Easy, the War on Drugs began in the early 70s.
The murders and general lawlessness that you reference from the 80s are a direct result of the War on Drugs.
[1] https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/michaela/pages/70/atta...
"The murders and general lawlessness that you reference from the 80s are a direct result of the War on Drugs."
Where were the "murders and general lawlessness" in other countries that had even more expansive Wars on Drugs, like Singapore or Taiwan? America's War on Drugs is relatively mild compared to these countries that sentence drug traffickers to death.
[1] http://www.crack-facts.org/historyofcrack.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_epidemic#History
> these countries that sentence drug traffickers to death.
USA put small-time addicted drug users, in long jail terms. But only if they use crack, the "poor/black people" variant of cocaine, not the (expensive) white-powder variant of cocaine that rich/white people used.