related to heroin [1] that also taught us a great deal about how to kick addictions and change behaviors (the short of it being that a change of environment makes breaking habits far easier) [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/01/02/144431794/what-vietnam-taught-us-about-breaking-bad-habits http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/01/02/14443179...
- jandrese 9y ago
  It really shouldn't be a surprise that if someone's life is so shitty that they feel they need to do Heroin to escape it, then putting them through a grueling recovery process and then sending them back to their shitty life with no prospects is tremendously counterproductive.
  - vidarh 9y ago
    And yet it apparently amazingly is still surprising to a lot of people.
smallnamespace 9y ago
They were just following the tradition set by the Germans in WW2: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/pilots-salt-the-third-reich-kept-its-soldiers-alert-with-meth/276429/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/pilot...
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
  Good point, don't know how I forgot that. I'm fairly convinced Hitler was on the gear too.
  - saiya-jin 9y ago
    Most probably yes, and also on cocaine as his fellow Goring. These things were considered not harmful and you could buy it anywhere. Amphetamines were still used in 60s as enhancers for mountaineering for example. Most of traditional expeditions to 8000m peaks had the top party high on this, somehow balancing the rush and mental strength it presumably gave with existing in total exhaustion for days and pushing further up. One example out of many is Hermann Buhl climbing Nanga Parbat, solo, hallucinating, as a first ever ascent of the killer mountain. People like Messner refused to use these, championing clean 'alpine' ascents, without support, just men with their skills and mental+physical strength facing mountains.
  - HarryHirsch 9y ago
    Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Morell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Morell

MaxfordAndSons 9y ago

I think the point is that, while yes the naming of the 'War on Drugs' is fairly attributed to Nixon, almost none of the significantly harmful policies we've come to associate with it were actually enacted on his watch - i.e. things like three strike laws or mandatory minimum sentencing or drug raids conducted by SWAT teams. It's really Reagan who should get the "credit" for most of that. And Clinton kept things trending in the same direction, to be fair.