Many people think America’s War on Drugs was Ronald Reagan’s baby, and it did become important to Reagan’s momentum after he realized how effective the anti-drug message was in gaining political approval. (He needed votes from conservatives and moderates to win his presidency in 1980)
There’s much more to it, though, so let’s back up a little…for the Emerald Triangle, the modern War on Drugs actually began with President Richard Nixon in 1970 in the height of protests against the Vietnam War. (The criminalization of cannabis precluded Nixon, and will be covered in my article The History of Cannabis Criminalization in a couple weeks).
There was a seismic cultural shift happening in the late 1960’s, when much of America’s young society (the Baby Boomer generation) was sick and tired of war, and social norms, and the very structure of things.
It’s important to understand that structure and order were a vital part of our country’s healthy recovery in the 1950’s after The Great Depression and World War II. But structure, by its very nature, is rigid and unforgiving.
The 1950s served up a cookie-cutter type norm where people were expected to act a certain way, look a certain way, always do this, never do that, everything in its place, and all things in moderation except church. The expectation was very Leave It To Beaver-esque.
By the second half of the 1960s, the Boomers had had enough, and began to counter that conservatism with new, freer cultural standards, like rock and roll, protests, muscle cars, and you guessed it–cannabis. By 1968, things really started changing in American culture.
The youthful Boomers felt empowered to speak their minds, while also expanding them with drugs, art, and sexploration. Flower power! (one of their mantras) They blew down the walls of construct with rebellion.
Simultaneously, the blacks were standing solid for civil rights and, in addition to their anti-war protests, hippies were working to break social norms. It wasn’t just change. It was a movement. And in the eyes of conservative politicians, it was the biggest threat of all–a revolution.
Hippie men and women alike chose not to cut or shave their hair, they often preferred to live communally, and they fundamentally believed that love was THE thread of humanity. My parents were in San Francisco at that time, forming their own, albeit milder, inner versions of an influential hippie through their Haight Ashbury experiences.
The War on Drugs officially launched federally in 1970 as an early development of Nixon’s re-election campaign strategy. The next presidential election was coming up in 1973, and in such a highly volatile social environment, there was no time to waste. The Controlled Substances Act was signed into law in 1970. At the same time, Reagan started incubating his own War on Drugs in California, although the effort went into full gear during his second term as Governor of California (1971-1975).
If you only remember one thing about the modern War on Drugs, let it be this:
John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s domestic policy chief cited blacks and hippies as being the real target of the War on Drugs, not drugs. He was quoted in Harper magazine as saying, “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.”
And that checks. I mean, if you’re trying to criminalize someone by making a crime out of something they enjoy in order to remove their right to vote, the crime needs to be a felony, not a misdemeanor, right? Only a felony removes a criminal’s right to vote in America.
So “marijuana” (as cannabis was now re-branded) became a Schedule 1 Drug, alongside heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. The federal government, with full knowledge that cannabis had been used medicinally for hundreds of years, now suddenly decided without any proof, that “marijuana” had zero intrinsic medicinal value. They flat out lied. And have been lying about it ever since.
The criminalization process the Nixon Administration was creating (and sensationalizing) would only work if weed was labeled in the Schedule 1 classification. Then, like Ehrlichman admitted, as law enforcement was raiding and arresting blacks and hippies, the War on Drugs footage would be shown on TV right after the Vietnam War footage.
If the liberals were against the war in Vietnam, conservatives had to create a war at home in order to secure their survival in the next election. The “Us vs. Them” strategy was a cornerstone of the War on Drugs.
This new War on Drugs was a perfect tee up for Reagan as governor. Criminalization meant metrics and notoriety. Freewheelin’ hippies from 1960’s San Francisco (like my parents) were moving north to grow their own fruits, vegetables, and herbs—including weed.
Fun fact: People didn’t really flock to Napa County from San Francisco back then, because at that time, Napa was known for being the place where the mentally ill were hospitalized. 100% true! Before their successful rebranding into wine, folks in the Bay Area would say about someone acting crazy, “Careful, they’ll take you to Napa!” Napa’s brand from about the 1950s to the ‘70s was insanity. Literally! Cheers to Napa on their successful 1980s+ rebranding into the wine capital of California.
