For Immediate Release:

March 21, 2002

For Further Information:

Doug McVay, 202-299-9780
Kevin B. Zeese, 202-332-2546

Nixon Oval Office Tapes: Marijuana, Alcohol, Prejudice, and Culture War

Weingarten’s Washington Post Column Skewers Former President

Washington, DC: “Dope? Do you think the Russians allow dope? Hell no. Not if they can catch it, they send them up. You see, homosexuality, dope, immorality in general: These are the enemies of strong societies.” Those are the words and thoughts of President Richard M. Nixon, captured on tape by his own recording system in the Oval Office. This and other presidential rants were the basis for Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten’s Below The Beltway column for March 21, 2002, “Just What Was He Smoking?”

(on the web here)

With tapes and transcripts prepared by Common Sense for Drug Policy after extensive research at the Nixon Tape Project of the National Archives, Weingarten found these gems of Nixonia:

ü “You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists.”
ü People drink alcohol “to have fun” but they smoke marijuana “to get high.”
ü “I don’t want to see this country to go that way. You know what happened to the Greeks. Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo, we all know that, so was Socrates.”
ü “You see, homosexuality, dope, uh, immorality in general: These are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the Communists and left-wingers are pushing it. They’re trying to destroy us.”

As Weingarten points out, however, “I am happy to report that the Jew-homo-doper-Commie-shrink-lefty-pope cabal has not, to date, destroyed us. Nixon seems to have been wrong on this one.”

CSDP Releases Research Report: “Nixon Tapes Show Roots of Marijuana Prohibition”

Nixon’s White House tapes from 1971-1972 demonstrate that the modern war on marijuana was founded on Nixon’s prejudices, misinformation, and culture war. The CSDP Research Report, “Nixon Tapes Show Roots of Marijuana Prohibition,” coincides with the 30th Anniversary of the release of “Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding,” the report by the Nixon-appointed National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (“the Shafer Commission”). This CSDP report highlights the discrepancies between Nixon’s personal agenda and his Commission’s highly researched recommendations.

“At a critical juncture when the United States decided how it would handle marijuana, President Nixon’s prejudices did more to dominate policy that the thoughtful and extensive review of his own Blue Ribbon Commission,” observed Kevin Zeese, President of Common Sense for Drug Policy. “If we had followed the advice of the experts rather than Nixon’s prejudices we would have less marijuana use, be spending less money on marijuana enforcement and many million less people would have been arrested.” Since the Commission issued its recommendation that marijuana offenses not be a crime, fifteen million people have been arrested on marijuana charges.

The full report and transcripts of relevant conversations are available at http://www.csdp.org.