Over one million drug arrests occur in the United States each year, the vast majority of which are made at the state and local levels. This study examines the time period when state and local governments began to aggressively police illegal drugs, and we seek to determine the extent Harry Anslinger, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner, actively encouraged these governments to expand drug enforcement and adopt more punitive sentences. The study found that although Anslinger and his agency worked to influence state and local drug policy in the United States, they enjoyed varying levels of success from state to state. By the mid-1950s, a new intergovernmental enforcement regime had emerged where the federal, state, and local governments adopted punitive drug laws and invested resources in policing drugs. Drug enforcement remains the dominant policy approach in the United States.
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