“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.”
This is a real quote from Mr. John Ehrlichman. Ehrlichman was a domestic-policy advisor under President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973.
The history around why marijuana was ever illegal in the first place is borderline absurd, it was all a political ploy. It has taken nearly a century to rectify this and legalize it, and even still it remains illegal in many places. For those who still think cannabis is rooted as a gateway drug that is going to have outrageous affects on society. I urge you to look into the history of cannabis and why it was ever illegal in the first place.
I look forward to this movement and the future opportunities that cannabis could present to our medical fields. The hope that this could have positive effects and provide even the slightest amount of relief to people who struggle everyday with anxiety/depression disorders, people with incurable diseases like Parkinson’s and Cancer, people who struggle with seizures, and chronic pain. I’m not trying to suggest that it’s going to provide a magical fix for everyone. But if there’s even a small chance that this harmless substance could have a positive effect, why shouldn’t they be allowed to explore it as an option?
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