Pot Pretenses: Nixon's Lies Require Ending His War on Weed

By Linn Washington Jr.

Repeated lies and law-breaking forced the 1974 resignation of then U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, leading to Nixon’s subsequent, and continued inclusion on the list of the "Worst Presidents" in American history.

Despite Richard Nixon, a Republican, being widely denounced, legions of legislators nation-wide still maintain lockstep support for the debacle he unleashed in June 1971 known as the "War on Drugs," a war that since 9-11 has increasingly come to resemble a real war, with military-clad SWAT teams raiding homes with assault rifles and grenades, arriving in military surplus armored vehicles, and ignoring such niceties as serving of warrants or reading of Miranda rights.

Legislators – Republican and Democrat – continue backing Nixon’s anti-drug onslaught, and especially its attacks against cannabis users, despite Nixon’s own lies and criminal behavior.

Nixon’s ‘War on Weed’ is a case study of malicious subversion of the democratic process, and comprises a compendium of legal and ethical violations that should spark outrage among even the most ardent Drug Warriors on Capitol Hill and beyond who persistently posture themselves as forceful proponents of the rule-of-law., and often of libertarian concern for personal freedom and privacy.

The recent overwhelming voter approval of a referendum in Washington, DC legalizing marijuana for adult use presents a critical test for the now Republican-controlled Congress.

Will Congress continue to support the flawed ‘War on Weed’ initiated by the reviled Nixon or will it support the majority of DC residents who approved the legalization measure?

Congress, which has approval authority over DC laws, has the power to uphold, delay or derail the DC referendum that voters approved by a 64 percent-plus margin.

During the November 4th elections, DC, along with Alaska and Oregon, approved legalization of marijuana. Those jurisdictions join Colorado and Washington state, where voters already approved adult, non-medical use of marijuana in 2012. Voter approvals in the four states repudiate pot prohibition that has, since 1971, squandered billions of dollars and ruined millions of lives, simply to suppress a substance that even Nixon acknowledged is not dangerous.

The serial misconduct that produced the impeachment and resignation of Nixon, the only president in U.S. history to resign, is abundantly evident in Nixon’s ‘War on Weed’ – initiated largely because Nixon at least claimed he saw marijuana as an element in a plot by Communists and activists (anti-Vietnam War and minority rights) to destroy America.

Nixon launched his ‘War on Weed’ before the conclusion of an extensive examination of the herbal substance by a commission Congress had created when that body approved the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act of 1970.

If Nixon had followed legal procedures and adhered to the intent of Congress, he would have at least waited for the release of the commission’s report before taking action...

For the rest of this article by LINN WASHINGTON, JR. in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent, uncompromised, five-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/2545