2017-08-01
26 分钟Welcome to LSE IQ, a podcast from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
This is the podcast where we ask leading social scientists and other experts to answer an intelligent question about economics,
politics or society.
For nearly 50 years governments around the world, led by the US, have been fighting a war on drugs.
Their aim?
To reduce the production, supply and use of certain drugs and ultimately create a drug-free society.
But having cost the US more than one trillion dollars to date and taken hundreds of thousands of lives,
it's a war with high collateral damage.
In this episode, Jess Wintersdine asks why, after nearly 50 years of global conflict, haven't we won the war on drugs?
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to summarize for you the meeting that I have just had with the bipartisan leaders,
which began at 8 o'clock and was completed two hours later.
I began the meeting by making this statement, which I think needs to be made to the nation.
America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse.
In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.
On 17th June 1971, American President Richard Nixon declared what has become known as the war on drugs,
committing the country to pursuing a policy of prohibition against the sale and use of all illicit substances.
On signing the policy into the law, the President said,
I am convinced that the only way to fight this menace is by attacking it on many fronts.
It's a battle cry that has been taken up and renewed over the years by governments and international organizations around the world,
the United Nations pledging at a General Assembly special session in 1988,