Forty years ago today, a Congressionally mandated commission on US drug policy did something extraordinary: they told the truth about marijuana.
On March 22, 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse — chaired by former Pennsylvania Governor Raymond P. Shafer — recommended that Congress amend federal law so that the use and possession of cannabis would no longer be a criminal offense. State legislatures, the Commission added, should do likewise.
“[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use,” concluded the 13-member Commission, which included nine hand-picked appointees of then-President Richard Nixon. “It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance.
“… Therefore, the Commission recommends … [that the] possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration, no longer be an offense.”
Members of the Commission further acknowledged that marijuana did not meet the criteria of a schedule I controlled substance under federal law, a classification that places cannabis along side heroin as a prohibited substance without any therapeutic value.
Nonetheless Nixon, true to his ‘law-and-order’ roots, shelved the report and its recommendations — announcing instead, “We need, and I use the word ‘all out war,’ on all fronts.” Since Nixon’s rejection of the Shafer report, annual data from the FBI reports that more than 21.5 million Americans have been arrested and criminally prosecuted for violating marijuana laws. Upwards of 80 percent of those arrested were for charged with possession only offenses, not sales or trafficking.
Yet despite the federal government’s 40-year ‘war on pot,’ today an estimated 45 percent of US adults acknowledge having consumed cannabis at some point in their lives, with nearly 12 percent admitting having done so in the past year. A majority of Americans now say that the plant should be legalized and regulated for adults. Over 80 percent of Americans say that cannabis should be available as a therapy when recommended by a physician.
Why? Because Western civilization has been using cannabis as a therapeutic agent or recreational intoxicant for thousands of years with relatively few adverse consequences — either to the individual user or to society. In fact, no less than the World Health Organization has acknowledged: “Overall, most of these risks (associated with marijuana) are small to moderate in size. In aggregate they are unlikely to produce public health problems comparable in scale to those currently produced by alcohol and tobacco. On existing patterns of use, cannabis poses a much less serious public health problem than is currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies.”
Forty years ago today the Nixon administration had an unprecedented opportunity to enact a rational pot policy. They were provided with the truth about cannabis, but they refused to listen.
Four decades later, it is time for the Obama administration to listen — and to act. It’s time to make peace with pot.
I have been saying for years that if this report was ment to be authoritative, then everyone arrested since its release 40 years ago was arrested illegally.
It blows my mind that something, illegal due to lies, remains so 4 decades after a presidential commission points it out like this did!
Richard Nixon : “I am not a crook”.
Me: “Are too!”
I propose we make Nixon’s birthday a national holiday – a day real Americans go and urinate on his grave.
“No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
It’s money for dope
Money for rope
Ah, I’m sick to death of hearing things
from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
I’ve had enough of reading things
by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now”
Is there a link to the Shaffer report?
Any reason they spelt Marajuana wrong?…
Don’t worry, the US govt has filed for, and received a patent, for a key chemical in Cannabis: Cannabidiol (CBD).
They claimed it had numerous health benefits, and received a patent through the Dept of Health and Human Services in 2003.
The patent no. is 6630507, re: Cannabinoids antioxidant properties
Again, the same govt. who claims this substance qualifies for schedule 1 CSA like heroin, admits their own classification is unjustified as is all incarcerations.
Is this really helping our cause, a report that is forty years old that most people already know about? Our government is very unlikely to change any law regarding marijuana until they are forced to do so by the states. Most states will not stand together to work toward their common goal. We live in the United States of America that are clearly not united, mainly because of our political structure and the greed associated with that system. I want more than anything for our laws to change, but feel that the only change that can be made is at the state level, and that process is meeting resistance at almost every turn. This report was important forty years ago and is still important today, but has been ignored for so many years that our government will continue to ignore it. Whether or not marijuana is dangerous (which many thousands of studies have shown it to be less harmful than a drug a child can buy at most convenience stores) is not relevant but what is relevant is how much money is being paid by corporations to keep it illegal because it will hurt their bottom line. When will it end? Only we, the American people, can decide how this will end. As long as we have politicians who serve for decades (which goes against the ideas within the Constitution, you know a representative democracy), there will be little change because it is business as usual for them and it will continue to be that way until we make the change that is needed. Vote out lifelong politicians because they are not representing our interests, they are just representing themselves and whoever pays them the most (i.e. compaign contributions) and will lie, cheat, and steal to keep that job. We need to do what is right for our country and return to the representative democracy that was intended and not continue down the path on which we are currently embarked. Over 75% of Americans support medicinal marijuana, but our government still so no, and raid operations that are legal under state law. This doesn’t appear to be representative of the people, so why does it continue? Because we allow it and with that permission we will eventually become a police state and we are well on our way. Please vote for sensible leaders who pay attention to the facts and those who are paid to think by the corporations against it (big pharm, oil, lumber, prisons, etc, etc…). We have a lot of problems in this country but we still remain the great light of this world, but unless WE make a change, that light will be extinguished. Please do your part and encourage others to do theirs.
May wisdom, reason, and peace guide our way.
Marijuana is illegal because it is immoral, but it is immoral because it is illegal. (Me)
Correction: not those
@owen, chill dude… he was still human, even tough he was an asswipe.
What makes people think that the government will listen now? I mean, a state goes legal and they start punishing it by throwing even more DEA agents at it. Most of the time a house will get raided over a dimebag that some guy got seen buying from a dealer.
Marijuana, or Marihuana, not marajuana……
Cuz as they were coughing off some killer, they were sayin marijuana? Lol
Dei-Kobi….. that is actually the correct spelling for marihuana.
The Schaefer Report was suppressed and most copies destroyed at the behest of Nixon.
The spelling of Marijuana has always been somewhat up in the air as it was a slang word used by Mexican fieldworkers and has been variously spelled as Marihuana, Marijuana. Marijuana is currently the most popular spelling, but both are found in dictionaries.
In point of fact, the use of that word was specifically to confuse the issue. Everyone knew what cannabis or hemp was, Marijuana was just some weed that migrant workers and black jazz musicians used.
They did spell it wrong. It is a Spanish word, both spellings are correct.
