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They left out some of the worst of it. (Edited to acknowledge that's arguably an unfair statement for me to make. The article is specifically about the term marijuana, so what I added below is arguably out of scope for what they were reporting. Still, Ainslinger was off his fucking rocker on this shit. This isn't even the only eyebrow raising quote from him on the topic.)
Harry J Ainslinger was the first head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, predecessor to the DEA. Here's one of his quotes on the topic:
That was back in the early 20th century.
More recently we have this from Nixon's domestic policy head:
The war on drugs has always been racist. Crack cocaine is an even more clear example.
While I agree with most of what you said. The John Ehrlichman quote is pretty suspicious.
It was released in 2014, 20 years after the interview. Because allegedly, despite the intense claims and weirdness reported (Ehrlichman suddenly bursting out with this monologue while pushing the interviewer out the door), the interviewer completely forgot about it until rereading his notes 20 years later, while also trying to promote a new book about Nixon. You'd think when interviewing someone that influential, and having them drop a reveal like that would've made it into his book at the time.
But there has never been any corroboration from anyone else about Ehrlichman making these claims, his friends and family say he never said anything like that to them. And somehow, not a single other corroborater to this big conspiracy has come forward.
Ehrlichman was long dead when this claim was released, and thus unable to verify he said it. Most news sources wouldn't even report on it until buzzfeed spread it around, and comedians like 'Adam Ruins Everything' spread it as fact. Not hating on you, just hate disinformation. Nixon did so many fucked up things, yet somehow one bullshit quote by an author desperate for attention gets all the hype.
I appreciate the record-straightening here. You're doing good work
Never questioned it, but that's one hell of a long statement. Can anyone string that many sentences together, and so clearly?
I was devouring On Writing yesterday and I could see Stephen King blasting that as bad dialog. Bad as in, unbelievable in a work of fiction.