Hidden History: The DEA, Nixon’s Pills, and Black People

Posted: July 15th, 2009 | Filed under: alcohol, DEA, drugs, heroin, history, opiates | 4 Comments »

The DEA, Nixon's Pills, and Black People

In 1973 President Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) claiming there was a junkie explosion with eight times as many heroin addicts as two years earlier (a lie), and that drugs were “decimating a generation of Americans.” At the time, far more Americans were dying from choking on food or falling down stairs. (Baum, pp. 12, 28)

In reality, Nixon saw the DEA as a jurisdiction-free police force that would indirectly target blacks saying, “You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.” (Baum, p. 13)

An assistant to Egil Krogh, a member of Nixon’s administration imprisoned in the Watergate scandal, explained, “If we hyped the drug problem into a national crisis, we knew that Congress would give us anything we asked for.” (Epstein, p. 140)

While president, Nixon would get drunk and pop pills from his private stash. He never had himself arrested.

Nixon’s statistical deceit regarding heroin addict numbers is explained in Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America. (pp. 174-177) When Nixon later wanted to show his War on Drugs was working the addict population was magically sliced by 25%.

The Nixon quotes are from Dan Baum’s Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure. Baum took the “blacks” quote from the diary of Nixon’s Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman. Another quote in Haldeman’s diary was that Nixon wanted to know “why all the Jews seem to be the ones that are for liberalizing the regulations on marijuana.” (p. 54)

Nixon’s generous use of drugs – prescribed and not prescribed (Dilantin) – and alcohol is detailed in Anthony Summers’ The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon.

* This post was updated on May 30, 2012.

Sources:

1. Robert Arthur, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos (2008).
2. Dan Baum, Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure (1996).
3. Edward Jay Epstein, Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America (1977).
4. Anthony Summers, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon (2000).


4 Comments on “Hidden History: The DEA, Nixon’s Pills, and Black People”

  1. 1 DONNIE CLAYTON BARBER said at 8:47 pm on December 11th, 2010:

    AMERICA IS ONE NATION UNDER GOD AND I HOPE IT STAYS THAT WAY. I’M JUST A OLD MAN OF 59 YEARS OLD AND I’M A VIETNAM VET. PART INDIAN AND DISABLED,PLUS I LIVE 10 MILES FROM TOWN. I’M JUST ONE FROM A SHARE CROPPERS FAMILY FROM LOWER ALABAMA,WITH 11 KIDS. I SERVED IN VIETNAM AS A FOOT SOLDIER AND IN GERMANY WITH THE 3/2 ACR. AMBERG. CELL PHONE TRACKING HISTORY OF ANY AREA WILL TELL YOU A LOT ABOUT ANY AREA. WE ARE FORCED TO EAT NANO FOODS AND THEY ARE MAKING NANO SEEDS SHIPPING THEM AROUND THE WORLD. OBAMA PASSED THE THOUGHT CRIME BILL,BUT IT WAS ALREADY IN USE AGAINST ALL OF US FOR MANY YEARS AND EVEN IN CRIMES. OBAMA PASSED THE GUN CONTROL LAWS THATS TAKING ALL VETERANS GUNS AWAY. THE SHERIFF DEPT. INVADED MY HOME AND TOOK MY GUNS FOR NO REASON AND THIS IS GOING ON ALL ACROSS AMERICA. THE POLICE, SHERIFF DEPTS. AND FEDS ARE IN EVERY HOME AND COMPUTER IN AMERICA,AND TAKING OUR INFORMATION,PLUS THEY ARE MOVING OUT FROM THE TOWNS. THE ATF & DEA HAVE TAKEN A LOT OF PEOPLES EVERYTHING WITHOUT THOUGHT TO THE FAMILYS. THE POLICE & SHERIFF DEPTS. HAVE DONE THE SAME. EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW THE HISTORY OF THE MORMONS, THE MORMON FORTS, THE MORMON WARS, THE GAY MORMONS, THE CHILD MOLESTER MORMONS, THE MORMON TAKEOVERS, THE CHATOLICS,LSD MIND CONTROL, AND MIND CONTROL. THANK YOU. DONNIE CLAYTON BARBER 950 LEE RD.453 WAVERLY,AL.36879. PHONE 3348874342. MY COMPUTER IS BEING TAMPERED WITH AND MY E-MAILS BLOCKED.

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