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Comment by ajays | Hacker News Reader

You may not like the reference, but: Nixon (a Republican) started the "drug war". Nancy Reagan with her "just say no" campaign was totally anti-drug. But in general: most of the Republicans are opposed to MJ legalization; but you will find a non-trivial number of Democrats who support it. So the sentiment is correct, to a certain degree.

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Nixon was the first to whom which the phrase "War on Drugs" was used, but it had been going on for many decades previously and had ... heated up quite a bit, certainly in terms of consumption and press about that, in the period of the cultural '60s prior to his assuming office in 1969. You might say "LSD Madness" was a major meme back then, and heroin was the big evil hard drug that caused the most fear.

This is largely from direct observation back then, e.g. in 3rd grade a bit before "War on Drugs" was coined I had to write a thorough workbook detailing all the major drugs being abused then, why they were bad for you, etc.

And, errr, here you posit "total - non-trivial number < most" (if I'm not too tired to express that); on its face it's just an impression you have. Very possibly a correct one, but then again you admit there are anti-War on Drugs Republicans. And in theory one of them could do a Nixon in China ... but we all know how a lot of Democrats would reply, no matter what their personal preferences were.

> And, errr, here you posit "total - non-trivial number < most"

I would posit that you have a significantly higher percentage of pro-legalization Democrats than Republicans. Most opposition to legalization comes from Republicans.

Consider H.R. 499, the bill to legalize marijuana. It had 16 co-sponsors; 15 of them Democrats and only 1 Republican. http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/499/cosponsor...

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