Video: Secret Tapes Reveal Nixon’s Views on Marijuana

Two years after launching the war on drugs, President Richard Nixon made a surprising admission during a meeting in the Oval Office. He said that marijuana was “not particularly dangerous.” The comments, captured by the former president’s secret drug registry, reinforce the idea that the criminalization of marijuana was driven by politics, explains Ernesto Londoño, a New York Times reporter who covers drug use and counternarcotics policy.