Oops! I meant they did NOT spell it wrong
@Dei-Kobi
the same reason you spelt Marijuana wrong?
I truly belive that the goverment needs to decrimanialize pot. i do not belive that it should be in the likes of herion and i for one support it for medical
use.
They didn’t spell marijuana wrong genius lol
Chapter V
marihuana and social policy
A Final Comment
In this Chapter, we have carefully considered the spectrum of social and legal policy alternatives. On the basis of our findings, discussed in previous Chapters, we have concluded that society should seek to discourage use, while concentrating its attention on the prevention and treatment of heavy and very heavy use. The Commission feels that the criminalization of possession of marihuana for personal is socially self-defeating as a means of achieving this objective.
Nixon = Five letters
Obama = Five letters
Idiot = Five letters
Do the math…LOL! The thing to not laugh about is Big Brother nanny-statism from either the Left or the Right.
Thank you NORML for all of your hard work!
I consider joining my local NORML chapter all of the time, but as a professional, I live in fear of MY government’s power to take my livelihood.
It is counter intuitive that we the people pay massive numbers of people to limit our rights as free people. I feel like a kindergartner in this over policed state.
Is it too much to ask to live in peace and be a law abiding, productive citizen? My highly paid, well compensated government tells me every day that I am a criminal.
I can’t put into words my frustrations toward the people who have contributed to the destruction of all of the lives by very well thought out plans purely for financial gain. It is maddening!!
I am many things: a conservative, a father, a brother, a son, a worker and a lover of life. What I am not, is a criminal………
It was the efforts of Richard Nixon’s plan to target hatred towards protesters of his war policies on Viet Nam.
Federal agencies made it worse by giving free LSD to protesters, however, the protesters shared it around and made new converts against Richard Nixon. LSD does more than causing a person to see crazy things, it also expand the mind. Marijuana helped to keep the mind expanding and it made the society more friendlier and objectively allowed the curious mind to question things. The creative smart-ass protester of the college hippies that major in Liberal Arts, Philosophy, and Law, made enemy number one on Richard Nixon’s hate list.
The federal agencies tried other plans to add spin to the Viet Nam anti-war movement and it failed even worse by making it violent and portraying the hippies as communist revolutionaries. The federal government was running out of options on trying to get public to spin in their favor.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon and Attorney General John N. Mitchell came up with a plan ……
Its just an excuse to arrest minorities & take away their voting rights.if we cant legally vote due to felony charges then we cant vote in change.
Let us lock the lawmakers up and make them eat and smoke herb all day until they see it our way.
That is what they do to us – lock us up and fill us full of their propaganda, hoping we will break and see it their way..
Reminds me of communist countries, not the one the founding father’s envisioned.
They need a taste of their own medicine. LOL. I mean our medicine. Spark it up, Congress!
@ Jeedi Truth… truth… truth… truth. Nice Gen X reference. We are surely family!
any reason you spelt marijuana wrong? @Dei-Kobi.
And i believe in the old days they used an h. not sure why though.
@Dei-Kobi regarding MariHuana (sic)
That’s the way the government (mis)spelled it in 1937 and to this day you can still see this variant in law books. Just illustrates the small amount of effort they put into researching this wonderful plant before deeming it “evil”.
I sometimes wonder how different our society would be with hemp diesel instead of oil and the wars it brought us.
You know, when talking about the truth, should we not be addressing the real reasons why marijuana became illegal in the first place? How many people realize that prior to the marijuana tax act of 1937, for centuries, marijuana supplied most of the worlds paper, clothing, textiles, rope, because it was the strongest, natural, most renewable fibre; and was the second most used medicine in America for 150 years, and was applied to 100 different medical issues including stress, nausea, glaucoma, asthma, arthritis, and epilepsy. How many people know that Henry Ford had acres of Hemp fields so he could fuel his Model T’s with Hemp ethanol oil and his side door panels of his cars were made from hemp and were considered 10 times stronger than the door panels made in all vehicles now. Hemp seed oil can also be used as a machine-grade lubricant for engines thereby replacing petroleum from the ground. Given now what we know about hemp, is the real reason why marijuana is still illegal, not because it is a threat to our children, but a threat to big business? Look at the history, and names like William Hearst and Harry Anslinger, and the lies that they spread in order to get public approval to make marijuana illegal in the U.S.
Here is where you can find the shafer report
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/nc/ncmenu.htm
dei-kobi
1937 Cannabis made federally illegal in the U.S. with the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act.
they used the word “marihuana” because it sounded Hispanic.
Marijuana is still illegal because big business would have too much to lose if it were not. Let the truth about the history of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, be told.
Marijuana is still illegal because big business would have too much to lose, if it were not. Let the truth about the history of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 be told.
Cannabis the multi Trillion dollar crop.
Meanwhile the number one killer, nicotine, is perfectly legal. Congress took over 30 years after the Surgeon General mandated warnings on tobacco products before allowing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate it. With 400,000 lingering, early deaths a year from tobacco and the systematic suppression of research on the anti-tumor properties of marijuana is there really any wonder why we have a health care crisis. We need to address health care at its fundamental biological basis, not elevate ideology over science.
One can’t help but wonder if everything the government does is this inept. Talk about fraud and waste.
Just a suggestion:
I think perhaps we could encourage people to vaporize their favorite drug instead of smoking. This would at least eliminate the accumulation of combustion products. I’ve been left with an aversion to prohibition, but you can smell smoke on people even if the do it outside, so at least this may be enforceable.
I’d be curious to see any comments on this suggestion, folks, if done sincerely and not reduced to the Beavis-and-Butthead mentality so common on the Internet, especially from folks in the health care field.
God i fucking hate Nixon itll be nice when hes forgotten if i had the power id erase him from history books. But then again history books are there to learn from our mistakes
Im a server at a Raddison hotel for banquest and had to serve a republican Nixon party you can guess how that went. Bunch of ignorant old people that whine like a baby. Lucky I need that job and dont want a battery
The degree of obvious contradiction in marijuana prohibition just makes my head hurt if I think about it too much. Any reason given for continued prohibition makes so little sense it seems they’ve stopped even attempting to provide logical explanations for it.
