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LEGALIZE IT, AND JUST SAY 'NO' TO FASCISM

On this fall's ballot, Amendment 64 would legalize marijuana use for Colorado adults.  Most Americans are confused about drug laws, believing they're in place to protect public health, children's in particular.  We need a paradigm shift in our understanding: the main purpose of our drug laws is the persecution of minorities.

America's first drug-prohibition laws, against opium, were enacted to persecute Chinese in America.  The history of marijuana prohibition tells the same tale: the victims have been, among others, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Filipino-Americans, Native-Americans and Punjabi-Americans.  Further, America's drug warriors have been vehement bigots.  Harry J.  Anslinger, the longtime head of the Bureau of Narcotics, infamously said, "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers.  .  .  .  the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."

White House tapes show that in 1972 President Nixon adamantly refused the recommendation of his own Schafer Commission to legalize marijuana largely because, Common Sense Drug Policy reports, "the President believed many of the myths about marijuana and tied it very closely to .  .  .  blacks, Jews and the counterculture." Yes, since the late sixties, pot prohibition has also targeted that new ethnic kid on the block, Hippie-America.  Likewise, modern crack laws target inner-city blacks.  That drug laws punish minorities is not an accidental byproduct: it's usually their raison d'etre.

[Remainder snipped]