Thank you, Tricky Dick

[thewayne]

"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 against the war or black. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuiana 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."
—John Ehrlichman, Nixon counsel and assistant, in a 1992 interview

I've been reading a lot about politics in Nixon's time and subsequently and the way the Republicans have re-shaped the USA, and they've been so successful that they can't produce a rational candidate and they can't stop Donald Trump.

But how do you fix something like this? Revising the drug laws and getting a lot of minorities out of prison would do a long way in that direction, but it's not a full solution.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. As soon as I saw that pop up on Doonesbury, I cut and saved the quote.

Still, at least we're finally making some ground toward rehabilitating pot's image in public perception, coming down off the shrill highs of the 80s, with D.A.R.E. in full swing. Not that that's alone in needing some re-evaluation, I'd say - I can't really see why LSD or MDMA are so heavily frowned upon legally, either.

What we really need is more good information about psychoactives - the actual effects, and especially, the addictiveness (not forgetting quite how potent nicotine is in that regard). Why not bring such into legality, where they can descend from their high price points, maintained only through being illegal rather than any inherent cost, and where people can be assured of purity of the compounds in question, as well as contributing to the public purse?

BTW, have you ever thought of running for elected office?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

No, I doubt I'll ever consider running for public office. Alas, I have scruples.

The worst thing about the "War on Drugs" is the disproportionate imprisonment of minorities. They have hard numbers that white people use more drugs than minorities yet minorities are arrested/convicted/imprisoned at more than twice the rate. The result has been devastating to minority communities where, even after they get out of prison, they're screwed when it comes to getting a job because they're now convicted felons.

Part of the high conviction rate is minorities having to use public defenders who recommend taking a plea bargain resulting in supposed shorter jail terms, but still branding the person as a felon.

[silveradept]

Revising the drug laws would be an excellent start, though. And then there would need to be finding, listening to, and then actually fixing the things that black and brown people say are the problems that get them in trouble with mostly-white cops and that give gangs and drugs the power they have in those communities.