The only real reasons are greed and fear of change. These people who make so much money on marijuana being illegal fail to see that, were it legalized, they could change the focus of their organizations and make more money. Since the actual motivation for their current anti-pot organizations are more driven by money than any moral ideals or concern for the common man’s welfare it seems they would have no real crisis of conscience doing a 180 to keep making the money they currently do off prohibition.
The government is missing a huge opportunity for profit.
I don’t smoke pot, but only because I have no desire to go jail. Continued prohibition will see no financial gain to the court systems from me.
I drink about once a month when I feel the desire to be drunk. Were pot legal I would still drink just once a month. The alcohol industry would see no lost profit from me.
I don’t smoke tobacco, so the tobacco industry would see no lost profits from me.
I would only smoke pot like I drink: at home with no intention of operating a motor vehicle, so public safety would not be put at risk because of me.
The only change the government would see from me as a result of legalization would be an increase in revenue on both the local and federal economic levels.
Somehow I don’t think I’m in the minority.
Didnt they start spellling marijuana that way ( marihuana) to make it appear more “foreign” and increase the fear that it was a problem associated with mexicans??
Legalize it already! Tax it, get out of debt as a nation.
The US government is a bigger threat to the citizens of the USA than any other terrorist organization in the world.
to look at the federal laws… if its bad? gift of a small amount…what is a small amount? are these the actual laws?
My gut tells me our Government is involved with the Mexican Cartel and this is why they
are trying to get rid of the Medical Marijuana and related reforms to current laws, we are cutting into the profits that they used to have a monopoly on.
I have a copy of the Shafer report I got in the early 70’s. It is a paperback and looks just like the book at the beginning of this article.
I thought cannabis would be legal by the mid-70’s.
I thought how could anyone dispute the truth?
It amazes me that it has taken this long and we still aren’t there yet.
We will get there eventually.
Everybody keep fighting against the evil forces.
1971 President Nixon was nice enough to send me a letter inviting me to join the US Army. The day I was drafted I got to meet a Psychiatrist who asked me if I did drugs. I said Yes, Pot, Acid, speed and downers, all the normal drugs college age people were doing at the time. He looked at me and said “Son your going to fit right in”, and I did.
@Dei-Kobe No buddy, they got it right haha. “Mary-Ju-Wanna”
Whats the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT going to do when the E.T.’S invade us and they bring their brand of BUDS to planet Earth, throw MARIJUANA PROHIBITIION in their faces? Watch out FEDS and the 21ST CENTURY INQUISITORS you’ll get vaporized. Just wishful thinking.
As the days go on, more and more people are learning that Cannabis is just not all that bad. You might aswell just legalize it.
The government will make us wipe their asses before they actually put the legalization of marijuana into consideration.
fuc k nixon and congress the government is dumb as hell and beyond broke 15 trillion beyond broke so legal or not fire one up and watch this country crash and burn
If you live in Connecticut and want to end marijuana prohibition in our state, please take a minute to visit http://www.ctprimaryproject.com.
Please pass this on to anyone you know in Connecticut!
Yes my brain hurts, it’s so sad we have to share the same air. US government is so corrupt I really can’t grasp it. F*ck I should run for Mayor of Denver or Governor of Colorado. Get this fixed our way.
to jeedi: If your gonna quote John Lennon at least give him the credit. Excuse me while i go do it in the road.
We need another well written We the People petition. It needs to be pointed and ensure that all readers know we’re talking about federal prohibition. We need it submitted and passed the threshold WELL before the election. Let’s make it an issue again. Get the Petition on the front page of NORML and every other pro-marijuana site out there. #HR2306 r/trees
Forty years ago today, a Congressionally mandated commission on US drug policy did something extraordinary: they told the truth about marijuana.
On March 22, 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse — chaired by former Pennsylvania Governor Raymond P. Shafer —recommended that Congress amend federal law so that the use and possession of cannabis would no longer be a criminal offense. State legislatures, the Commission added, should do likewise.
“[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use,” concluded the 13-member Commission, which included nine hand-picked appointees of then-President Richard Nixon. “It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance.
“… Therefore, the Commission recommends … [that the] possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration, no longer be an offense.”
Members of the Commission further acknowledged that marijuana did not meet the criteria of a schedule I controlled substance under federal law, a classification that places cannabis along side heroin as a prohibited substance without any therapeutic value.
Nonetheless Nixon, true to his ‘law-and-order’ roots, shelved the report and its recommendations —announcing instead, “We need, and I use the word ‘all out war,’ on all fronts.” Since Nixon’s rejection of the Shafer report, annual data from the FBI reports that more than 21.5 million Americans have been arrested and criminally prosecuted for violating marijuana laws. Upwards of 80 percent of those arrested were for charged with possession only offenses, not sales or trafficking.
Yet despite the federal government’s 40-year ‘war on pot,’ today an estimated 45 percent of US adults acknowledge having consumed cannabis at some point in their lives, with nearly 12 percent admitting having done so in the past year. A majority of Americans now say that the plant should be legalized and regulated for adults. Over 80 percent of Americans say that cannabis should be available as a therapy when recommended by a physician.
Why? Because Western civilization has been using cannabis as a therapeutic agent or recreational intoxicant for thousands of years with relatively few adverse consequences — either to the individual user or to society. In fact, no less than the World Health Organization has acknowledged: “Overall, most of these risks (associated with marijuana) are small to moderate in size. In aggregate they are unlikely to produce public health problems comparable in scale to those currently produced by alcohol and tobacco. On existing patterns of use, cannabis poses a much less serious public health problem than is currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies.”
Forty years ago today the Nixon administration had an unprecedented opportunity to enact a rational pot policy. They were provided with the truth about cannabis, but they refused to listen.
Four decades later, it is time for the Obama administration to listen — and to act. It’s time to make peace with pot.
DUDE!
It is a freaking plant that grows in the forrest. The consequences of smoking it, is not even a topic!
