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Ronald Reagan on Drugs
President of the U.S., 1981-1989; Republican Governor (CA)
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Iran-Contra secret aid included $14M in drug money
The Reagan years are remembered for the Iran-Contra scandal that made a notorious celebrity (or future political hero to many) of Col. Oliver North. He claimed that John Kerry's 1988 report on the interplay between US support for the Nicaraguan Contras
and the drug trade was all wrong. "The fact is nobody in the US government ever had anything to do with running drugs to support Nicaraguan resistance. I will stand on that to my grave."Well, North may still be standing but his credibility sure isn't.
His diary entries actually had numerous reports of drug smuggling among the Contras, none of which North alerted the DEA or other law enforcement agencies about. One mentions $14 million in drug money being funneled into an operation.
I have to laugh and, in the immortal words of Nancy Reagan, "just say no" to drugs. The hypocrisy of the double standard is ludicrous. All you can do is laugh, or cry. I guess it's okay to deal drugs if it's for the cause of war.
Source: 63 Documents, by Gov. Jesse Ventura, p.100
, Apr 4, 2011
OpEd: supporting Contras supported drug-trade profits
The 1979 Sandinista revolution that overthrew Anastasio Somoza, one of our favorite Latin Dictators, was not looked upon fondly by Ronnie and his friends. He called the counterrevolutionary Contras "freedom fighters," and compared them to
America's founding fathers. In his attempt to get Congress to approve aid for the Contras, Reagan accused the Sandinista government of drug trafficking. After his administration tried to mine the Nicaraguan harbors and got a hand-slap from
Congress, it turned to secretly selling missiles to Iran and using the payments--along with profits from running drugs--to keep right on funding the Contras. 50,000 lost lives later, the World Court would order the U.S. to "cease and to refrain" from
unlawful use of force against Nicaragua and pay reparations. (We refused to comply.)The fact is, with most of the cocaine that flooded the country in the Eighties, almost every major drug network was using the Contras operations in some fashion.
Source: American Conspiracies, by Jesse Ventura, p.115
, Mar 8, 2010
Fought drugs beyond “Just Say No”
Reagan was serious about reducing the scourge of drugs, and the efforts of his administration went well beyond Nancy Reagan’s “just say no” campaign. The Justice Department involved the FBI in the fight against drugs, added five hundred Drug Enforcement
Administration agents, established thirteen regional anti-drug task forces and chalked up record numbers of drug seizures and convictions. But the magnitude of the drug problem was at least as great when Reagan left office as when he entered it.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 813
, Jul 2, 1991
Page last updated: Apr 28, 2013
