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[EdibleKnife]

These articles a cover story in the April 2016 edition of Harper's Magazine, "Legalize It All" revolving around the war on drugs. The writer of the piece, Dan Braum, includes a quote from an interview with Nixon's chief domestic adviser, John Ehrlichman. Vox in particular adds on more of an outlook on the war on drugs and how to address it.

Specifically, Baum refers to a quote from John Ehrlichman, who served as domestic policy chief for President Richard Nixon when the administration declared its war on drugs in 1971. According to Baum, Ehrlichman said in 1994 that the drug war was a ploy to undermine Nixon's political opposition — meaning, black people and critics of the Vietnam War:

At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. "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."

This is an incredibly blunt, shocking response — one with troubling implications for the 45-year-old war on drugs. And it's possible Ehrlichman isn't being totally honest, given that he reportedly felt bitter and betrayed by Nixon after spending time in prison over the Watergate scandal.

So maybe the drug war reduces drug use. But it also enables and reinforces the justice system's biases against minority Americans. And it perpetuates a black market for drugs that fuels violence in the US and around the world, particularly in Mexico.

Baum does, however, acknowledge that even if a country does legalize, there are various ways to do it. Governments could spend much, much more on prevention and treatment programs alongside legalization to deal with a potential wave of new drug users. They could require and regulate licenses to buy drugs, as some states do with guns. Or they could ban private, for-profit sales of drugs, limiting greedy companies' abilities to market and sell the drugs no matter the consequence (as tobacco companies have done to get Americans hooked on cigarettes — to still very deadly effects).

None of these policies would wholly eliminate drug abuse, drug deaths, or drug-related violence and crime. But drug policy is often about picking the best out of the available bad options, rather than picking the perfect solution.

Vox
Huff Po

*Disclaimer: Currently the Harper's website as a whole seems down (at least for me) so links to the article on their site aren't working. Will be on the look out when it's back up.

EDIT: Harper's Mag is back up along with the article in full

 

[Krejlooc]

Not to demean your topic, but this should be obvious to anybody who has payed attention to the war on drugs

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros" going around raping white women.

 

[shortsFortallPeople]

Not to demean your topic, but this should be obvious to anybody who has payed attention to the war on drugs

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros."

well that may be so but there was a hell of a tobacco lobby doing some big business for a long ass time

 

[EdibleKnife]

Not to demean your topic, but this should be obvious to anybody who has payed attention to the war on drugs

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros."

No insult at all. Some people need to hear it from the horse's mouth multiple times before they believe though. Hopefully, this enlightens some people in denial

 

[woolley]

I thought Nixon liked blacks for the most part? Or at least didn't hate them.

 

[Krejlooc]

well that may be so but there was a hell of a tobacco lobby doing some big business for a long ass time

yes, that too, it's a combination of many things. I'm just saying the racism component has always been overt.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Not to demean your topic, but this should be obvious to anybody who has payed attention to the war on drugs

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros" going around raping white women.

I think a lot of us knew, but we also know the types we've argued with on here for years who don't want to believe they've been manipulated by politicians. They see the kernel of anecdotal truth in the policies and think it's about actually solving something instead of as the method to trick us.

There are also people who want to believe we don't do racism in government, like Nikki Haley recently saying there are no racist laws.

 

[Steel]

I thought Nixon liked blacks for the most part? Or at least didn't hate them.

Nixon liked to talk out of both sides of his mouth. And he was damn good at it.

 

[billeh]

Yet it's still not a 'serious issue' and there's always something more pressing.

Such a cop-out.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

While this is a super revealing quote I hate how these things get spun as making these policy decisions, events, or whatever into these secret dungeon evil villain plans with no attempt at exploring the environment in which they were made.

The environment and situation around them doesn't always make it better but I hate this false idea everything is so thought out and planed.

 

[methane47]

So maybe the drug war reduces drug use

It doesn't

 

[Gordon Shumway]

I thought Nixon liked blacks for the most part? Or at least didn't hate them.

He was the first Trump. Loved the blacks..the blacks loved him..

 

[Krejlooc]

I think a lot of us knew, but we also know the types we've argued with on here for years who don't want to believe they've been manipulated by politicians. They see the kernel of anecdotal truth in the policies and think it's about actually solving something instead of as the method to trick us.

I very honestly believe those types are being willfully ignorant. We're all human, at one point or another I'm certain every person has argued a point they know to be wrong because of other, usually emotionally-charged reasons. We all know how it feels to know you're wrong, but want to be right so bad. I fully believe people who do what you say are doing just that. In which case, this topic will be outright ignored. Those sorts of people already made up their minds, and no amount of evidence will change them.

Like don't get me wrong, I'm not shitting on this topic or saying it shouldn't exist. I'm just not sure any evidence will say doubters.

 

[Steel]

He was the first Trump. Loved the blacks..the blacks loved him..

He was far less obvious than Trump.

 

[LegendofJoe]

I may be wrong to be mad at California, but come on guys. You gave us both Nixon AND Reagan. When are you going to make up for that?