Just a heads up folks from ol’ Papa. Our federal government was purchased by Rockefeller and several others in 1937 because they had “interests” in lumber companies as well as the fiber industry. Hence, HEMP was criminalized. BUT, during WWII it was decriminalized for use as fiber and oil for the war effort. Of course, it was back to ‘business as usual’ after the war ended. The ‘business’ of government is to support itself, this is why when our government, senators and representatives, were bitching about being “broke” in 2011 they were looking at laying off IRS workers and low level peons AFTER VOTING THEMSELVES A RAISE! Instead they cut 15000 salaries of the peons and didn’t think twice about giving any of Their money back. Many of y’all will say, “vote against the incumbent politicians”. It won’t work, the new guys get in office and are bought faster than the old ones were. I personally think that this country could learn from Portugal, legalize everything and treat abusers as mental patients rather than criminals. Either way our tax dollars will be used, but in the latter it would be to reform people who are working and paying taxes rather than incarcerate people who are NOT working and have to be completely supported. Just a thought from an ol’ hippie.
@melissa RIGHT ON! See people? I’m not the only one who knows about Hearst, Anslinger and Rockefeller.
I largely agree with Mr Flibble (and like so many others hate Nixon’s friggin’ guts. I’m glad he’s dead but his a-hole policies still exist).
If pot was to be made legal, it would not change anything I am currently doing today. I’d still drink alcohol occasionally, and I don’t smoke cancer sticks (aka cigarettes; the things John Boehner likes to smoke).
If we were a Government of the people, instead of a Govt of the politicians, we would be missing a huge opportunity for profit. But, the politicians make more money by keeping it illegal since their money comes from sources like: private prisons, donations by Big Pharma and other corporate interests, confiscating peoples property and huge fines… and on and on…
It’s disgusting that the people now in power in this country seem to have turned their backs on the American people in favor of their own greed; and in some cases (like Senator Mitch McConnell) extreme ignorance. The wisest of them know that pot is not the dangerous drug they pretend it is but are much more interested in money and power than they are in actually doing the right thing; which is clearly ending this terrible prohibition!
Mr Flibble – like you, I don’t drive when I know I’m too intoxicated to do so – period! I’m almost 60 now and have been using cannabis since age 15. In all that time my entire criminal record consists of about 5 speeding tickets! It is beyond insane that I could possibly get prison time for something that causes less harm to me, or to anyone else, than the things that our Govt says is legal (like at least half of the FDA approved drugs).
I will never have any respect for our Govt or law enforcement until this law changes. Nothing has divided this country as much as cannabis prohibition with the sole exception of slavery. I’d love to see this country come together as one and start working towards becoming a great nation once again. But, with the politicians currently serving (dictating) I don’t see it happening any time soon…
So many people ask why we the people don’t step up and demand an end to prohibition. The fact is that we have done everything we can do with the exception of getting violent! The problem is that the politicians don’t care or want to go along with our agenda and find ways to stop it. They stop it by first ignoring science, and then repeating old lies, followed by coming up with new lies. One of the jobs of the Drug Czar is to perpetuate the lies and to ensure that prohibition remains in place at all costs.
Clearly, I’m very upset with the way our leaders are running this country but I’m doubtful it will change in my lifetime. I hope it changes for the better by the time my children get to be my age!
Legalize it and tax the hell out of it. Nicotine, alcohol and gas all have exorbinate taxes; why would marijuana be different?? Maybe with the extra money you could fund schools, or lower the debt or just pay for pelosi’s private jet that takes her back and forth on our dime.
VOTE OUT ALL WHO OPPOSE LEAGALIZATION !!!!
Marijuana is very old Spanish slang…please everyone do yourself a favor and call it what it is…Cannabis.
To educate yourselves go here:
http://watch.montanapbs.org/video/1825223761/
and here:
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37948
and here:
http://phoenixtears.ca/
and here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4509456&page=1
or any other of hundreds of places where studies have shown that cannabis cures cancer.
Because cannabis is a cure and outlawed it shows how evil our government really is, although its certainly not the worst, the U.S. maintains the largest monopoly on human suffering. The drug companies win, the American People lose!
I know people who smoke cannabis all day long and who spend a lot of time looking out the window looking in the trees for the tree police. It is not entirely harmless.
Anyone that claims there are no accepted medical values associated with cannabis use should be required to submit to a psych-evaluation. Ever notice that the opponents of cannabis never acknowledge that it can be ingested, rubbed on topically in oil form or vaporized? The scam of the whole thing is that NO government organization has the goal to eradicate the plant but to keep it so expensive that nobody could ever afford to eat it, WHICH DOES REVERSE DISEASE!!! WAKE UP PEOPLE!
So has anyone else here got the “We take petitions seriously” White house email as well?
Also this should be a national holiday, the day the government officially rejected the truth in favor of propaganda.
I have lost so much respect for Obama (never had much for politicians to begin with) but I should have never have thought he would stand tall amongst the snakes he works with each day. He will establish his legacy as the worst 2 term president of all time. It is pathetic that everyday there are commercials about various FDA approved drugs and they all end with a long list of potential side effects, while a natural remedy for so many ailments is illegal.. Trust for the so called Leadership in this country has never been lower and its because of their continuous greed and lies.
This is a repeat of my last reply with a few corrections:
It was the efforts of Richard Nixon’s plan to provide hate toward the protesters of his war policies on Viet Nam.
In the past, federal agencies had failed and made it all worse by giving free LSD to protesters, however, the protesters shared it around and made new converts against Richard Nixon. LSD does more than cause a person to see crazy things, it would also expand the mind as well. Marijuana would also help keep the mind expanding by allowing the curious mind to think things more deeply and creatively. The creativeness of the college hippie protesters who majored in Liberal Arts, Philosophy, and Law, made Richard Nixon’s hate list as enemy number one.
At that time, federal agencies tried other plans to add spin to the Viet Nam anti-war movement and it failed even worse by trying to make the protest movement violent and to portray the hippies as communist revolutionaries.
The federal government was running out of options on trying to get the public to spin in their favor.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon and Attorney General John N. Mitchell came up with a plan ……
How else would we support the Prison Industry? Imprison young men of color for using and generally ignore young “white” men’s using? When did you read that someone used cannabis and ran amuck killing? How about alcohol? I’m just sayin’
When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.
Claude Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)
Nixon true to his law-and-order roots shelved the Shafer report started the DEA and the all out war on cannbis using the tactics of the Police State.
