Nixon Policy Advisor Admits He Invented War On Drugs to Suppress 'Anti-War Left and Black People'

[klook]

Nixon Policy Advisor Admits He Invented War On Drugs to Suppress 'Anti-War Left and Black People'
by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Jezebel Magazine, 3/22/2016
Dan Baum, writing in support of drug legalization at Harper’s, has unleashed a frank 1994 quote from former Nixon policy advisor John Ehrlichman, and as inadvertently salient an argument for legalizing drugs as any I’ve ever seen:
[hr]

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.”

I must have looked shocked. Ehrlichman just shrugged. Then he looked at his watch, handed me a signed copy of his steamy spy novel, The Company, and led me to the door.

- more: http://jezebel.com/nixons-policy-advisor-admits-he-invented-war-on-drugs-t-1766359595

The ongoing suffering caused by this craven policy boggles the mind.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. And only one Presidential Candidate has been bold enough to call the WOD what it is-

A "failure"

[klook]

5. Yep.

And ruminating on this in the scheme of things, I sadly have to conclude that it is very useful to the Children of Nixon to have enmity between these two target groups: Dirty Hippies for Bernie vs. Angry Blacks for Hillary. It's enough to make me want an atom bomb.

[chapdrum]

32. Think yer onta somethin' there, klook.

Klook's Kleek, a jazz/r&b venue in London. Don't know if it's still there.

[Betty Karlson]

15. while another candidate has a campaign manager (sorry, I mean DNC chair) who

wants to double down on the error. How telling...

[Warren DeMontague]

29. ..and who allies herself with Sheldon Adelson on the topic of putting medical mj users in prison.

When she's not busy defending payday loansharks.

[Fumesucker]

25. According to the original Nixon strategy the WoD has been a vast success

Not that I think anyone else in a serious position of power had anything else in mind, it's been obvious to all but the willfully blind for a very long time what the results of the drug war are.

[Scootaloo]

28. But he did so without being on the right rung of the US's ethnic ladder

We have to wait for a good ol' midwestern WASP to tell us that before we'll accept it, apparently.

[Gregorian]

2. Once upon a time, that was conspiracy talk.

I'm just glad I lived long enough to see proof that I was right.

[gratuitous]

3. Also, keep this in mind . . .

When you hear folks declaiming on reparations or affirmative action or any other measures designed to ameliorate the damage done to the black community over the years, this is part of it. Consider how economically fragile your own life (probably) is, then consider whether you'd ever get back on your feet, let alone advance, with a bogus criminal charge or five hanging over you. Those bootstraps by which you're so blithely advised to pull yourself up have been severed.

[waddirum]

37. you bring up the most important topic in my opinion

One that should be brought up repeatedly to all of the Presidential candidates.

Donald Trump revels in the idea that protesters who get arrested at his rallies will have a "black mark" on their "records." He said so himself.

[villager]

4. But, powerful people would *never* collude against the rest of us!

I was assured of that on television...

[LiberalArkie]

12. But, they said : "the rest of us" meaning their class. They have been very faithful about not

colluding against the rich and powerful.

[smiley]

23. You took the words right out of my mouth....

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

31. I know. Coincidence theorists are a riot. nt

[WDIM]

6. That is exactly what the war on drugs has done.

especially the prohibition of the cannabis plant.

It was a direct attack on the "hippie" culture and minorities.

It is a law used to oppress otherwise peaceful citizens. it is a law used to keep minorities and the poor under control of the government and in slavery.

It is a law used to steal from the people and suck the wealth from tax payers.

The people who support the continued prohibition of a plant are either misinformed by fear media propaganda or part of the system that benefits from the tyrannical law.

Hillary Clinton supports maintaining schedule 1 status because she is part of that system of oppression and greed.

[yellowcanine]

7. Ehrlichman was the epitome of an amoral man.

Never mind ends and means, if it worked, he was for it, no need to justify.

[mckara]

8. 2Pac Said that 20 Years Ago

[HuckleB]

9. No surprise. It was rather obvious, in many ways.

The war on drugs had no possible good outcome, in and of itself. So it had to have other aims, whether this or other cold war issues, at least initially.

Reminds me of the reality that everyone knew that attacking Iraq in 2003 would lead to the world we inhabit today.

[klook]

10. Another post on this same topic, FYI

Last edited Tue Mar 22, 2016, 09:19 PM - Edit history (1)

Just realized there's another DU post on this same topic, referencing a Huffington Post article.

Here's the link to the Harpers magazine article by Dan Baum.

[grasswire]

11. and the Clintons still make money off the war on some drugs. nt

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. And those suffering because of the WOD vote for her.

[SusanaMontana41]

19. And I don't get that. At all. eom

[Dont call me Shirley]

13. It's the War Of Drugs.

[C Moon]

14. How these people live with themselves boggles my mind.

I guess they just surround themselves with people who think the same way as them—so disturbing.

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. $$$$$$$$ Power. That's how.

[C Moon]

20. +1 ...but still. If I had millions of dollars and watched other living beings

injured or thrown in prison, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
It's crazy that these bastards are able to do things like this.

[BeanMusical]

26. Sociopaths have no conscience so they just don't care.

[C Moon]

34. +1

[Waitsman]

42. Correct

Nice to finally see someone tell the true cause of why all forms of government have become corrupt (see Will Durant's comment on this), throughout the history of man, and why it will never end. I rarely post here because so many here still believe we can VOTE corruption away. Not going to happen, the bad guys know this and are preparing for chaos, while citizens keep telling themselves and others, things will be OK.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Pure Evil.

[AllyCat]

21. Of course they did.

[Rex]

22. "If the American people knew what we have done, they would string us up from the lamp posts."

George H. Bush.

[nikto]

24. Once again ...

The Hippies were right, all along.

[BeanMusical]

27. Kick and R

[jomin41]

30. What kind of a person (HRC)

continues to insist on arresting and ruining peoples' lives over marijuana? The evidence against this position is overwhelming, ubiquitous, and irrefutable. This evidence has been there since the very beginning. HRC must be for this repression for the same reason that Nixon was. That is, politics. Inexcusable.

[FairWinds]

33. So think about it.

We have successful attacks against our liberties by our own government.

But we are expected to think that we are "free," and Cuba is not.

[snot]

35. Had Dan Baum tried to share this info earlier?

Why did it take 22 years to come out?

[jomin41]

44. Dan Baum's book, "Smoke and Mirrors" was published in 1996.

It is a very detailed and well-footnoted book describing the machinations of the Nixon White House making "drugs", especially marijuana, a huge political issue, bigger than it deserved.
I recommend this book highly. This is the largest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people. On and on it goes, pushed by people like HRC.
The interview described occurred in 1994. I've been familiar with it for many years. It's not been a secret. But history fades quickly in America.

[rladdi]

36. Isn't this exactly how all Republican Presidents run their administration and America?

they create lies and misconceptions to the people to support whatever they want to accomplish. Remember G. Bush and his lies, so he could invade Iraq. So Republicans rule by LIES, we get it.

I just hope the voters do in November.

[KansDem]

38. Yep...

...and that's how we got Trump.

[billhicks76]

39. Legalize All Drugs

Regulate them. Treat the horrible ones like a health issue.

[Dr. Xavier]

40. Having worked in criminal defense for the last

30+ years, this doesn't surprise me, its further proof that we have lost our country. And neither Clinton nor Sanders is going to be able to get it back on track as long as we as a party are not united...

[Iggo]

41. Twenty-two years.

What up, Dan?

[runaway hero]

42. of course

american has tried to destroy the african american community many times.