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by rectang 2359 days ago
> I don’t understand why federal legalization has been so difficult.

Drug laws are enforced unequally across different racial groups. Those who benefit from oppressing racial minorities, especially via voter suppression through felony disenfranchisement, are understandably reluctant to relinquish their tools.
1 comments
09bjb 2359 days ago
"Those" have admitted it publicly too:

https://qz.com/645990/nixon-advisor-we-created-the-war-on-dr...

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rectang 2359 days ago
For what it's worth, I used "those" rather than naming names because that way it is easier to keep to the specific issue and avoid descending into partisan warfare — which is more in the spirit of the HN guidelines.
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09bjb 2359 days ago
Haha, well, when it starts with "oppressing racial minorities, especially via voter suppression through felony disenfranchisement" ...just follow the data ;)
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hanniabu 2359 days ago
While I respect the guidelines, we shouldn't be suppressing awareness and dirty tactics
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dsfyu404ed 2359 days ago
IIRC this quote has been discredited.
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abbadadda 2359 days ago
Why is this your about? It makes you seem confrontational. I read abouts for all types of reasons. I clicked on your username to see the likelihood that you're a bot ;-)

> If you're reading this odds are it's because you're incapable of having a well reasoned debate with someone who doesn't share your point of view.

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hanniabu 2359 days ago
Please provide proof
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dsfyu404ed 2359 days ago
Best I can do right now: https://www.vox.com/2016/3/29/11325750/nixon-war-on-drugs and https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/32247/did-ehrli...

Someone wrote a well done article (I wanna say it was Medium) which appears to be what the stackexchange answer is summarizing that actually tracked down all the who said what and laid a pretty darn good case for why the quote wasn't legit. It basically boiled down to the guy who alleges the quote having several past opportunities to drop that bomb but instead waited until everyone who could disagree was dead. A cursory Google search didn't turn it up for me and I'm not letting a stranger on the internet suck up any more of my time.

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