Secret Nixon Recordings Reveal He Knew Cannabis Was ‘Not Particularly Dangerous’

Former President Richard Nixon admitted that cannabis was “not particularly dangerous,” according to recently uncovered audio first reported by the New York Times. The audio comes from a March 1973 White House meeting recorded about two years after Nixon declared in a press conference that drug abuse in the U.S. was “public enemy number one,” kicking off the drug war.

“Let me say, I know nothing about marijuana. I know that it’s not particularly dangerous, in other words, and most of the kids are for legalizing it. But on the other hand, it’s the wrong signal at this time.” — President Nixon, speaking to White House aides and advisers

The audio was discovered among thousands of hours of official Nixon Library recordings by Minnesota drug legalization lobbyist Kurtis Hanna, who told the Times he was shocked to hear the former president “essentially saying the exact opposite of what I understood him to believe.”

But it is not the first time evidence has surfaced suggesting that President Nixon’s private views on cannabis did not align with the hardline stance of his administration. Nixon aide John Ehrlichman, who went to prison for his involvement in President Nixon’s Watergate scandal, admitted in a 1994 interview that the administration’s motives behind the drug war were political, not driven by concerns about public health.

The new recording comes as the Biden Administration is preparing to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, which was signed into law by Nixon in 1970. The DEA recently announced there will be a December 2 hearing to review expert opinions on cannabis rescheduling, which means there will be no official action before the November election.