Marijuana ‘not addictive and dangerous’ [Video]

(FOX 9) – A Minnesota man has uncovered evidence that the president who launched the War on Drugs was privately skeptical about its dangers and punishments for marijuana users.

Richard Nixon’s Oval Office tapes reveal his hidden beliefs.

Kurtis Hanna is a drug policy lobbyist here at the Capitol, so he likes to know everything about how we got to this point in the war on drugs. And he found a doozy.

Background

The War on Drugs launched in earnest during a presidential press conference 53 years ago.

“America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse, President Nixon said in a June 1971 press conference.

Nixon called for an all-out offensive not long after signing the Controlled Substances Act, which made marijuana a Schedule I narcotic, which lumped cannabis with heroin and LSD in the most severe classification, reserved for substances “with no currently accepted medical use and a …