The Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (1972)

[RainDog]

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/nc/ncmenu.htm

posting here to make this (and other) archival documents readily available to anyone who wants to use them.

Richard Nixon's Commission on Marijuana reached these findings more than thirty years ago. The American government continues to fail the American people in regard to this issue. The waste of human lives, research opportunities, sustainable, non-psychotropic crops and tax dollars is an embarrassment to this society. The idiotic grandstanding that surrounds this subject demonstrates what utter fools too many politicians in this nation truly are.

Recommendations for Federal Law:

The Commission recommends only the following changes in federal law:

* POSSESSION OF MARIHUANA FOR PERSONAL USE WOULD NO LONGER BE AN OFFENSE, BUT MARIHUANA POSSESSED IN PUBLIC WOULD REMAIN CONTRABAND SUBJECT TO SUMMARY SEIZURE AND FORFEITURE.
* CASUAL DISTRIBUTION OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF MARIHUANA FOR NO REMUNERATION, OR INSIGNIFICANT REMUNERATION NOT INVOLVING PROFIT WOULD NO LONGER BE AN OFFENSE.

A Final Comment

In this Chapter, we have carefully considered the spectrum of social and legal policy alternatives. On the basis of our findings, discussed in previous Chapters, we have concluded that society should seek to discourage use, while concentrating its attention on the prevention and treatment of heavy and very heavy use. The Commission feels that the criminalization of possession of marihuana for personal is socially self-defeating as a means of achieving this objective.

Considering the range of social concerns in contemporary America, marihuana does not, in our considered judgment, rank very high. We would deemphasize marihuana as a problem.

[Occulus]

1. We came so close so long ago, and yet another criminal motherfucker stopped it.

For political gain, no less. How many lives have been ruined by Nixon's refusal to accept these findings?