logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2021
50m 47s

The war on drugs

Bbc World Service
About this episode

US President Richard Nixon declared illegal drugs 'public enemy number one' in 1971 and launched a worldwide 'war' on the narcotics trade. 50 years on we revisit key moments in the ongoing fight against the powerful criminal groups involved from Columbia to Afghanistan. We'll hear personal stories from the front line of drug addiction, plus journalist and author Ioan Grillo joins our presenter Max Pearson to discuss, what went wrong in the war on drugs?

Photo: US President Richard Nixon (BBC)

Up next
Nov 22
Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain and ending the Bosnian war
<p>Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mercedes Peñalba- Sotorrío, a senior lecturer in modern European history at Manchester Metropolitan University, England.</p><p>We start with the death of General ... Show More
1 h
Nov 15
Speed of Sound and prosecuting Nazis
<p>Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor.</p><p>We start with an archive interview of American Chuck Yeager who became the first pilot to fly faster than the speed ... Show More
1h 1m
Nov 8
The largest dinosaur and creating Miffy
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Darja Dankina, who's a palaeontologist from the Natures Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. We start with the discovery of the largest dinosaur ever, uncovered by ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
May 2021
The war on drugs
The first 'war on drugs' was launched by US President Richard Nixon in 1971. He described drug abuse as a 'national emergency' and asked Congress for nearly four hundred million dollars to tackle the problem. Claire Bowes spoke to one of Nixon's policy advisors, Jeffrey Donfeld, ... Show More
9m 8s
Feb 2021
Drugs in the Vietnam War
During the Vietnam war, US commanders grew increasingly concerned about the widespread use of drugs by US troops in Vietnam. Initially the focus was on marijuana. But in the early 1970s, reports began to emerge of the large scale use of heroin by US military personnel. The drug h ... Show More
14m 52s
May 2024
Richard Nixon...WOMP WOMP
<p>The girlies pick up the story of marijuana where they left off in the 1960's, exploring how weed evolved from America's enemy to capitalism's sweetheart. They discuss the student protestors who lit up for peace, the drug war collab between Nixon and Reagan, how the cops convin ... Show More
1h 12m
May 2002
Drugs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of drugs. Throughout history people have taken them to alter their perceptions and change their moods. The attractions lie in the promise of instant pleasure and the possibility of heightened perceptions. Nietzsche said that no art coul ... Show More
28m 10s
Oct 2021
Crime World Extra: The dramatic takedown of Colombia's most notorious drug lord
It’s been described as the biggest blow against the Colombian drug cartels since the famous takedown of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.<br/><br/>Seven years since he was declared an enemy of the state and the boss of the so-called Gulf Cartel, notorious kingpin Dario Antonio Usaga, a ... Show More
31m 53s
Aug 2021
Benjamin T. Smith, "The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade" (W. W. Norton, 2021)
For over a century Mexico has been embroiled in a drug war dictated by the demands of their neighbor to the north. In The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade (W. W. Norton, 2021), Benjamin T. Smith offers a history of the trade and its effects upon the people of Mexi ... Show More
44m 39s
May 2024
This Is a Very Weird Moment in the History of Drug Laws
<p>Drug policy feels very unsettled right now. The war on drugs was a failure. But so far, the war on the war on drugs hasn’t entirely been a success, either.</p><p>Take Oregon. In 2020, it became the first state in the nation to decriminalize hard drugs. It was a paradigm shift ... Show More
1h 2m
May 2021
Why a British MP was filmed taking mescaline
# Warning: This programme contains scenes of drug use #In 1955, a British member of parliament, Christopher Mayhew, took the hallucinogenic drug mescaline and had his experience filmed by the BBC. The drug was legal at the time and the experiment was supervised by the pyschiatris ... Show More
11m 22s
Oct 2020
Why Portugal decriminalised all drugs
In the grip of a drugs crisis, the country took a radical approach in 2001 and became the first country in the world to decriminalise all drugs for personal use. Drug abuse and addiction began to be seen as a public health issue, not a criminal offence. Initial resistance to the ... Show More
13m 14s