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

While this is a super revealing quote I hate how these things get spun as making these policy decisions, events, or whatever into these secret dungeon evil villain plans with no attempt at exploring the environment in which they were made.

The environment and situation around them doesn't always make it better but I hate this false idea everything is so thought out and planed.

It is planned, though not necessarily like some decades long master plan. They just see where the public is going and get there before us. Like the quote about how they manufactured coded language and dog whistles when they just wanted to implement racist laws, knowing the public no longer accepted direct racism anymore.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

He was far less obvious than Trump.

No doubt. You become more extreme as decades go by..

 

[echoshifting]

Not to demean your topic, but this should be obvious to anybody who has payed attention to the war on drugs

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros" going around raping white women.

Marijuana prohibition was initially put in place shortly after the Mexican Revolution as a method to detain or deport Mexican immigrants. There's a lot more history to dig through if you're talking about marijuana prohibition in general, but this topic is about the war on drugs (which does not predate Nixon).

 

[Surface of Me]

I think the interesting part here is they were also going after hippies. Knew for a while now the war on drugs was really the war on blacks.

 

[Hale-XF11]

Not to demean your topic, but this should be obvious to anybody who has payed attention to the war on drugs

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros" going around raping white women.

Yup, the war on weed is roughly 100 years old now.

Mexicans were the first people to introduce marijuana into mainstream American culture back in the 1920's when they brought it over the border. By the mid 1930's, we had our first drug czar who declared a war on weed, which was mainly a war on farmers (namely hemp producers), poor people, jazz musicians and Mexicans.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

It is planned, though not necessarily like some decades long master plan. They just see where the public is going and get there before us. Like the quote about how they manufactured coded language and dog whistles when they just wanted to implement racist laws, knowing the public no longer accepted direct racism anymore.

Its not planned. Nobody thinks that far in advance. Its opportunism.

I mean weed had been illegal for years before this, same with heroin. The controlled substances act was in part prompted by the Supreme Court invaliding the Marijuana tax act. Its not just Nixon saying I'm gonna criminalize weed to get those blacks and hippies. Though this quote lends credence to the pretty well established fact the nixon white house sought to use power and legal (and illegal) avenues to silence critics and perceived enemies.

This quote also ignore how drug laws changed over the years, the crack epidemic, etc. But I look forward to this quote being bandied about on reddit as the only part of the story to tell.

 

[GrizzleBoy]

I saw a program on UK tv last month that showed how American government went out of their way to spread lies about, create propaganda against and literally assassinate (in their sleep, in bed with their pregnant wives) black panther figures who they thought would be effective at being a voice against the oppression they faced.

Im quite sure it never ended there.

 

[PeskyToaster]

pretty clever political maneuvering though.

 

[Coolluck]

Not to demean your topic, but this should be obvious to anybody who has payed attention to the war on drugs

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros" going around raping white women.

I'm pretty sure that was cocaine not weed. Source: The Dollop 155

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Its not planned. Nobody thinks that far in advance. Its opportunism.

Spot on. That's the right word for it.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

I mean his whole point about using the drug law to "disrupt communities" is pretty standard law enforcement tactics.

Just like they liked to use anti-communist laws, RICO, tax errors and anti-gay laws to attack people who didn't like them.

I don't think its far to say all the laws they do that with are created with the intention to attack people, but they enable the government to have tools which can be abused like hell when dicks like Ehrlichman and Nixon (or god forbid trump) get power

 

[Drek]

I'm pretty sure that was cocaine not weed. Source: The Dollop 155

Nope, his comment was something often pushed in propaganda in the 1930's. Reefer Madness being one such example if I recall.

 

[tycoonheart]

Can't believe this guy is GOP's hero.

 

[Black Republican]

Aint no era safe for black folk

 

[kswiston]

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros" going around raping white women.

I thought that was mostly a bogeyman put forward to cover for other reasons behind the ban. Hemp as a textile competed with cotton which was big business at the time. Im sure alcohol companies were on board as well.

 

[richiek]

I thought Nixon liked blacks for the most part? Or at least didn't hate them.

The Southern Strategy was started by Nixon.

 

[Guevara]

I think it's way more nuanced than the title suggests.

For one, a big motivator was that 15% of US soldiers coming back from Vietnam were addicted to heroin. 15% addicted! By some estimates, 40% had tried it while overseas! That would be shocking today, it was shocking then. I don't think you can talk about heroin in this time period, and not address Vietnam.

Here they are, soldiers literally lining up to be tested. Look at all those hippies and black people.

The other interesting thing is: the US forced soldiers to get clean overseas before returning, and upon returning they (generally) actually were able to stay clean. So, just a wartime dalliance I guess. But the point was: if you were looking for evidence that the war on drugs was winnable, here it was. Even against an awful, highly addictive drug like heroin.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...t-vietnam-taught-us-about-breaking-bad-habits

Marijuana is complicated because Nixon was a complicated president mostly concerned with power. He seems to have viewed it as a symbol of leftist sympathizing. So, yes it was about beating up hippies, but it was really this global struggle Nixon fantasized about:

"Dope? Do you think the Russians allow dope? Hell no. Not if they can catch it. They send them up," Nixon said. "You see, homosexuality, dope, uh, immorality in general: These are the enemies of strong societies.That's why the communists and the left-wingers are pushing it. They're trying to destroy us."​

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=126236&page=1

Weird dude. And yeah, I agree with the idea it was an opportunistic move.

