Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jul 2016 Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA) Copyright: 2016 Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact: https://www.newsreview.com/chico/contactLetter2editor Website: http://www.newsreview.com/chico/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559 Author: William Todd-Mancillas LEGALIZE IT The War on Drugs did not begin with the Nixon administration, but it certainly accelerated with the passing of the Controlled Substances Act (1970). Subsequently, the Reagan and Bush administrations injected the war with steroids (Chasing the Scream, 2016; The New Jim Crow, 2010). Nixon professed the war was necessary because drugs threatened society, were highly addictive and devastating to health. He made no distinction between heroin, which is indeed highly addictive and deleterious, and marijuana, which is not. In truth, Nixon's reasons were spiteful. Blacks and hippies were Nixon's betes noires. He was furious that they demonstrated against the Vietnam War and agitated for civil rights. Nixon's actual intent is evidenced by this quote from his domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, in 1994: "By getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin ... we could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night.... Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." (Harpers, July 1, 2016.) In November, Californians will have an opportunity to negate Nixon's malfeasance and the Reagan and Bush administrations' mean-spirited, profligate anti-drug campaigns. Vote "yes" on the marijuana referendum! William Todd-Mancillas Chico - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom