The real bipartisan push for harsher penalties in the US came in the 1980s after basketball star Len Bias died of cocaine overdose: >...It became the sole focu

The real bipartisan push for harsher penalties in the US came in the 1980s after basketball star Len Bias died of cocaine overdose: >...It became the sole focus of legislative activity for the remainder of the session on both sides of the aisle. Literally every committee, from the Committee on Agriculture to the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries were somehow getting involved. Suddenly, the Len Bias case was the driving force behind every piece of legislation. Members of Congress were setting up hearings about the drug problem and every subcommittee chairman was looking to get a piece of the action... https://www.salon.com/2011/06/19/len_bias_cocaine_tragedy_still_affecting_us_drug_law/ https://www.salon.com/2011/06/19/len_bias_cocaine_tragedy_st... If you want to go back further, a good person to start with is Harry Anslinger who headed the Federal Bureau of Narcotics: >...Prior to the end of alcohol prohibition, Anslinger had claimed that cannabis was not a problem, did not harm people, and "There is probably no more absurd fallacy"[15] than the idea it makes people violent. His critics argue he shifted not due to objective evidence but self-interest due to the obsolescence of the Department of Prohibition he headed when alcohol prohibition ceased - campaigning for a new Prohibition against its use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger A difference with Nixon is that he was one of the first to try to greatly expand drug treatment and also reform sentencing in at least a small way: >...the mandatory minimum sentence in a federal prison for marijuana possession was 2-10 years until Nixon slashed it to 1 year with a judicial option to waive even that sentence. No federal mandatory drug sentence would be rolled back again for 40 years (in the Obama Administration). https://www.samefacts.com/who-started-the-war-on-drugs/ https://www.samefacts.com/who-started-the-war-on-drugs/