@ ObserverOne
…more crimes are committed out of plain old emotions…, really!
40 yr old wars are always healthy for the economy…(SARCASM!)
F Nixon ! and any other crooked politician who opposes legalization.
the time is now, vote out ALL who oppose.
It is dangerous to be right when your government is wrong.
Milton says;”I know people who smoke cannabis all day long and who spend a lot of time looking out the window looking in the trees for the tree police. It is not entirely harmless”
Milton…Oh yeah. But, do the “tree police” have Eminent Domain to vandalise your property or is this your hallucination or perhaps your jaded fantasy(for others) What if the tree police came to life?
Be careful what you wish for… The” harm”
is fabricated but your “idealisim “is very fragile.
“In 1969, President Richard Nixon and Attorney General John N. Mitchell came up with a plan ……”
The plan I was referring to was the creation of the “Controlled Substance Act Of 1970”.
It was a bold new federal attack on the anti-war counter-culture also being known as the “Drug culture”, by quickly passing a law that would make pot smoking hippies into criminals in the highest degree under federal law and making the possession of cannabis a Schedule One federal offense while presenting the law to the legislature as a drug issue.
The law quickly passed without any medical review.
Nixon later created a federal police force,the DEA, that would enforce his drug policies without any interference.
The authorities in the UK have even started lying about it all over again, saying that it gives off a carcinogenic odour while growing! *bangs head on desk* http://www.buy-cannabis-seeds-online.com/index.php?option=com_idoblog&task=viewpost&id=329&Itemid=82
I have never heard of a “High-Driving Accident”….But, there are TOO Many “DRUNK Driving Accidents”which kill way to many people every damn day! In addition, FDA approves Narcotics which are SO ADDICTIVE & DANGEROUS for people, but STILL, they are prescribed like candy to people everyday. Then let’s NOT forget the sleeping medication that causes sleep walking, sleep driving, sleep eating….Are You SERIOUS?? What The Hell?!?!? Just LEGALIZE It & tax it, then we will have happier people and maybe even a Balanced Budget!!!
Thanks for the heads up. i am in Cali so I will contact my congress rep.
How much could have been saved from then till now on health care alone? Cannabis the Trillion dollar knockout punch.
Unfortunately a slightly intellectually – challenged US President is surrounded by a mob of busy-body bible-thumpers, and seems to be lazy enough to maintain the status quo.
Furthermore, no matter how much the lawmakers and the “doctors” love to engage in “studies” on the subject, the current prohibition is just a straight out violation of basic personal rights and civil liberties. It is NOBODY ELSE business why one consumes and whether it is “therapeutic” or not…. PERIOD!
Law and Order has nothing to do with marijuana prohibition. It is the opposite, broken law and disorder. People know marijuana is good, but the government types pay each other to keep saying it is bad. The war on drugs is a war on ourselves, drug warriors are just as bad for us as a society as are junkies. They’re just addicted to finding every excuse for abusing their neighbors and are more adept at hiding their evil tendencies.
When did our goverment stop answering to the majority of the people who voted them in? Obviously the majority of America wants it legalized.
I smoked pot in the 70’s and 80’s, and even though I no longer partake,I beleive it is completely harmless, and should be legal and sold in grocery stores like alcohol and cigarettes.
Tax it, stop the drug lords from getting rich and killing people, and use the tax money to help our youth!
Last thing, WTF is the deal on marijuana tax stamps? Are you F’ing kidding me? What a crooked government we have.
surprise,surprise, know ther’s a new one the goverment not telling the people who put then in office not telling the truth!!
What about the lizards? If we plant a hundred million acres for a big chunk of our energy and industrisl needs and maybe a few milliom for medical needs we’ll need to do alot of the work by hand so we can see the lizards and not harm them but then maybe Mexico will build a fence to protect they’re people from us kidnapping them to work the hemp fields.
fuck this government i cant even care anymore i get soo fucking pissed. i smoke and wont ever give a shit if its legal or not.
fuck the governments lying sack of shit rich bastards and thier close minded old fashioned way of thiking
wait a minute, if heroin has no medicinal value to it then wats with the pain killers (oxicontin,morphine,codene,bla bla bla)
40 years that is about as long as, I have been smoking; 43 to be exact. How long was alcohol prohibited? 40 years, that is outrageous. That was my hey day, back in the 70’s. In my early 20’s I remember those day’s, that is when you could buy a ounce for $15 or $20. A 1/4 pound was $45. We still had more civil rights back then too. Of course that is before the official “War on Drug’s” was declared. Most cop’s in my town turned a blind eye to some people smoking. They did profile more back then too. Duh! God bless America the land of the free. LOL
@Marcel you got that right! I asked Mr. Obama why did you lie to us? Never got a reply.How can our federal and state government collect taxes on something that is illegal and then go and try to shut the dispensaries down? When they are the very people who paid those taxes. Big! Huge! conflict of interest, wouldn’t you say?
Furthermore,how many scientific studies do we have to pay for, before they are satisfied that Marijuana is truly safe and beneficial for all kinds of health problems?
@Nancy Lee Garrett – YUP! As for myself I puffed and puffed all through the 70’s 80’s somewhat less in 90’s and rarely these days, but even if I was to totally abstain I would still feel strongly on the basis of civil liberties. I vigorously oppose a nanny state that sees fit to dictate what I can eat, drink, smoke, snort, inject or otherwise prescribe to MYSELF. Government in my face is government with a bloody nose… POW!…:-)
I think if it wern’t for Marijuana convictions in this country the Criminal Justice Industry would go broke!!!
Viet Nam
Watergate
Rejection of the Shafer Commission’s Report
No wonder Nixon’s nickname was “Dick”.
