International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 140

A Brief Genealogy of Cannabis Policy in the United States
Nixon Intensifies the Global War on Drugs
At this time in the United States, most crimes fell under states’ jurisdiction,
except in the case of crimes related to drugs, which were federal-level offenses.
On September 16, 1968, Nixon announced his desire to strike “at
the roots” of drug production, and to this end, he created the Special Presidential
Task Force Relating to Narcotics, Marijuana, and Dangerous Drugs. 57
In early 1969, Nixon received analysis from this new body that indicated
that the border with Mexico was the main point that needed to be controlled if the
flow of drugs into the United States was to be stopped. Without really notifying
the U.S.’ neighbor to the south, on September 29, 1969, Nixon launched Operation
Intercept across the 2,000 kilometers of border. The idea was to search each vehicle
entering U.S. territory from Mexico. Two thousand officers were deployed to look
specifically for cannabis. The operation proved to be a failure, because even during
this era, this border was one of the world’s busiest. There were immediate and colossal
economic losses, and all agents found were a few firecrackers here and there.
By October 20, 1969, the government had put an end to the operation, which had
come to be ridiculed. To overcome this setback, Nixon expressed confidence that
the operation had been a success from a communications standpoint and that it
had intensified the war on drugs, which more than ever had become a priority
within U.S. national and international policy. 58
If there was a landmark event for this “generation like no other” in the United
States at the start of the Nixon era, it was Woodstock, which took place on
August 15–17, 1969. It was “three days of peace, music, and love” that were overwhelmingly
spurred on by drug taking, and especially by cannabis consumption.
Documentary films on this festival of music and on other comparable gatherings
that took place at the same time (for example, Monterey, Isle of Wight, Avándaro,
and Larzac) prominently feature images of cannabis consumption. This generation
that had had the opportunity to go to university defied the political system that the
United States sought to impose on the world by openly consuming the substances—foremost
among them cannabis—that the U.S. government had tried to ban
within its territory, and even across the planet. Cannabis consumption in particular
symbolized a rejection of established values and was a form of declaration of
independence. In August 1969, Woodstock was the symbol of an era, that of 1960s
American counterculture.
And the international resonance of this event was also an obvious demonstration
of the ineffectiveness of the policies of the “war on drugs” that had already
been put in place: drugs whose use had previously been relatively limited were
now being circulated widely and openly at the top universities attended by the
children of elected representatives and America’s richest taxpayers.
57 https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB86/.
58 https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB86/.
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