Project Summary: Discussion: The War on Drugs Many early examples of attempts to eradicate drugs exist such as the Chinese opium laws, the Marijuana Tax Act, and Prohibition. In the last century, certain policies were re-implemented that history had already demonstrated were unable to achieve the desired effect. It could be argued that the War on Drugs of the 1980s has had the single greatest effect on the American criminal justice system. These policies arguably had a greater impact on the social, political, and economic criminal justice reality in the name of deterrence and rehabilitation. For this Discussion, you examine unintended consequences of the War on Drugs and whether or not society has benefited from this war.