Some gardeners, like my dad, were more interested in hobbying, sharing, and smoking than farming. But there were some who longed for farm life and full self-sufficiency, and they migrated further north into the mountains of Mendocino, Humboldt, or Trinity County (the Emerald Triangle). In the 1970s they were called Back-to-the-Landers, eventually earning the modern title of Legacy Farmer.
The official definition of a Legacy Farmer in the context of this and my future publications, is someone who moved to the Emerald Triangle in the 1970s to farm cannabis. Being among these pioneers is to hold legendary status in the modern cannabis community in the Emerald Triangle, because everything started with them. Legacy Farmers (Back-to-the-Landers) paved the road in ways that would impress some innovators of 21st century Silicon Valley.
The article below is from Mendocino’s newspaper, the Ukiah Daily Journal, in 1970. It’s worth enlarging to read at least the first column where Reagan talks about how kids are jonesin’ so hard to get high, they were smoking wheat and carrot tops. It’s laughable now, but this info was coming from the governor of the largest state in the nation, so the “us” side of the war took it very seriously.
Think about it—there was no contrary information being researched, published, or announced, so taking a governor’s (and President’s) word on the reality of the dangers of drugs legitimized the fear older conservatives felt about the younger Boomer generation.
The fear, specifically, was that America would lose its power of control and influence, and become a lazy, commie, drug nation. World War II was not far behind us in the rearview mirror and lived as a constant reminder of not taking liberty for granted.
After creating a War on Drugs in California from 1970-1975, Reagan refused to run for re-election as governor in 1975, eyeing a run for Presidency. Nixon was out by then, having resigned in shame (back when political shame existed), but America would live in the wake of his political con—The War on Drugs—for another 50 years and counting.
[Part 2: 1975-1981 will be published in a special Monday bonus edition. You’ll learn when The Emerald Triangle got its name, and who named it!]
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Arcata Farmers Market
Every Saturday, the Plaza in Arcata comes alive with vendors, artists, live music, families, and friends. This isn’t your average farmers market, my friends, it’s more like a weekly festival of fun. And locals boast that it’s the “oldest farmers market west of the Mississippi” (Mississippi River). There is something for everyone and almost everything under the sun at this wonderful gathering, from produce and baked goods, to locally created clothing and collectibles. If you head to downtown Arcata on any given Saturday morning (rain or shine!), you can’t miss it at the Arcata Plaza between 8th & 9th and G & H Streets. The hours change by season (luckily we kinda only have two in California! lol), and winter hours start November 30th. April - November: 9am - 2pm | December - March: 10am - 2pm
Thanks for reading! Whether you’re a fan of cannabis, California, history, true crime, or law enforcement, I hope you’ll subscribe and stick with me for more unbelievable stories about the War on Drugs in the Emerald Triangle and my crazy childhood during it all. It won’t be boring! After the free publications, paid subscribers will receive this weekly article with historic & proprietary pics, as well as exclusive audio and video tracks that occasionally accompany my articles. A podcast option will also be available to paid subscribers.
In addition to the subscription benes, Founding Members will receive early registration and a $200 discount on my Cannabis Camp Retreat for adults in the Emerald Triangle. Also exclusive for Founding Members is my personally curated list of 420 of the best things to do in the Emerald Triangle, which includes recommendations for restaurants, lodging, adventures, sightseeing, and entertainment.
I appreciate your support to document this slice of American history!
GLOSSARY
Back-to-the-Landers - Also Back-to-Landers. The original name of the cannabis community in the Emerald Triangle now referred to as Legacy Farmers.
Commie - Referring to a communist or communism. After WWII, there was a fear among the Greatest Generation (parents of the Boomers who fought in the war against Hitler) of communists infiltrating America. The word “commie” was an insult, insinuating ulterior motives against democracy and the United States.
John Ehrlichman - Nixon’s former Domestic Policy Chief who admitted to Harper Magazine that the War on Drugs was created to criminalize Americans who may potentially vote against Nixon in his presidential re-election of 1973. He cited blacks and hippies as central targets.
Jonesin’ - California GenX slang for yearning.
Legacy Farmer - Someone who moved to the Emerald Triangle in the 1970’s to farm cannabis.
Ukiah Daily Journal - Mendocino County’s main newspaper, with roots going back to 1868. The paper’s name has changed numerous times, as has its owner.
Us vs. Them - A mental manipulation strategy used by politicians in the War on Drugs to influence Americans politically by dividing them, then making one side look nefarious through strategic tactics like criminalization and sensationalism through media. This strategy is still commonly used today.