While drugs have been a focus of political and social concern since the mid-1800s, the modern "war on drugs" targeting African American communities only began in the 1980s and has reshaped American life in ways we do not fully understand or even acknowledge. Focusing on the United States within the international context, we examine the factual and historical aspects of drug use, drug laws, and drug policing and punishment. However, our ultimate goal is to better comprehend the war on drugs as a cultural or ideological process, which requires examining the role of politics and the media in justifying the existence of an extremely repressive set of practices, including the mass incarceration of citizens, in a supposedly free society. This course can be used to satisfy University Studies requirements.