On Feb. 1, the official X account of The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) posted a photo of former President Richard Nixon and a caption meant to celebrate the legacy of the War on Drugs, but the comment section didn’t go as planned. Making things worse, the DEA posted it on the first day of Black History Month, which is especially ironic given that cannabis laws were unfairly enforced mostly on Black and brown Americans.

“On Dec. 14, 1970, at the White House, the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers’ Association presented President Nixon with a ‘certificate of special honor’ in recognition of the outstanding loyalty and contribution to support narcotic law enforcement,” the post reads. The post was marked with a tag for Throwback Thursday, #TBT.

A chorus of rebuttals swiftly followed as people asked essentially the same question: Is the drug war something we should be celebrating? People like Cat Packer—the director of drug markets and legal regulation at the Drug Policy Alliance and former executive director of Los Angeles’ Department of Cannabis Regulation—immediately explained why the post is fundamentally wrong on multiple levels.

“On the first day of Black History Month 2024 the Biden Administration’s DEA is celebrating President Nixon—this is the same agency responsible for marijuana scheduling,” Packer wrote.

Black Americans are arrested for violating cannabis possession laws at nearly four times the rates of white Americans, even though both demographics consume pot at relatively the same rates, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) notes. This racial disparity in cannabis arrests is much worse in certain areas. For instance in New York, a 2021 analysis of cannabis-related arrests in New York City’s five boroughs during 2020 reported that people of color made up 94 percent of people who were arrested. If laws cannot be enforced equally on the people, after decades of attempts, then why enforce them at all?

“It is an incredible affront to do Nixon today. You should remove this post. Nixon did more to harm the black community than any other President in the 20th century. And he did it with the War On Drugs,” Erik Radle, CEO of The Miller Ad Agency wrote in response.

Why is the War on Drugs Considered Racist?

Nixon’s own administration now admits that the War on Drugs—particularly the war on cannabis—was intentionally used as a weapon to target Black Americans and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators.

John Ehrlichman, who worked under Nixon and was a Watergate co-conspirator, blew the whistle in Harper’s Magazine in 2016—fully admitting the racist intentions of the Nixon administration in launching the War on Drugs.

“You want to know what this was really all about?” Ehrlichman asked. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Nixon unceremoniously resigned from office under Section 1 of the 25th Amendment on August 9, 1974 when his impeachment materialized and became imminent. Throughout the history of America, only Andrew Jackson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump (two times) were impeached in the House, however only Nixon was completely removed from office.

Other presidents may have picked up in Nixon’s footsteps. The Atlantic ran an expose in 2019 on recently uncovered audio, captured in October 1971, alleging that then-California Governor Ronald Reagan held a damning conversation with Nixon before ascending to the Oval Office. The audio transcript shows how Reagan singled out and disparaged Black Americans before his presidency. Famously, Reagan was the president who launched the War on Drugs 2.0 along with First Lady Nancy Reagan, the “Just Say No” era when the federal government ramped up attacks on cannabis consumers and drug users.

The recent post on Feb. 1 shows the level of denial in the DEA about the success of the War on Drugs and how out of touch they are with the public. It wasn’t a success: Overdose deaths continue to hit all-time highs, billions of dollars are wasted, and the drug laws aren’t enforced fairly on Black and brown Americans.

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In September, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission Treasurer Deborah Goldberg suspended Chairwoman Shannon O’Brien from her position, just a year after she was chosen to take on the role. Three people have held the chair since the commission was first created in 2018, though there was limited information as to why O’Brien received the suspension — until now.

Last week, court filings revealed an October letter authored by Goldberg to O’Brien, where she accused her of making “racially, ethnically and culturally insensitive statements,” CBS News reports.

On Tuesday, O’Brien was scheduled to appear in a hearing that could have potentially led to her firing, though a judge made the decision to suspend the meeting to a later date after O’Brien’s team indicated they were unprepared for the meeting and objected to some of the stipulations surrounding it.

Goldberg is now enjoined from holding the meeting until the court holds a hearing on O’Brien’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which is prompting the court to outline procedures for an eventual meeting between the two, “and until further order of the court.” Superior Court Judge Debra Squires-Lee requested that the clerk schedule a hearing on the injunction motion in 20 days.

“The ruling by the court today is the first step in getting my good reputation back after ten weeks of being smeared by the actions of Treasurer Goldberg in suspending me with no process in place for a fair and impartial hearing,” O’Brien said in a statement Tuesday. “The Treasurer wanted a private meeting with little or no procedural safeguards where she would be the judge, jury and executioner. The Treasurer, in her own words to me in a private meeting before nominating me as Chair, told me I needed to clean up the mess and dysfunction of the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). Instead, the Treasurer has plunged the CCC into even more chaos.”

Goldberg’s communications director Andrew Naplitano said that the offices “respect[s] the court’s ruling” and indicated that the treasurer is ready to hear from O’Brien as soon as possible.

Allegations Made Public

New details emerged on Friday, Dec. 1. Goldberg claimed O’Brien made a remark referring to an Asian person as “yellow.” Goldberg also alleges that O’Brien yelled at her executive assistant, along with inappropriately referencing a former executive director as “missing in action” while he was on paternity leave.