 

[EdibleKnife]

The Southern Strategy was started by Nixon.

Yeah. I don't know where that "Nixon was 100% cool with blacks" thing came from.

From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that...but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.

Source

 

[excelsiorlef]

well that may be so but there was a hell of a tobacco lobby doing some big business for a long ass time

And hemp, companies were afraid of henp products like rope and such

 

[GoldenEye 007]

The Southern Strategy was started by Nixon.

Republicans and Nixon in the 1950s were seen more as "champions" of Civil Rights. Until Kennedy managed to win over the black vote and gain support over the years. If you believe the CNN documentary from a few weeks ago on the Nixon/JFK race, it had to do with JFK managing to act before Nixon and bail out MLK from jail in I think 1959. From there, JFK and the campaign took up civil rights issues.

Once southern Democrats clearly lost their historical tie to the party, Nixon and the GOP swooped in to pander to those racist fucks. And of course you still see the effects of that today.

What should have happened is the southern democrats should have been told to go pound sand. Instead, for that almighty vote, Nixon and co went hard after them.

Oh and wait until people see that Lee Atwater quote on GOP economic/tax policy!

 

[poppabk]

He was the first Trump. Loved the blacks..the blacks loved him..

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/what-nixon-can-teach-the-gop-about-courting-black-voters-121392
He actually was pretty successful in courting the black vote, or at least relatively so.

 

[ExVicis]

Not to demean your topic, but this should be obvious to anybody who has payed attention to the war on drugs

This predates nixon, btw. Weed itself is illegal because people feared "reefered up negros" going around raping white women.

Not quite that dramatic at the end (I believe it was more that the "Negros" might get uppity or something like that) but that was known for weed. Interesting though that it's Hippies and not Hispanics as the other target though. That's the part I find interesting.

 

[GoldenEye 007]

Not quite that dramatic at the end (I believe it was more that the "Negros" might get uppity or something like that) but that was known for weed. Interesting though that it's Hippies and not Hispanics as the other target though. That's the part I find interesting.

Nixon had a known hatred for hippies. Mostly over their opposition to the Vietnam war. Culminated with the Kent State University shooting.

 

[Davey Cakes]

I honestly want to gag from how disgustingly misguided the War on Drugs has been from the outset.

 

[Acorn]

Legalise everything and Tax the most dangerous shit to high hell. Set up a card system that ensures heavy users are targeted for rehabilitation and therapy.

 

[Steel]

Not quite that dramatic at the end (I believe it was more that the "Negros" might get uppity or something like that) but that was known for weed. Interesting though that it's Hippies and not Hispanics as the other target though. That's the part I find interesting.

Nixon was machiavellian. He was punishing Hippies and Blacks for not being in his voting block. Plus he knew it would play well with his base on multiple levels(Drugs were causing a huge amount of deaths at that point, too, so coming out strong on them wasn't that controversial). Hispanics weren't nearly as much of a factor in the electorate.

 

[EdibleKnife]

Harper's Mag is back up along with the article in full

 

[MightyHedgehog]

wow one page... ha! I am going to assume this story did not make national news

Happens all the time. Truth isn't what the machine runs on.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

wow one page... ha! I am going to assume this story did not make national news

I think it's because we kind of already knew.

 

[Rembrandt]

wow one page... ha! I am going to assume this story did not make national news

nah, people just don't care. this has been known for decades.

if it's not affecting a certain group of people then it's a non-issue for the most part.

 

[News Bot]

Nixon was machiavellian. He was punishing Hippies and Blacks for not being in his voting block. Plus he knew it would play well with his base on multiple levels(Drugs were causing a huge amount of deaths at that point, too, so coming out strong on them wasn't that controversial). Hispanics weren't nearly as much of a factor in the electorate.

Was this before or after the CIA started drug-running?

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

nah, people just don't care. this has been known for decades.

if it's not affecting a certain group of people then it's a non-issue for the most part.

There was that recent study that showed that if a rule was 'seen' as disproportionately affecting black people, it received more support.

They don't care, they like their racism just fine.

 

[Gattsu25]

Specifically, Baum refers to a quote from John Ehrlichman, who served as domestic policy chief for President Richard Nixon when the administration declared its war on drugs in 1971. According to Baum, Ehrlichman said in 1994 that the drug war was a ploy to undermine Nixon's political opposition — meaning, black people and critics of the Vietnam War:

At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. "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."

This is an incredibly blunt, shocking response — one with troubling implications for the 45-year-old war on drugs. And it's possible Ehrlichman isn't being totally honest, given that he reportedly felt bitter and betrayed by Nixon after spending time in prison over the Watergate scandal.

Good to see it out in the open like that. There are some people who refuse to acknowledge that laws can have a racist intent, so having a blunt admission of racist intent will surely help.