With the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act on the books, the Nixon administration slowly ramped up its war. Responding to reports that 15 to 25 percent of servicemen in Vietnam were using heroin, Nixon famously declared drug abuse “America’s public enemy number one” at a press conference on June 17, 1971. He announced an “all-out offensive,” including the creation of a new federal agency dedicated to fighting drugs, the Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention.