Wow what I just read in Dons post made me relize that we should stick together. Why not have a nation wide sit in on all major highways leading into the biggest cities in OUR great country! LasVegas, San Fran, New york, Charolette, Miami e.t.c. If we sat down and showed these politicans that we are not scared and want our freedom to choose what we feel is right for OUR people and legalize POT. The news coverage nation wide alone would have congress in an up roar. The govt only work when it is affraid of the people not when the people are scared of the govt. Sorry to ramble people but when you cant get a job because you are a weekend smoker a non drinker and an honest man, something needs to change The Govt!!!!! I know im willing to sit on I77 in North Carolina to shut down a city for one day to prove that there are hundreds of thousands pot smokers out there who will do anything to get a plant God gave us legalized!!!!! An 8 hr sit in that shuts down main hwys into citys would cost the Govt so much money they would have to listen, the stock market would loose billions. The U.S govt couldnt do any thing about it being the Big Brother To all other countries, how would that look if they turned on THEIR OWN PEOPLE when OUR govt is fighting everyone elses battles. This sit in would be epic, the biggest sit in HISTORY, the day the govt lost money over our God givin right to smoke pot!!!!! I think it is a great idea so think people if you quit being such chicken shits and stand up for what you believe then why not have a sit and give a shit to make a difference!!!!!!! NATION WIDE SIT IN!!!!!! LET US THE PEOPLE CHOOSE WHAT WE WANT NOT THEM!!!!!!!
@Scotty – You got it! Can you imagine how many jails and courthouses would have to shut down? Incarceration is big business!
@slosh – I’m down for the highway sit in if NORML will coordinate it and let us know when, where, and how we should go about it! That would be sure to get the nations attention.
Its funny when people can read this and still think we live in some sort of democracy
I like what you’re saying Slosh. I think we do need some sort of mass civil disobediance/mass non participation in the system. I think we need to do it much longer than one day though
It seems that pot prohibition is locked in like a fukn ratchet. Between stupid lawmakers having to back peddle and admit their ignorance, busy-body bible-thumpers spewing their holier-than-thou cult rhetoric, or vested interests which profit from the prohibition… it will be a tough sell. You get some idea of the force that needs to be brought to bear when you consider that the people (as a majority) do not favor prohibition. There again, we have the minority power mongers somehow overriding the people. Same fukn thing has been happening with regard to financial bullshit! Someone said something about violence. I am highly opposed to that, but it might be the only way for the people to take back their rights from the a-holes who put sticks in our wheels!!!
As for you Obama, I realize that you are just the main actor on a stage that is actually run by your puppet masters… but at least open your fukn mouth, even if you are too stupid or weak to do anything about it! You are still tight-lipped I noticed about dealing with how Co$ blackmailed the IRS in 1993. Yeah… I know… it makes you fukheds look bad, allowing your “top” men to be compromised like that… 🙂 I am not finished with you yet.
It is not up to the so-called government to decide what is “therapeutic” for ME. Obama… you and your sidekicks better keep that in mind next time you confront your puppet masters. Same for you there Mr Crime Minister Harpoon of the far fukn north in Canada… 🙂 A roach up your rectum might be your best enema… 🙂
@Paradigm Shift – “Its funny when people can read this and still think we live in some sort of democracy”. Well PS, that will take yet another PS… 🙂 For example… With all due respect to seafood… One thing I like about bass-turds is that you can use a regular jagged knife to extract the turds from the bass… 🙂
King Congress just can’t help themselves…. or…. hmmmmm…. actually maybe they CAN…. after all what are rectums for anyway… 🙂
Our government is so corrupt
After that individual died, his presidential library received audio taped documentation of conversations previously unreleased until actual death. That is, his dealings in private which affected all Americans and kept under lock and key till after he died.
Besides making clear his role in the Watergate scandal, the tapes also demonstrate that this person had no knowledge or cannabis, personal or otherwise, yet he ignored his own commission’s recommendation that Schedule 1 status was clearly not appropriate for cannabis, as a matter of fact (scientists can claim fact in pragmatic medical terms) and that cannabis should not be illegal either.
He ignored it. Just more evidence that some other entity controls the executive.
He also schemed to create a system of HMO’s and a hospital-pharmacy-triad that would enrich few people and drive the prices of all three out the roof. That crappy system is still around today as you know. People leave the US to get surgical procedures done in foreign hospitals, and they they get better treatment and outcomes, at a fraction of the cost.
Then after he campaigned on a promise to end the war in Vietnam. Which was a genocide campaign of carpet bombing and self-enrichment for weapons makers, on villagers and farmers in a far off country, millions killed, and then hundred of thousands of American troops sent over to march around in circles with no real strategy or plan to “win” (see the Pentagon Papers) against those who were not our enemies.
Nixon is more to blame than Anslinger and Hearst for this ongoing injustice and lunacy.
The latter both used lies and propaganda to sell a lie by calling hemp by the unfamiliar “dangerous” term marijuana. It was Nixon who had a commissioned report which found as conclusion, it was inscrutably against the schedule 1 status designation and criminalization of cannabis was clearly an untenable, dishonest, and inappropriate policy. And he supported this nonsense by use of force, bolstering pointless, useless, unethical federal agency bureaucracy growth to enforce NON-CRIMES.
He ignored it. And if you listen to his tapes, most of his “affairs” are permeated with his diabolical hand rubbing, and penile erection, a near-drooling sort of greed and fantasy state of corruption and frenzied money grabbing. It is apparent that in his dealings, he seems motivated by an unmentioned influence, which he himself gives no (good) reasons of his own to undertake his scheming.
He’s “not a crook.” Instead he was a lying, thieving, self-interested POS who talked with the sort of arrogance of a mob boss, who would kill anyone in his way, the way he talked about Daniel Ellsberg, who had exposed the actual “plan” and “operations” in Vietnam: troops walking in blindly in circles, with no apparent goal, with a background of constant carpet bombing for over four presidential terms.
Prohibition creates organized crime. Organized crime is chased around endlessly by agencies who receive budgets suitable to actual war-time related expenses (as if it is a *real* war, when it is just an ongoing campaign of terrorization and harassment, obvious theft, and sometimes killing people who possess harmless dried flowers, a non-crime, whether they are smoked or used as potpourri.
Nixon. the only one to resign to avoid the exposure of even worse misconduct
Reagan. lied about cannabis being the “most dangerous drug” which “killed brain cells” which are both unquestionably false.
As much as it would be great, awesome, terrific, if Obama actually made a significant change that would affect nearly everyone and every taxpayer…
he won’t do it. This is not pessimism or negativity. It is obvious he won’t do anything but treat it as a non-issue, not a topic of discussion at all, as if just talking about it is too risky.
