In the late 1960's, there was a big epidemic that spread all throughout the nation, but the disease spreading like wildfire was drug addiction.

The drug that was consuming the lives of many American citizens was heroin, which mainly affected the lives of using addicts who were in the minority races in America, such as AFrican Americans and Hispanics.

From the many laws that were crated to tame this ongoing issue and the response of the public, there were many different causes and effects that effected everyone in the country...

One of these effects was the dramatic increase of inmates jailed in federal and state prisons for possession and distribution of heroin.

Another major effect was the difference in arrests for drug violations between white men and minority men, such as African American and Hispanic men.

The last major effect of the War on Drugs was the increasing amount of children who grew up in single homes due to the fact that one of their parents were incarcerated.

Because of these effects of the laws and social life that followed the War on Drugs, life in America was difficult, scary and unknown. Now, as a country, we have grown from our past and are working to overcome the same issue that we still face today.

Works Cited

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/jul/22/drugs-trade-richard-nixon

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/we-marched-on-four-dealers-that-night-dublin-s-anti-drug-wars-1.3221041

http://november.org/graphs/

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2014/09/30/how-the-war-on-drugs-damages-black-social-mobility/

https://www.prb.org/incarcerated-parents-and-childrens-health/