1970 CE
President Richard Nixon launches a war on drug campaign, which he announces during a televised speec

In 1970, President Nixon addresses the nation and talks about issues associated with drug consumption and trafficking. He asserts that people who have a drug habit "find it necessary to steal, to commit crimes, in order to feed their habit" and that "they are destroying the lives of hundred of thousands of young people all over America" and declares drug abuse to be a national problem.

Source: Remarks on Signing the CDAPCA of 1970 (1970). The American Presidency Project.