72
Apparently marijuana was in the files. They were speaking how people who smoke marijuana are harder to manipulate because it makes us open our mind and question things more, whereas alcohol does the opposite effect. Which is why alcohol is promoted while marijuana is demonized.
Marijuana is banned because Mexican immigrants grew it to make money. Cocaine is banned because black dockworkers used it to stay awake. Nothing is banned if you're white and willing to pay for it.
That could be a factor, but there are politicians from back in the day recorded saying they stigmatized weed to counteract the politics of blacks, hippies, etc.
John Ehrlichman.
There it is! Thanks, Rom!
it still never ceases to amaze me that president nixon admitted to doing this and people still believe that the drugs are bad.
I thought it was Nixon but wasn't sure. I'd speculate with near certainty that most people just do not know that recording exists.
that has to be the only explanation that makes sense to me; but the scale of this kind of ignorance becomes staggering when you consider the sheer volume of information that the american gov't released thanks to things like the freedom of information act.
yeah the war on drugs was a war on the left
Well said. I forgot that point that it was even more concrete than how I stated it. The strategy was to weaken the left. The tactic was to do that by stigmatizing communities associated with the left because of their association with weed.
and opium was banned to give the police a reason to prosecute chinese migrants while laudanum was left alone because it was the opium that white people used.
i think it's fascination how much you can learn of a person's world view by how they regard these drugs.