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We wouldn’t be where we are today in terms of the War on Drugs if it wasn’t for President Nixon’s efforts. Back in 1971, he officially began this opaque War on Drugs. Thus began the Controlled Substances Act the same year, and a categorization of most known substances depending on their perceived danger level. Marijuana was put at the top of the list.
Two years after this monumental moment, Nixon had a meeting with aides in which he admitted that marijuana isn’t dangerous. Audio of this meeting has now been leaked.
“Let me say, I know nothing about marijuana. I know that it’s not particularly dangerous; I know most of the kids are for legalizing it. But on the other hand, it’s the wrong signal at this time.”
He later says that some of the punishments they had heard occurring, such as a 30-year jail sentence, were ridiculous, and that the “penalties should be commensurate with the crime.”
However, nothing came of this conversation. He claimed in the meeting that they were “starting to win the fight against drugs. This is not a time to let down the bars.”
In 1972, Nixon even went against his own appointed commission, who argued that marijuana should be decriminalized and taken off the Controlled Substances Act altogether, and kept the plant at Schedule I.
It’s a frustrating revelation that shows Nixon’s incentives weren’t led by science or even his own opinions on marijuana. One can’t help but assume the activists and pot-smokers of the time were the true target of Nixon’s decision.
Check out the audio recordings over at the New York Times.
