SpliFF
40 Years Ago Today: Congress
Was Told To Tell The Truth
About Marijuana; They Didn’t
by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
March 22, 2012
Forty years ago today, a Congressionally mandated commission on US drug
policy did something extraordinary: they told the truth about marijuana.
On March 22, 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug
Abuse — chaired by former Pennsylvania Governor Raymond P. Shafer —
recommended that Congress amend federal law so that the use and possession of cannabis would no longer be a criminal offense. State legislatures, the Commission added, should do likewise.
“[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even
in the effort to discourage use,” concluded the 13-member Commission,
which included nine hand-picked appointees of then-President Richard Nixon. “It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private
behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance.
“… Therefore, the Commission recommends … [that the] possession of marijuana for personal use no
longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration,
or insignificant remuneration, no longer be an offense.”
Members of the Commission further acknowledged that marijuana did not
meet the criteria of a schedule I controlled substance under federal law, a
classification that places cannabis along side heroin as a prohibited substance without any therapeutic value.
Nonetheless Nixon, true to his ‘law-and-order’ roots, shelved the report
and its recommendations — announcing instead, “We need, and I use the
word ‘all out war,’ on all fronts.” Since Nixon’s rejection of the Shafer report, annual data from the FBI reports that more than 21.5 million Americans have been arrested and criminally prosecuted for violating marijuana
laws. Upwards of 80 percent of those arrested were for charged with possession only offenses, not sales or trafficking.
18 SmokinUnderground.com