International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 142

A Brief Genealogy of Cannabis Policy in the United States
all psychotropic substances created in a laboratory for therapeutic purposes were
in reality widely used by those who consumed them not for their original intended
medical purposes but for recreational ends. Nixon turned for support for this
initiative to the 1961 international convention. Furthermore, he asserted his willingness
to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against the expansion
of international trafficking of these substances 63 that were illegally diverted and
sold even though they came from laboratories and were produced entirely legally
by powerful Western pharmaceutical industries that objectively earned a lot of
money from this situation.
On June 17, 1971, Nixon announced that the “public enemy number one in
the United States is drug abuse.” 64 It should be noted that he spoke of drug abuse
and not simply of drugs.
To tackle this situation, he decided to launch an offensive by creating a new
organization: the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention. 65 Nixon requested
from Congress a considerable increase in the budget for the war on drugs
and for the operation of this new body, which brought together federal and state
institutions that had not cooperated prior to this new initiative. 66 Another element
of the initiative sought to give impetus to a new international dynamic, with
consultations with Turkey, France, Mexico, Thailand, the Republic of Vietnam,
Luxembourg, and the United Nations taking place from June 14. 67 As this offensive
was justified based on the drug consumption taking place among soldiers who had
returned from Vietnam, from June 18, 1971, U.S. embassies in East Asia were also
put to use in reinforcing American drug policy. 68
On March 22, 1972, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug
Abuse presented its report, which, at the end of a long set of arguments, advocated
the decriminalization of possession and private use of cannabis, as well as far less
severe, almost symbolic penalties for growing, selling, and transporting it. 69 Nixon
did not follow this recommendation. However, as a result of this report commissioned
by the U.S. president, the debate on the subject became very contentious
and intense.
On September 23, 1972, the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, brought in Section
16.2 of its City Charter, entitled “Restrictions of Marijuana”: “No person shall
possess, control, use, give away, or sell marijuana or cannabis, which is defined
63 https://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/LawsEnforcedbyFDA/default.htm.
64 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240238.
65 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240238.
66 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED075187.pdf.
67 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED075187.pdf.
68 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED075187.pdf.
69 https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/23/archives/excerpts-from-the-report-of-national-commis
sion-on-marijuana-and.html.
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