Goldberg also claimed that other staffers made allegations against O’Brien, referencing her behavior and creating a hostile work environment, at which point other investigators were called in. O’Brien had allegedly said, “I should have cleaned it up. It’s difficult sometimes to know how to say the right thing.”

O’Brien, who previously served as state treasurer and was a Democratic nominee for governor, said she is seeking a fair hearing process after her suspension. In September, she sued Goldberg over the suspension and claimed it was without merit.

O’Brien says that her career and reputation are on the line and sought an injunction to stop the private meeting on Tuesday to challenge her suspension, claiming the procedure is unfair and that the state treasurer should not be in charge of making the decision. She also objected to the hearing being private.

In court filings, O’Brien’s attorney Max Stern wrote, “under the circumstances the only likely outcome, unless relief is granted by this court, is that she will not only lose her job, but will go down in history as the former treasurer and commissioner who was fired for making racist statements and she will probably never work again.”

Considering a Delayed Hearing and Restraining Order

On Monday, Squires-Lee heard about 45 minutes of arguments surrounding the hearing’s potential delay, NBC Boston reports.

During the Monday hearing, Stern also indicated that O’Brien’s team is unprepared for the meeting, which was originally scheduled for early November and delayed to Dec. 5, and asked for another “two weeks or so” to prepare. Had the meeting carried on as planned, Stern said O’Brien’s team was not prepared to do anything more than make a statement on its position. 

In her latest court filing, O’Brien said that “none of the accusations have any merit,” and Stern also remained confident that the allegations wouldn’t hold weight.

“If you look at what she’s charged with and look at what really happened, I think you will find that these are laughable actually,” Stern said.

The court documents indicate O’Brien was removed because of accusations of “gross misconduct,” “causing turmoil” and “creating a hostile work environment,” along with making “racially insensitive comments.”

Arguments From Both Sides

Stern suggested that O’Brien’s suspension “accompanied by suggestive and harmful public justifications by the Treasurer” has harmed O’Brien’s reputation, and that she’s entitled to a “name clearing” hearing.” Squires-Lee then pointed out that O’Brien and her legal team wanted to put the details of the allegations against her into the public domain by including them in last week’s court filings.

“The treasurer did not make public the nature of the allegations, you did,” Squires-Lee said.

Assistant Attorney General John Hitt said Monday that Goldberg intends to hold the hearing as scheduled unless Squires-Lee issues a temporary restraining order. The treasurer’s office also argued that it is within the public’s best interest to hold the meeting Tuesday, as taxpayers are paying O’Brien’s $181,722 annual salary during her suspension. 

“The Treasurer takes these allegations very seriously, which is why she wants to provide Chair O’Brien with the opportunity to address them without further delay, and with a fair process that provides an opportunity for her to do that,” Andrew Napolitano, Goldberg’s communications director, said Monday.

“In October, Chair O’Brien was so adamant about having this meeting that she went to court to demand it,” Napolitano continued. “Now, despite knowing about the allegations since September, she is asking to delay the meeting again. It is in the best interest of the taxpayers and the CCC that this meeting proceed.”

Squires-Lee refuted this argument. The judge argued that O’Brien would have continued to receive her salary as the Tuesday hearing could have potentially been the first of multiple hearings, adding that no decision surrounding O’Brien’s removal would have been rendered at this initial hearing. The judge argued that the public interest in a fair hearing was more important than a slight delay in proceedings.

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According to government data released this week by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, teen cannabis use stands at historic lows, NORML reports. 

The data comes from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health. And, apparently, just over 11% of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 admitted to having consumed a cannabis product within the last year. Of course, there is always a chance that this figure is higher (pun intended), given that the survey is self-reported. While this number is up from data in 202 and 2021, when teen cannabis use apparently reached historic lows, it clocks in below pre-pandemic (2019) levels.

Meanwhile, the same data shares that 23% of Americans ages 18 and over partook in cannabis during 2022. Over half admitted to having used marijuana at least once in their entire life. 

The data is consistent with findings from various other studies that have consistently shown that the implementation of statewide adult-use cannabis legalization has not led to increased rates of youth marijuana use, NORML reports. As High Times reported, recent data from Illinois found that teens who live near medical dispensaries are not more likely to partake in cannabis. Doug Smith, the director of the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said: “We need to combat the hysteria that legalizing cannabis is going to have a wild and resounding impact on teens in terms of substance use rates and prevalence,” Smith added. “That’s simply not the case.”

And according to a report released in May 2023 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there was a significant decline in cannabis consumption among high school students, with a 30% drop in usage from 2011 to 2021. 

This period is particularly notable as it coincides with the legalization of cannabis in nearly half of all U.S. states. Additionally, the report reveals a parallel decrease in the number of students who consider themselves current users of cannabis, with the percentage falling by a similar margin. All of such findings show that conservative fear-mongering about adult-use cannabis is wrong. Legalizing marijuana does not lead to increased consumption among teens. 

