This Week in History 7/30/04 August 2, 1937: The Marijuana Tax Act is passed as the first major piece of legislation intended to combat marijuana use. Federal Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger told the Congressmen at the hearings, "Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death." August 2, 1977: In a speech to Congress, President Jimmy Carter addresses the harm done by prohibition, saying, "Penalties against a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana for personal use. The National Commission on Marijuana... concluded years ago that marijuana should be decriminalized, and I believe it is time to implement those basic recommendations." August 4, 1996: State narcotics agents, at the direction of California Attorney General Dan Lungren, raid the Cannabis Buyers' Club of San Francisco, just three months before Prop. 215 hits the voters' ballot and despite a clear majority of Californians supporting access to medical marijuana. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/348/thisweek.shtml
I always liked that Carter quote, someday it will be used in textbooks to show that there were some reasonable people alive around this time.
what scares me is that in 1977 there was a president in favor of getting rid of unjust marijuana laws. Well the president never had the power to change anything and 27 years later the laws are still in place. Even with all the great advances activists have made recently do we have another 27 years of harsh laws ahead of us?