War on drugs started to suppress political dissent

[PopeyesPappy]

Not surprising, but fucking wow anyway...

"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," Ehrlichman said. "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."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/?iid=ob_politics_featured_photozone&iref=obnetwork

[stromboli]

I've heard similar statements from other sources over the years. I know that Nixon, a Californian, definitely had it in for the hippies. And there has not been any question for some time he was deeply racist.

What is sad is that the current crop of Republicans have conveniently forgotten Watergate and everything after, and right now many of them are still operating in the same vein as Nixon. There is a lot of insidious happenings over the last decades that was started by him or led to it, including making pot a schedule 1 drug and victimizing many thousands of people because of it.

[gentle_dissident]

My dad told me pot smoking leads to nonconformity. My dad considered nonconformity a mental disorder.

Those thugs who were running our country should have been worried about marijuana. It showed those kids how to look at life in new ways. Thinking outside the box was dangerous to those who controlled people by keeping them in one.

It's sort of like the internet.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

My dad told me pot smoking leads to nonconformity. My dad considered nonconformity a mental disorder.

Those thugs who were running our country should have been worried about marijuana. It showed those kids how to look at life in new ways. Thinking outside the box was dangerous to those who controlled people by keeping them in one.

It's sort of like the internet.

Please say 40 Hail Mary's for using the phrase 'thinking outside the box'. That needs to be stricken from every language known to humans everywhere..

This is all old news though. What's a bit surprising is that it was ever admitted at all.

[gentle_dissident]

'thinking outside the box'. That needs to be stricken from every language known to humans everywhere..

Would 'thinking outside the plantation' make you feel better?

[Unbeliever]

Please say 40 Hail Mary's for using the phrase 'thinking outside the box'. That needs to be stricken from every language known to humans everywhere..

Do you know the origin of the phrase? 

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Do you know the origin of the phrase? 

I gotta admit, no and furthermore I'm not really all that excited at the prospect of finding out.   It's just way over used..

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Would 'thinking outside the plantation' make you feel better?

I'd prefer to use phrases such as 'think for yourself ' and other less catchy phrases..

[stromboli]

Cognate dissimilar to the habitual?

[Baruch]

Wait another 50 years and they will finally tell the full truth about JFK.  About 9/11 probably never.

[baronvonrort]

Colorado raised $72 million in pot taxes compared to $40 million in alcohol taxes last year.
States with legal pot have seen a 25% decline in prescription drug overdoses.
The cheap legal pot in the USA is putting the Mexican pot cartels out of business, American pot is being exported to Mexico.
FBI stats show 1 person is arrested every 51 seconds for pot in the USA, I wonder how much it costs to enforce pot laws.

Interesting comments from Washington DC Police chief Cathy Lanier on pot-
www.vox.com/2015/3/3/8143371/cathy-lanier-marijuana

The nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman says drugs should be legalised and taxed the government is helping drug cartels by making drugs illegal.

There is no legal recourse for drug deals gone bad so extreme violence is used to settle debts, if druggies had legal recourse for deals gone bad would they need to use violence to settle debts?

Prohibition didn't work with alcohol it led to extreme violence to settle debts, full auto firearms were restricted during this period because of violence.

Portugal had a massive problem with heroin before they made it a medical problem instead of a legal problem.