One reason that Reagan’s intensified war did not have its consequences was because before the war on drugs, drug use was declining. Law enforcement was not focused on the use of drugs before the war on drugs started. Document D states: “It is fair to wonder why the police would choose to arrest such an astonishing percentage of the American public for minor drug crimes. Drug use. was on the decline, not on the rise, when the War on Drugs began. At the time the drug war was declared, many state and local law enforcement were more concerned with serious crimes, such as murder, rape, grand theft, and violent assault—all of which were of far greater concern to most communities.” Source: Excerpt from Chapter 2 in The New Jim Crow, 2010. Written
