The CIA Drug connection under Reagan
Under President Ronald Reagan America not only increased its involvement in the Middle East by supplying arms to both Iraq and Iran in their war against each other, but America stepped up its involvement in conflicts around the world, especially South America.
The “War on Drugs” really started with President Nixon and his attack on marijuana, but Reagan is known as the “Just Say No” president for his campaign against recreational drugs in America and a strong policy of international drug eradication. Under Reagan’s policy, at a time when Americans were being presented with strong anti-drug propaganda, the CIA was in fact an accomplice to the largest narcotics smuggling ring in the United States. It was in fact Reagan’s policies that led to the cooperation between the CIA and the Contras, a radical right-wing rebel group operating in Nicaragua and beholden to American interests.
In 1998 the CIA finally admitted to its involvement in drug trafficking in the United States after years of federal investigation by the Kerry Congressional Committee. What the CIA admitted to was facilitating the import and sale of cocaine and the development of crack cocaine in the 1980s through American military bases. This was done because funds for the support of militant groups in South America had been withdrawn by Congress so the CIA allowed the Contras to engage in the drug trade in the United States in order to make money to fund their military operations.
These are hard facts. The CIA was forced to publish the information by the Congressional Committee when they were found of wrongdoing. You can find the official CIA version of the story here:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/cocaine/
The truth is that the major motivation behind the “War on Drugs” is to support funding for programs to fight against left-wing and independence movements around the world. Drugs have been a major factor in the funding of revolutions for centuries. This is because drugs are a very high profit product that can be grown by even the most primitive people, and thus it’s very hard to control. In fact the American Revolution was funded by “drugs”. The main “drug” in the funding of the American Revolution was tobacco, but opium played a role as well. Tobacco was regulated by the King of England not only for health reasons but also because he knew that it was funding American colonial “terrorism”. America was able to pay for French support in the war against England only through tobacco money. In fact at the time the war was not even called the American Revolution, it was called "The Tobacco Wars", and the area of Massachusetts Bay was known as "The Tobacco Coast".
Likewise opium and cocaine have also been products that have funded many wars and revolutions over the past few hundred years. In fact a common strategy of entities that wish to quickly gain large amounts of money is to sell drugs to their local population. This was done by the British from the 1600s through the 1800s, selling not only to their own citizens, but to all of the people within their empire as well as China. It is estimated that the opium trade was the largest single source of revenue for the British Crown during this time and was one of the major trades that enabled British Imperialism. In addition during WWII the Japanese began heavy opium production and sales, selling both to their own people and to the Chinese. This opium trade raised significant amounts of money to fund the Japanese military.
The reason why the Reagan administration began the War on Drugs was to cut off the money supply to revolutionary groups in South America, the Middle East, and Asia that were using drug money to fund wars for national independence from foreign intervention. By taking control of the international drug trade the CIA was able to use the drug trade to promote its own causes.
