The War on Drugs is a prohibition campaign unertaken by the United States government with the assistance of participating countries, intended to reduce the illegal drug trade—to curb supply and diminish demand for certain psychoactive substances deemed "harmful or undesirable" by the government. This initiative includes a set of laws and policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of targeted substances. The term was first used by President Richard Nixon in 1972, and his choice of words was probably based on the War on Poverty, announced by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964.