In a series of speeches in 1971 President Richard Nixon called drug abuse "America's public enemy number one in the United States." In remarks from the White House on June 17, 1971, Nixon said, "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive." This, as best anybody can tell, is the opening salvo in America's War on Drugs.

You'd think that if something really were public enemy number one that people would know to be afraid of it without prompting.

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