They gave him the Nobel Peace Prize.
That is usually given to people who make real sacrifices.
Obama hasn’t earned it, period. This is obvious.
Token Nobel Prize. Even though he would deservedly earn it a thousand times over for ending the stupid worthless draconian prohibition.
But then again, the executive is controlled by other forces. Other people. Skull and bones alumnae and organized crime.
The Nobel Peace Prize. Anyone can win it apparently. [Obama’s picture]
Count me in , lets do it on 4:20 ….
Everyone can take part in a simple action. Throw seeds to all places!!!!! !!!!!!! !!!!!! into everywhere with dirt, in the ditches, in their back yards, on the roadsides, down the cliff sides, into the air to fall to the ground, the public and private places or property. Words are cheap. It takes action to make change.
Johnny appleseed method, I’ve been told, it didnt work? But with the growing tech we have now why not? What would be the best sex of plant that produces the most seeds that will procreate and spread and root well? Seeds are expensiveplaces also. And till you the truth i haven’t seen a seed in years. But yes every State everywhere. Free the weed, spread the seed :)-
http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=54&threadid=6561226&start=1¤tPage=1
see my comment, #21
We need to stop electing idiots and start electing the real smart people. Why is it through history there has always been really smart people and none of them ever get elected our leader? Doctors, scientists, inventors, and other geniuses never seem to get elected could you imagine a country with Einstein as the leader? That is another reason I am voting for Ron Paul he is a M.D. and easily the smartest of the bunch.
The Truth is known !!!!!!!its time we make them act on what we want. They are making to much money off marijauana being illegal from their production of it, then the arrest and legal side of it. I’m sick of being known as a criminal because I love and respect the benefits of marijuana. The people are suppose to run a democracy , not the other way around….. like Rome the higher ups acted on what the people wanted or they would be kaos. Lets demands the same!!!
Why consume any of these toxic products at all. Visit a mental health hospital and see the result of the consumption of marijuana. Tobacco and alcohol are also having a massive impact on our health. Why not decline these bad habits and enjoy an improvement in general health.
@ everyone who read my rant! The saying goes easier said then done well thats crap! WE can do any thing when the numbers are strong to get real recognition requires peaceful and untried tactics! Why not have a sit in and close these highways for just one day? WE will be heard!!! I would love to figure out away to do so with the help of NORML. For as many petitions we have all signed whats really been done? One peaceful SIT ON 420 2013 would be great!!!! pass this on to all of your friends, family, partners, musicains, celeberties(if you know any), pass on to all who smoke or just know that our rights are being violated! So pass it around see what WE as THE PEOPLE can ACCOMPLISH!!!!!!!! 1st Annual Sit In 2013!!!!!
A fitting tribute to a piece of shit:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-a-crook/8699/
Hi . The Shafer Commission and famous site for
consideration of the MTSA [druglibrary.org] uh
have the potential to begin cannabis law as on
premise the amended taxes would be means of !!
legally smoked cannabis available with accord:
MTSA began the time of prohibition because the
Federal Minimum wasn’t paid to begin newer OK*
grass tax reason of worth to position health a
reason.ing to begin Manna Legal desig:18345.6:
as with accord to offer the ideal with [Mword]
Tax Stamp Act (which I re-wrote) though I then
was asked through a spurious means to pay the:
Federal Minimum on Grass Tax being calculated*
at 100 dollars !!tax!! a California ounce ~pot
and though the newer Grass Tax was exhorbinant
it is said to have paid the Federal Minimum in
the year 2007 and then offered repeal not with
a way to make it illegal [nor prohibit] again*
though to lower the 3.50$ a gram Grass Tax to:
more like 1 dollar per 5 grams with National :
Legally Smoked referral to Federal Law desig~*
nation known to East Coast TriCameral as 18345
.6 for Nation Legal_\|/_ and .8 for GreenLeaf.
The Grass Tax I offered includes the following
in two different editions :: Act of August31st
2001 (2002 Stat. 759; U. S. C., 2001 ed.,title
28, secs. 1053-1081, 1385-1398) :: Act of June
15, 2005 (2003 Stat. 758; U. S. C., 2003 ed.,
title 24, sections. 1053-1081,1385,1391-94, ..
1397-8) are the ruling to begin paying the Fed
Minimum and lower the grass tax to New Mexico
standard known as 1$ a gram cannabis not then
requiring stamp affixed to cannabis product .
The best ideal will be Nation Legal_\|/_ 18345
eco~quarter pound being 100 grams cannabis bud
with 1 dollar tax each 5 grams . 20$s per 100g
is a good deal and will be with 2011ed 2012OM:
Newer Health Ruling to Begin U.S.C. 2005~12feu
Supreme Court not aware of wanted ruling so on
promoted record to begin Manna Legal Acquired.
Thanks. Sorry for the confusion. NORML _\|/_ /
@ag – I agree that pot is not for everyone… but the main point is that, regardless of benefits or not, the prohibition is a flagrant breech of civil rights… and THAT is a big fukn deal with me! Cheers.
The problem is, you won’t get the kind of support from people even though they agree with the article and it’s findings 100%. The reason why is people are scared to death to loose their incomes, their jobs, their lives, the damage to their families, the loss of their children if both parents are busted, and if one is busted and goes to prison the loss of the man of the house who is probably the income the family relies on would be lost thus severly harming the family.
People don’t want anyone to know in many cases, and don’t want that knowledge to damage the family.
Sorry but that’s the way it is.
Despite the fact that it has taken us 40 years to get here we are making some progress. I feel that a great deal of the progress that Medical Marijuana Legalization has made in the last 10 years has been due to the internet and it’s wide reaching forum such as this. Pass it on, go viral, we will prevail in our struggle.
WillOfLA hit the nail on the head – we are a nation of pussies.
