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Tough on Dope: Crime and Politics in California's Drug Wars, 1946-1963

Siff, Sarah Brady
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1479203861841892

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
This dissertation places state lawmaking and local enforcement at the center of its analysis of the U.S. drug wars by exposing California's efforts to reduce the traffic in illicit substances during the first two decades of the postwar era. In contrast with existing work that sees drug enforcement as federally directed, this research reveals that state and local initiatives drove attitudes and action on illegal drugs. The California drug-control experience in the postwar era shows that the drug wars were locally escalated through grassroots campaigns, overzealous law enforcement, and political jockeying to solve the problem of increasing illicit drug use. Beginning just after World War II, law enforcement agencies and the mass media in the greater Los Angeles area encouraged widespread panic over heroin and marijuana smuggled from Mexico. Federal agencies fueled this concern during congressional hearings on organized crime, which connected the "narcotics menace" to the mafia and communism, birthing local crime commissions focused on drugs and juvenile delinquency. Police Chief William H. Parker engineered a brutal narcotics enforcement regime that targeted minority neighborhoods and violated the constitutional rights of drug defendants in defiance of court rulings, suggesting Los Angeles as a western site of massive resistance. Californians interrogated the relationships between federal, state, and local enforcement arms, whose leaders often disagreed and failed to cooperate. Increasingly politicized, drug control became a major issue in the 1962 governor's race, with Republican Richard Nixon pressing for harsh penalties and Democrat Pat Brown seeking to protect the rights of drug defendants and replace prison time with rehab. California's critique of the federal drug-control regime was widely publicized and convinced President John F. Kennedy to reorganize federal agencies tasked with combatting drugs. California exercised an early and deep influence over the course of U.S. drug policy at midcentury by pressing the federal government to combat drug trafficking from Mexico and questioning the methods of longtime drug czar Harry J. Anslinger. This dissertation extends backward the traditional timeline of the modern U.S. drug wars and opens a discussion about the roles played by citizens, local officials, and state governments.
David Stebenne (Advisor)
Paula Baker (Committee Member)
David Steigerwald (Committee Member)
259 p.
American History; American Studies; History; International Relations; Mass Media; Public Policy
California; drug wars; war on drugs; drug control; prohibition; crime; law enforcement; civil rights; William H Parker; Edmund G Brown; Edward R Roybal; law and order; marijuana; heroin; Mexico; US-Mexican relations; borderlands; rehabilitation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Siff, S. B. (2016). Tough on Dope: Crime and Politics in California's Drug Wars, 1946-1963 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1479203861841892

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Siff, Sarah. Tough on Dope: Crime and Politics in California's Drug Wars, 1946-1963. 2016. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1479203861841892.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Siff, Sarah. "Tough on Dope: Crime and Politics in California's Drug Wars, 1946-1963." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1479203861841892

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1479203861841892
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.