Park moved to the U.S. from Seoul when he was 7 years old and had legal permanent residency under a green card.
he suffered from severe PTSD. He turned to marijuana to cope with nightmares and sensitivity to loud noises and moved to Hawaii in 1995 for a better lifestyle. But he became addicted to crack cocaine and struggled for years to get clean.
“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
John Daniel Ehrlichman (/March 20, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American political aide who served as White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman was an important influence on Nixon’s domestic policy, coaching him on issues and enlisting his support for environmental initiatives—Wikipedia
Crack led to prison led to revoked green card.
Service in the US armed forces let to injury and PTSD, which let to drugs, which led to…
FTFY
More proof that the War on “Drugs” is largely an authoritarian criminalization of untreated mental health issues.
We shouldn’t lock people up for addiction any more than we should lock people up over depression.
“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
John Daniel Ehrlichman (/March 20, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American political aide who served as White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman was an important influence on Nixon’s domestic policy, coaching him on issues and enlisting his support for environmental initiatives—Wikipedia