The History of the War on Drugs in America

The topic for my project will be the War on Drugs, which effectively began with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and the market for illegal drugs that has subsequently emerged from its policies. Analysis of the current structure of the drugs market coupled with the measured costs and benefits of relevant policy will make it possible to determine whether society would be better off if drug exchange and use were made legal; this can be done by comparing the operating costs and related externalities of the War on Drugs to the total social cost - the private cost to the user and any externalities, presumably negative - of drug use itself.