War on drugs: shocker..It was always a racist/political scam

[heyjude]

Nixon staffer bluntly admits what the war on drugs was really trying to achieve:

“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.”

www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon

[MrsAxilla]

Exactly. Is this new information to anyone?

[2curlydogs]

Mar 22, 2016 15:12:16 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Exactly. Is this new information to anyone?

Probably (sadly) quite a few.

[asdfjkl]

I feel like someone on here posted an outstanding (The Atlantic?) piece on this from a few years ago.  It was almost expose-level, and I remember reading it thinking, THIS IS GOING TO BLOW IT ALL OUT OF THE WATER.  And then it didn't.  For reasons that probably don't need to be said.  summer @nitax  ??  I think one of you two maybe posted the original article.

[aurora]

Mar 22, 2016 15:40:51 GMT -5 2curlydogs said:

Mar 22, 2016 15:12:16 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Exactly. Is this new information to anyone?

Probably (sadly) quite a few.

And most of those still won't believe it, even if they read this.

[pixy0stix]

Mar 22, 2016 15:12:16 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Exactly. Is this new information to anyone?

I feel like this is new info to boomers. Who bought hard into the war on drugs stance.

[ttt]

It must have been pretty awkward to be the guy who had to brief a new president Obama on this...

[andwhat]

I feel like this is new information to a lot of people. I had a FB argument with a few people not to long ago on this subject. If I could have any job it would be to work in drug policy and get rid of the War on Drugs and get some common sense legislation in place.

[sparrowsong]

Why does government always seem to have effective, working ideas when they have shitty intentions? That seems to the only time their plans work as they hoped.

[MrsAxilla]

Mar 22, 2016 16:53:31 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Mar 22, 2016 15:12:16 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Exactly. Is this new information to anyone?

I feel like this is new info to boomers. Who bought hard into the war on drugs stance.

Not the hippies.  They always knew.  Just ask Willie Nelson - lol.