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The war on drugs was perpetuated by the Nixon and Reagan administrations to criminalize being antiwar and being black. Do you think that is what is happening he

The war on drugs was perpetuated by the Nixon and Reagan administrations to criminalize being antiwar and being black. Do you think that is what is happening here?

p1esk 4y ago
I strongly suspect the war on drugs was initiated mainly because drugs were ruining many lives (just like they do today), and that selling illegal drugs was perceived by the majority of population as a crime deserving a harsh punishment.
- arrosenberg 4y ago
  Your ignorance is a problem we simply don't have time to address here. Luckily, we don't need to base reality off of your strong suspicions since we have direct quotes from the Nixon administration. “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.” - Lee Atwater
  - p1esk 4y ago
    Well, your ignorance is a problem we can address here. Please read the entirety of the Wikipedia article [1], specifically: The veracity of the quote has been questioned by Ehrlichman's family, while Vox senior correspondent German Lopez has suggested that Ehrlichman was either wrong or lying. According to Lopez: But Ehrlichman's claim is likely an oversimplification, according to historians who have studied the period and Nixon's drug policies in particular. There's no doubt Nixon was racist, and historians told me that race could have played one role in Nixon's drug war. But there are also signs that Nixon wasn't solely motivated by politics or race: For one, he personally despised drugs – to the point that it's not surprising he would want to rid the world of them. And there's evidence that Ehrlichman felt bitter and betrayed by Nixon after he spent time in prison over the Watergate scandal, so he may have lied. More importantly, Nixon's drug policies did not focus on the kind of criminalization that Ehrlichman described. Instead, Nixon's drug war was largely a public health crusade – one that would be reshaped into the modern, punitive drug war we know today by later administrations, particularly President Ronald Reagan... "It's certainly true that Nixon didn't like blacks and didn't like hippies," Courtwright said. "But to assign his entire drug policy to his dislike of these two groups is just ridiculous."* [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - arrosenberg 4y ago
      I'm following a direct quote, while you are citing a third party trying to handwave it away. I don't really consider it ignorant to believe the primary source's exact words when they so closely mirror the reality of what happened.
      - p1esk 4y ago
        What are you talking about? Your quote is also from a third party - Dan Baum quoting John Ehrlichman. At least according to the Wikipedia article.

The war on drugs was perpetuated by the Nixon and Reagan administrations to criminalize being antiwar and being black. Do you think that is what is happening here?

p1esk 4y ago

I strongly suspect the war on drugs was initiated mainly because drugs were ruining many lives (just like they do today), and that selling illegal drugs was perceived by the majority of population as a crime deserving a harsh punishment.

arrosenberg 4y ago
Your ignorance is a problem we simply don't have time to address here. Luckily, we don't need to base reality off of your strong suspicions since we have direct quotes from the Nixon administration. “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.” - Lee Atwater
- p1esk 4y ago
  Well, your ignorance is a problem we can address here. Please read the entirety of the Wikipedia article [1], specifically: The veracity of the quote has been questioned by Ehrlichman's family, while Vox senior correspondent German Lopez has suggested that Ehrlichman was either wrong or lying. According to Lopez: But Ehrlichman's claim is likely an oversimplification, according to historians who have studied the period and Nixon's drug policies in particular. There's no doubt Nixon was racist, and historians told me that race could have played one role in Nixon's drug war. But there are also signs that Nixon wasn't solely motivated by politics or race: For one, he personally despised drugs – to the point that it's not surprising he would want to rid the world of them. And there's evidence that Ehrlichman felt bitter and betrayed by Nixon after he spent time in prison over the Watergate scandal, so he may have lied. More importantly, Nixon's drug policies did not focus on the kind of criminalization that Ehrlichman described. Instead, Nixon's drug war was largely a public health crusade – one that would be reshaped into the modern, punitive drug war we know today by later administrations, particularly President Ronald Reagan... "It's certainly true that Nixon didn't like blacks and didn't like hippies," Courtwright said. "But to assign his entire drug policy to his dislike of these two groups is just ridiculous."* [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - arrosenberg 4y ago
    I'm following a direct quote, while you are citing a third party trying to handwave it away. I don't really consider it ignorant to believe the primary source's exact words when they so closely mirror the reality of what happened.
    - p1esk 4y ago
      What are you talking about? Your quote is also from a third party - Dan Baum quoting John Ehrlichman. At least according to the Wikipedia article.