Hydrolife Magazine April/May 2017 (Canada Edition)

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As we learned in Part 1, under President
Richard Nixon in 1970, marijuana was
classified as a Schedule 1 drug in the
newly passed Comprehensive Drug Abuse
Prevention and Control Act. It continues with
that classification today.
Prior to this, however, a Nixon-appointed
presidential commission had recommended
marijuana use not be a criminal offence. This
recommendation was made by the Shafer
Commission, whose members were appointed by
Nixon himself and were, for the most part, strongly
opposed to marijuana. After launching dozens of
reports and polls, and taking thousands of pages
of testimony, members of the commission came to
a different conclusion than they had set out to find.
Instead of condemning marijuana, they hinted that
legalization was a more appropriate step, though
Shafer himself did not support this. The Shafer
Commission’s final report concluded marijuana did
not cause crime or aggression or act as what is now
called a “gateway drug.” It also recommended the
decriminalization of marijuana possession.
Nixon, whose personal views
remained strongly anti-marijuana,
overruled the commission’s findings and
announced “all-out war” on marijuana.
While President Jimmy Carter took
a softer stance on pot, the Reagan
administration reinforced Nixon’s hard
line by ramping up the war on drugs.
Just 20 years later, in 1992, Bill
Clinton became the first American
president to admit to having tried (but
not inhaled) marijuana. Then, in 1996,
California became the first state
in the nation to legalize the use of
medicinal marijuana.
The march towards the
acceptance of cannabis in
North America has gone on into
the 21st century, but what has fueled this? Why do
the majority of citizens support the use of cannabis
when only an estimated six per cent of individuals
use it? More Americans agree on the legalization,
or at least the decriminalization of cannabis,
than they do on who should be the American
president. Its acceptance crosses party lines and
generational ones.
Of course, entire anthologies could be written on
dozens of different reasons why cannabis is becoming
less stigmatized. It seems to be the confluence
of several factors ranging from a changing notion
of the role of government, the age of the citizenry,
and the financial state we have found ourselves
in over the past couple of decades. Whatever the
combination is, it seems to have caused a perfect
storm of change that continues to sweep through
the nation and around North America.
”AFTER launching dozens of reports
and polls, and taking thousands of
pages of testimony, members of
the commission came to a different
conclusion than they had
set out to find.“
54 grow. heal. live. enjoy.
myhydrolife.ca