Shocking! Former Nixon Policy Advisor Admits Purpose Of War On Drugs (VIDEO)


In the April 2016 edition of Harper’s Magazine, writer Dan Baum wrote an op-ed in support of the legalization of all recreational drugs. In that article, he revealed a shocking 1994 quote from former Nixon policy advisor and “Watergate co-conspirator,” John Ehrlichman.

At the time, Baum was writing a book about the politics of drug legalization. When Baum asked Ehrlichman a question related to that topic, the former policy advisor gave an answer that many suspected, but no one involved had ever admitted out loud.

“You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Nixon formed a federal commission to examine marijuana use and it’s dangers in hopes of painting users as dangerous and mentally damaged. Despite the commission’s findings that marijuana use was not dangerous in 1972, and the commission’s argument that marijuana use and non-profit sales should be decriminalized, Nixon chose to ignore them. This was despite the fact that Nixon appointed that commission and spent taxpayer dollars to fund it.

“‘Neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety,’ concluded the report’s authors, led by then-Gov. Raymond Shafer of Pennsylvania. ‘Therefore, the Commission recommends … [the] possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration no longer be an offense.’

Despite the commission’s recommendations, Nixon and Congress ignored the report. Since then, more than 13.2 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, including some 735,000 in 2000 – the last year for which federal data is available.”

Nixon even attempted to change the commission’s findings through pressuring some of those he appointed.

“Recently released transcripts of Nixon’s conversations with Gov. Shafer, who chaired the 1972 pot commission, indicate that the President tried to pressure him to reject his committee’s findings. “You’re enough of a pro to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what Congress feels … and what we’re planning to do would make your commission just look bad as hell,” Nixon warned in a May 26, 1971 conversation. In other conversations, Nixon linked marijuana to the downfall of civilized societies.”

In other words, drug use threatened the downfall of white, middle-class superiority. Demonizing those who publicly supported its decriminalization and those who struggled with addiction would keep the GOP fueled for decades.

Until drug use becomes a public health issue instead of a criminal one, addiction itself will never be addressed. As long as 13.2 million more people can be thrown in jail for the use of both harmless and addictive substances, the GOP will never run out of white, middle-class voters who are far less likely to be arrested for the same crimes as the poor and people of color.

For more information on the cost of the war on drugs, see the video below.

Featured image via Flikr by asecondhandconjecture