From Ed Rosenthal’s
Marijuana Grower’s Handbook: Your Complete Guide for Medical and Personal Marijuana Cultivation
IN 1971, a bold young attorney named R. Keith Stroup got a tiny grant from Hugh Hefner and started the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). One of the main differences between Amorphia and NORML was that Stroup preferred a more traditional legislative approach to reform, working with politicians and suits rather than hippies, and hated initiatives because he was sure they would fail. The time was right for both groups, because the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Tim Leary case had made the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act unenforceable.
unenforceable. In response, President Richard Nixon proposed a new federal law, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This new scheme created a system of schedules for dangerous drugs, with penalties dependent on which schedule the drug was in, but gave the U.S. Attorney General, John Mitchell, final power to designate the schedule for each drug. Marijuana, Mitchell decided, would go in Schedule I along with heroin, instead of Schedule II or III for drugs with recognized medical uses, such as cocaine and amphetamines. Pot was officially the drug of hippies, not doctors.
THE CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT included another feature. At the insistence of then-Congressman and future New York City Mayor Ed Koch, the bill created the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. Nixon appointed seven of its 13 members, including its chairman, Raymond Shafer, the former governor of Pennsylvania who was then a national Republican Party leader. We didn’t have much faith in its credibility, but both NORML and Amorphia wrangled invitations to the Commission hearings in San Francisco in June 1971. I introduced Allen Ginsberg—clean-shaven, necktied, and wearing a porkpie hat—as “our spiritual and financial adviser.” I presented the case for legalization with emphasis on cultivation, telling the Commission that, in the future, “Amorphia intends to engage in the production of legal marijuana on a non-profit basis.” In March, 1972, to our astonishment, the Shafer Commission recommended that federal law be amended so that possession, use, or “casual distribution” of small amounts of marijuana by adults in private would no longer be a criminal offense. Possession or distribution in
public would garner a $100 fine, while cultivation or sale of marijuana for profit would remain criminal, felony offenses.
President Nixon rejected the Commission’s report out of hand.
In a taped Oval Office conversation with his chief of staff, H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, Nixon said, “I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana… that just tears the ass out of them… every one of those bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them? I suppose it’s because most of them are psychiatrists, you know, there’s so many, all the great psychiatrists are Jewish. We are going to hit the marijuana thing, and I want to hit it right square in the puss.”
===
Such was the character of Dick Milhouse Nixon, the lowest sort of degenerate, a phallus-nosed, bitter, racist, and greed-driven loser who never should have stepped foot in the Oval Office, which arguably occurred ONLY because his main campaign strategy was about ending the vicious war for profit in Vietnam. Of course, he did not do so, but his best to keep it going. That two-faced dick-nosed SOB responsible for the Controlled Substances Act (an intellectually dishonest scam) can rot.
If there’s a hell, Nixon is there rubbing elbows with other ‘elite’ assholes like Hitler and Stalin.
If we think we’re pussies then we will be. Reach deep people. See whats right. Change is OK. Let these spring rains sooth us. I saw a hummingbird moth for the first time today, it was wonderful.
Maybe we should highlight the failure of our current policies!
1. Our prohibition has caused the direct murder of over 50,000 mexicans in the last 5 years.
2. With the 800,000 arrests made in the us..
a) countless waists are tied up in court, prosecution, prison and other costs.
b) every state and county has a sex/ murder crime from known offenders let free from pison due to overcrowding. This is due to mandatory minimums.
c) with 25% of world inmates and only 5% of world population can we truly be the land of the free.
3. Most associated crimes are a direct result of prohibition itself.
Everyone rallies around the benefit of marijuana and not the downfalls of the current politics. Legalization can only come from the backlash of the politics and not merits. Every grower, cop, healthcare, profess., counselor and confused/misinformed voter is going to vote no, but if they truly were informed about the major/destructive policies and countless human lives destroyed…
WELL THAT IS A DIFFERENT GAME!
well guys and Gals Dr Ron Paul is running for Pres. if you did not vote for him, this problem of legislation is your fault. i voted for him.now if you feel its more important to steel my hard earned cash to give to lazy people then any of the other 4 are your choice. ( and there MJ policy s are the same too. Paul is the only different choice.
@Slosh, frankly people like you are part of the problem not the solution.. if you’d rather be jobless than give up ‘weekend smoking’ you have your priorities a bit screwed up. Until the law changes, maybe you should consider coming down, bucking up and earning a living. (yet somehow you have money to buy pot)
talk about separation of church and state. How about God and Nation? What , the country won’t make a profit from legalization, and decriminalization for ppl who smoke in the privacy of their homes. I’ve always been in favor of these eye opening and humanitary epiphanies. Get with the program you ppl in gov’t and Mr. President. stand up for what’s right!! You guys are wasting enuf of our money by keeping menand women in jails for such pettyness. For every cop bustin someone for a joint, they could be out there catchin the REAL CRIMINALS and YOU know what they are.
I have a dream… that someday no one will be prosecuted or
incarcerated for a plant! An amazing plant that can feed, clothe, house & heal us. A plant that can bring peace & harmony to our lives…I have a dream…ZINN PIXX
“Drug war” prohibition makes the U.S. a weaker world super power. Sapping our resources, fighting constant battles HERE, along our borders, not 1/2 a world away! The “drug war” is un-American & treasonous, pointing out our vulnerabilities with constant incursions into the U.S. 24-7! India is under constant suicide attack from Pakistan. Thanks to the “drug war”, submarines have pointed out a serious chink in our armor! Evil doers could use the “drug war”, thanks to Border Wars with it’s numerous clones, cue Steven Segal & Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as a road map to mayhem! Add collateral “drug war” deaths like Jose Guerena, valiant Marine veteran coldly cut down doing exactly what his country TRAINED him to do, defend his family! The Pima County, Arizona SWAT team shot Jose more than 60 times after he told his wife & 4 year old son to hide as they broke in. We need to stand up & shout, NO WAY, YOU CAN’T GO ON KILLING MARINES LIKE JOSE FOR UNJUST REASONS! The cost in American blood & a trillion or 2 of treasure lost is too high to measure. None other than Fox News, via John Stossel, is calling for an end to the “drug war”! You expect Fox News to agree with the 700 Club, but they are both AGAINST the “drug war” thanks to Pot Robertson, er make that Pat Robertson! Worldwide forces are coming into alignment to slay the “drug war” demon & Sir Richard Branson is going to hurl it into outer space via Virgin Galactic!