Shafer Commission
 Cover page of the Shafer Report | |
| Type | Commission |
|---|---|
Chair | Raymond P. Shafer |
The Shafer Commission, formally known as the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, was appointed by U.S. President
prohibition.[3]
While the
Signet Books New American Library paperback in 1972.[4]
The Commission's report said that while public sentiment tended to view marijuana users as dangerous, they actually found users to be more timid, drowsy and passive. It concluded that cannabis did not cause widespread danger to society. It recommended using social measures other than criminalization to discourage use. It compared the situation of cannabis to that of alcohol.[5]
The Commission's proposed decriminalization of marijuana possession was opposed, in 1974, by the recommendations of a congressional subcommittee chaired by Senator James Eastland.[6]
The
Nixon administration did not implement the recommendations from the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse.[3] However, the report has frequently been cited by individuals supporting removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.[7]
Members
- Michael R. Sonnenreich served as Executive Director of the Commission.
- Governor of Pennsylvania(Chairman)
- Dana L. Farnsworth, MD, chairman of the University of Michigan department of pharmacology (Vice Chairman)
- Henry Brill, MD, psychiatrist
- Tim Lee Carter, U.S. Representative (R–KY)
- Joan Ganz Cooney, television producer
- Charles O. Galvin, SJD, Dean of SMU Law School
- John A. Howard, PhD, President of Rockford University
- Harold E. Hughes, U.S. Senator (D–IA)
- Jacob K. Javits, U.S. Senator (R–NY)
- Paul G. Rogers, U.S. Representative (D–FL)
- Maurice H. Seevers, MD, PhD
- J. Thomas Ungerleider, MD, psychiatrist
- Mitchell Ware, JD, attorney[8]
References
- ^ Downs, David (April 19, 2016). "The Science behind the DEA's Long War on Marijuana". Scientific American. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
- OL 17346935W.
- ^ a b Graham, Fred P. (February 13, 1972). "National Commission to Propose Legal Private Use of Marijuana". The New York Times. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
President Nixon said, "Even if the commission does recommend that it be legalized, I will not follow that recommendation."
- S2CID 70592481
- ^ "Drugs And Social Responsibility". Druglibrary.org. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
- ^ Marihuana-hashish epidemic and its impact on United States security: hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, second session [-Ninety-fourth Congress, first session] .. ,1974
- ^ "Nixon Commission Report Advising Decriminalization of Marijuana Celebrates 30th Anniversary". NORML. Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-8422-7239-1.
- Sloman, Larry (1998). Reefer madness: the history of marijuana in America. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-19523-6. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
NORML's job was made easier by President Nixon's Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, known as the Shafer Commission.
- Hellman, Arthur D. (1975). Laws against marijuana: the price we pay. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-00438-4.
Further reading
- United States National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (1972). Marihuana: a signal of misunderstanding. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. OL 17346935W.
- United States National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (1972). Appendix: Marihuana: a symbol of misunderstanding. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. OL 27687346W.
- Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding, Commissioned by President Richard M. Nixon, March 1972.
- The First Report of the National Commission on Marihuana (1972): Signal Of Misunderstanding Or Exercise In Ambiguity, Response article to the Shafer Commission report, by Gabriel G. Nahas and Albert Greenwood, published in the Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. 50 No. 1, January 1974. From the US National Library of Medicine.
- Farnsworth M.D., Dana L. (May 1972). "SUMMARY OF THE REPORT FROM THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON MARIHUANA AND DRUG ABUSE: MARIHUANA: a signal of misunderstanding". ISSN 0048-5713.