“These findings ought to reassure lawmakers and the public that cannabis access for adults can be legally regulated in a manner that is safe, effective, and that does not significantly impact young people’s consumption habits,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano commented.

During the pandemic, sources say that cannabis use spiked. Everyone was locked inside, afraid, and with little to do but find a way to get by and manage. While there’s nothing wrong with using cannabis, the fact that numbers have reached pre-pandemic levels may indicate that public fears are somewhat calm and have returned to normal. However, there’s a troubling version of what “normal” means in America. Regarding news on cannabis and teens, while they may be using less cannabis than in the year prior, a recent study reveals that California cops are more likely to arrest Black teens. 

“Over the past four years, the data collected under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act has provided empirical evidence showing disparities in policing throughout California,” the report states. “This year’s data demonstrates the same trends in disparities for all aspects of law enforcement stops, from the reason for stop to actions taken during stop to results of stop.” 

While this data is not explicitly linked to cannabis, according to an October 2022 The Washington Post story, while the state may have legalized adult-use cannabis in July 2021, Virginia police are still more likely to arrest Black people than White folks for cannabis-related offenses. Crime and cannabis are inherently linked. As long as marijuana is illegal on a federal level cops will find a way to weaponize such laws into racist practices. 

Recently, around Halloween, headline after headline warned about the dangers of someone underage mistaking regular candy for THC-infused gummies, getting too stoned, and falling victim to everything that Reefer Madness warned about. As High Times reported, “nothing is scarier than cannabis-infused edibles ‘disguised’ as candy for some parents.” 

Citizens concerned about the effects of cannabis and teens would benefit from looking at racist arrest data rather than ruin the fun of Halloween with fear-mongering, in this reporter’s humble opinion. 

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In the U.S., it’s an all-too-familiar story that Black and Mexican folks have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs, but in France, they have a similar issue with the impact cannabis laws have on Muslims. 

France, like many other countries around the world, are finally flirting with the idea of ending prohibition. They have CBD cafes now, which are gaining popularity, and the European Union is slowly starting to change the tune about how they treat cannabis. But like in many other spots, it is the marginalized folks who have been impacted the most. 

New research shows that the past 50 years have been rough for Muslims when it comes to the War on Drugs. Close to one-fifth of prisoners in the French prison system currently were arrested for drug offenses, and most of them are men. It is hard to gain specific demographics in France because their “absolute equality” law makes it illegal to collect data based on race, ethnicity, or religion. 

However, sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar studies the French prison system and found that half the people incarcerated today in France are either of Muslim or Arab descent. This means that half of the 69,000 people who are incarcerated are Muslim or Arab, although those demographics only make up 9% of the 67 million people in France. 

Another study from 2018 commissioned by the French National Assembly shows that when looking at the 117,420 of the arrests in 2010, 86% of them were over cannabis charges, and the amount of people arrested for cannabis use between 2000 and 2015 rose from 14,501 to 139,683. When all these studies are compared, it paints a clear picture of Muslim and Arab folks being arrested for cannabis at a disproportionate rate.

Much like how America demonized cannabis by equating it to a poison pedaled by Mexican drug cartels and Black criminals—a largely false and inflated narrative—French historians have done something similar with Muslims. French fiction talked of Muslim “hashish-eating assassins”  who were deranged, violent, and dangerous. French researchers also grew tired of working with cannabis when it was clear it was not a cure for cholera. The combined lack of medical interest and racist propaganda led to a distrust of cannabis throughout the culture. In 1953, medical hashish became illegal. 

They even have their own version of reefer madness: “folie haschischique.” French colonialists in Algeria claimed that hashish caused insanity and violent criminal behavior, often putting sober or self-medicating mentally ill folks into psychiatric care and claiming cannabis was the cause. 

In 1968, again mirroring events in the U.S., there were racial tensions against the North Africans who emigrated to France, claiming they were prone to violence and criminality due to the use of cannabis in their culture. This led to even harsher criminalization of the plant. The drug problem in France was referred to as a “foreign plague” and blamed on Arab and Muslim drug traffickers, people of color, and immigrants. There was talk of a cult of Muslim murderers inspired by cannabis and known as the “Hachichins.”

Today, of course, France is making a stand against such racist phrasing and thought, but it is still inherently a part of their culture when it comes to the backlash against cannabis, and it clearly shows in the numbers when prison data is pulled. Like many other places in the world, France has a lot of work to do when it comes to separating out what truly needs to be regulated about cannabis and what just comes from a history of racist propaganda. 

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A lawmaker alleged the term was ‘pejorative and racist.’ Is it really? I went in search of an answer.

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Even in recreational states, it doesn’t always feel like Black Lives Matter when you head to the dispensary.

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Breonna Taylor’s death is a direct result of the war on drugs. Examine how the police harmed yet another innocent and learn how you can get justice for Breonna.

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Police don’t merely enforce unjust laws. They help create them, protect them, and profit from them.

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As a budtender, I see how Black employees and customers are passed over and ignored. Here are five ways to change that.

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The police killing of George Floyd has sparked uprisings around the nation. We’re using cannabis to push the discussion.

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