In March 1973, President Richard Nixon privately admitted that marijuana wasn’t “particularly dangerous,” despite having launched the War on Drugs (primarily a war on marijuana) just two years earlier.
This remark, captured by Nixon’s secret Oval Office recording system, revealed a more nuanced view of cannabis than his public policies suggested.
During a conversation with aides, Nixon said, “Let me say, I know nothing about marijuana. I know that it’s not particularly dangerous, in other words, and most of the kids are for legalizing it. But on the other hand, it’s the wrong signal at this time.” Nixon also criticized overly harsh punishments for marijuana offenses, calling a 30-year sentence “ridiculous” and noting, “The penalties should be commensurate with the crime.”
These recordings were uncovered by Kurtis Hanna, a Minnesota advocate for drug reform, while he was reviewing archives from the Nixon Library. Hanna shared the discovery with The New York Times, remarking that Nixon’s comments ran counter to the image of his strict drug policies. “He was essentially saying the opposite of what his administration represented,” Hanna said.
Nixon’s private admission starkly contrasts with his administration’s implementation of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, which classified marijuana as a Schedule I substance, placing it alongside heroin and LSD. This designation has contributed to countless marijuana-related arrests, with Black communities bearing the brunt of enforcement, and it continues to hinder research into cannabis’s potential medical uses.
Nixon also created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973, solidifying his War on Drugs. Despite over $1 trillion spent in the decades since, the campaign has been widely criticized for its ineffectiveness and the harm it has caused to marginalized communities.
John Ehrlichman, one of Nixon’s top aides, provided further insight into the administration’s drug policies in a 1994 interview with journalist Dan Baum. Ehrlichman admitted that the Nixon White House used drug policy to target political enemies: the antiwar left and Black Americans. “By getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman revealed. “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.”
Nixon resigned in 1974 due to the Watergate scandal and passed away in 1994 at the age of 81.
