How the Netherlands Decriminalised Cannabis and What the U.S. Can Learn From Them

Описание: In 1961, a UN convention listed cannabis as a "Schedule 1" drug, ranking it amongst some of the most addictive and lethal drugs in the world

Despite this a bohemian style, anti-war and anti-government,
youth movement that is strongly associated with cannabis and psychoactive drug usage, known as the hippie movement thrived.

This movement was a serious threat to the ongoing war in Vietnam, a war that then president Richard Nixon very much intended to resume.

In 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse as “public enemy number one" and this led to the disastrous global “War on drugs”

In the previous year Nixon set up the Shafer Commission to advise on what action to take regarding the criminalisation of marihuana.
To his surprise Shafer's verdict was that "The Commission is of the unanimous opinion that marihuana use is not such a grave problem
that individuals who smoke marihuana should be subject to criminal procedures."

But Nixon simply ignored the Shafer commissioin and signed laws criminalising marihuana use anyway
And this essentially outlawed the hippie movement

Sources:
https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/f...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
https://drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-wa...
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16499...
https://www.civilized.life/articles/t...
https://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/...
https://www.expatica.com/nl/living/go...
https://www.kindgreenbuds.com/marijua...
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/the...