The War on Drugs, particularly cocaine, is not very different from any other war that our country has fought throughout the years. It has all the components of a conventional war and just as much intrigue and emotion for those who observe or are involved in its undertaking. The War on Drugs is a one that has been analyzed and pondered by many different experts throughout the years. As the expert that you have hired, in the following paper I will attempt to make you aware of the history of our struggle with this issue, the present status of the War on Drugs, and what I think should be done in the years to come.
             The War on Drugs is one of the longest wars that has been fought in the history of our nation. In 1971 President Nixon named drug abuse "public enemy number one (http://www.drugwarfacts.org/druguse.htm)." He announced the creation of the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SOADOP). During the Nixon era of the War on Drugs, the majority of the funding went toward treatment, rather than law enforcement. In 1972 the Nixon Administration created the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE). This created a melding of local and state task forces that fought drugs at the street level. The director of the ODALE was Myles Ambrose. A year and six months after ODALE was brought into existence, Nixon continued to show his determination to thwart the growing threat of drug use in America by creating the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The DEA was created to become a super agency that combined the efforts of four different agencies: Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), Customs, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE). These three drug prevention and control entities had previously not been able to smoothly communicate with one another. The lack of communication was a continuing hindrance to all four of the agencies. All parties welcomed the forming of the DEA, as the co...