One of the featured exhibits at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Museum—which attempts to put a fun, exciting spin on America’s war on drugs—is a relic that helped give shape to federal prohibition: the pen that then-President Nixon used in 1970 to sign the modern drug war into law.
The pen and a signed photo of Nixon endorsing the Comprehensive Drug Prevention and Control Act is featured on an episode of Stories From the Collection, a video series from the DEA Museum intended to “take you into the collection to share stories about our most exciting objects,” according to the video’s host, Museum Technician Emma Miller.
“This set includes a signed photograph copy of the first page of the Comprehensive Drug Prevention and Control Act, and a pen used by President Nixon to sign it into law,” Miller explains in the video. “It commemorates a pivotal moment in federal drug law enforcement.”
Title II of the federal statute is the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which created five schedules of substances—Schedule I to Schedule V—based on the government’s perception of their medical value and potential for abuse.
Fifty-four years ago Tuesday—on June 17, 1971—Nixon famously stepped up America’s war on drugs,
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