5 ms·
> If there's a secret cabal of "certain people" deciding this stuff, who are they? Where are they? One of Nixon's aides flat out admitted, decades after the fa
by filoeleven 10y ago
> If there's a secret cabal of "certain people" deciding this stuff, who are they? Where are they?
One of Nixon's aides flat out admitted, decades after the fact, that the war on drugs, especially marijuana, was instituted (or rather, ramped up) in order to marginalize blacks and hippies.
- rwmj 10y agoDoes that explain why Barak Obama hasn't changed the schedule of marijuana? Because he wants to keep down blacks and hippies?
- filoeleven 10y agoNo, but that's a bit of a red herring. You asked for evidence and I gave you some. And I'm not even saying that your assessment is wrong, just incomplete. That belief (the politicians thinking that drugs are bad) is largely manufactured, and much of the blame can go to Henry J. Anslinger, yet it has not been sufficiently re-examined by governments in the light of new evidence[0]. Is that out of simple stubbornness or laziness? Or is it perhaps that it still serves the purpose of the state to keep these things illegal? Or is it simply that the state is loathe to give up any power once it has taken it, or even that governments move slowly and we just haven't hit the tipping point yet? [0] The book to read is "Chasing the Scream: the first and last days of the war on drugs".
- CocaKoala 10y agoChanging policy requires a different sort of political capital than enacting new.