Nixon's War on Drugs Began as Strategy to Attack 'Antiwar Left and Black
People'
Published on
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Nixon's War on Drugs Began as Strategy to Attack 'Antiwar Left and Black
People'
Amid new global discussion about ending prohibition, a buried admission by a
former presidential aide goes viral
by
Nadia Prupis, staff writer
John Ehrlichman, left, with President Richard Nixon in 1972. (Photo: AP)
The former top domestic adviser to President Richard Nixon admitted years
ago that the so-called "War on Drugs" was crafted to target black people and
anti-war leftists, according to new reporting.
"By getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks
with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those
communities." -John Ehrlichmann, former aide to Richard Nixon
The April feature of Harper's, an investigation by journalist Dan Baum into
the widespread failures of drug prohibition, includes an excerpt from a 1994
interview between Baum and Nixon's adviser, John Ehrlichman, who died in
1999.
One passage in particular went viral on Tuesday:
"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."
The quote comes early in the feature, framing Baum's central thesis-that to
win the war on drugs, prohibition must end. He notes that legalization of
medical and recreational marijuana has caught on throughout the U.S., and
that many countries are decriminalizing stronger drugs such as cocaine and
heroin as part of a new, more humane effort to address addiction and gang
violence.
"[T]he growing cost of the drug war is now impossible to ignore: billions of
dollars wasted, bloodshed in Latin America and on the streets of our own
cities, and millions of lives destroyed by draconian punishment that doesn't
end at the prison gate; one of every eight black men has been
disenfranchised because of a felony conviction," Baum writes. "Now, for the
first time, we have an opportunity to change course."
"Legalize it all," he writes.
Next month, the United Nations will dedicate a General Assembly Special
Session (UNGASS) to discuss global drug policy. In the run-up to the
meeting, Human Rights Watch will highlight the range of human rights abuses
that the War on Drugs has caused.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
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Nixon's War on Drugs Began as Strategy to Attack 'Antiwar Left and Black
People'
Published on
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Nixon's War on Drugs Began as Strategy to Attack 'Antiwar Left and Black
People'
Amid new global discussion about ending prohibition, a buried admission by a
former presidential aide goes viral
by
Nadia Prupis, staff writer
. 15 Comments
.
. John Ehrlichman, left, with President Richard Nixon in 1972. (Photo:
AP)
. The former top domestic adviser to President Richard Nixon admitted
years ago that the so-called "War on Drugs" was crafted to target black
people and anti-war leftists, according to new reporting.
. "By getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and
blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt
those communities." -John Ehrlichmann, former aide to Richard Nixon
. The April feature of Harper's, an investigation by journalist Dan
Baum into the widespread failures of drug prohibition, includes an excerpt
from a 1994 interview between Baum and Nixon's adviser, John Ehrlichman, who
died in 1999.
. One passage in particular went viral on Tuesday:
"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."
The quote comes early in the feature, framing Baum's central thesis-that to
win the war on drugs, prohibition must end. He notes that legalization of
medical and recreational marijuana has caught on throughout the U.S., and
that many countries are decriminalizing stronger drugs such as cocaine and
heroin as part of a new, more humane effort to address addiction and gang
violence.
"[T]he growing cost of the drug war is now impossible to ignore: billions of
dollars wasted, bloodshed in Latin America and on the streets of our own
cities, and millions of lives destroyed by draconian punishment that doesn't
end at the prison gate; one of every eight black men has been
disenfranchised because of a felony conviction," Baum writes. "Now, for the
first time, we have an opportunity to change course."
"Legalize it all," he writes.
Next month, the United Nations will dedicate a General Assembly Special
Session (UNGASS) to discuss global drug policy. In the run-up to the
meeting, Human Rights Watch will highlight the range of human rights abuses
that the War on Drugs has caused.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
