Articles appeared in newspapers, blaming cocaine use for violent crime by African Americans. The establishment painted African Americans as savage, uncontrollable beasts when under the influence of cocaine-they said that it made a single African American man as strong as four or five police officers.
By capitalizing on racist sentiments, powerful criminal organizations could sell alcohol where they wanted. Organized crime became an American institution and hard liquor, which was easy to smuggle, took the place of beer and wine. In order to combat the crime wave, the government formed a large police force. The number of police grew rapidly until the end of Prohibition, when the government decided that the best way to deal with the situation was just to give up and allow people to use alcohol legally. .
Under Prohibition, the American government had essentially, (and unwittingly), provided the military backup for the takeover of the alcohol business by armed thugs. Even today, the organized crime still controls liquor sales in many areas. After Prohibition, of the 1920s, the United States was left with nothing to show but a decade of political turmoil-and many unemployed police officers. During Prohibition, being a police officer was a very good thing. They got a relatively decent salary, respect, partial immunity to the law, and the opportunity to take bribes. Many of these officers were not ready to let this lifestyle slip away. Incidentally, it was about this time when the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) was reformed, and a man named Harry J. Anslinger was appointed as its head. Anslinger campaigned tirelessly for funding in order to hire a large force of narcotics officers. After retiring, Anslinger once mused that the "FBNDD was a place where young men were given a license to steal and rape." The FBNDD is the organization that proceeded what we now call the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and was responsible for enforcing the new Federal drug laws against heroin, opium, and cocaine.