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"When people smoke marijuana, they smoke it to get high. In every case, when most people drink, they drink to be sociable."

Said Art Linkletter to Richard Nixon, who responded: "That's right, that's right. A person does not drink to get drunk. . . . A person drinks to have fun."

Nixon continues, in a global politics vein:

"I have seen the countries of Asia and the Middle East, portions of Latin America, and I have seen what drugs have done to those countries. Everybody knows what it's done to the Chinese, the Indians are hopeless anyway, the Burmese. . . . they've all gone down....

"Why the hell are those Communists so hard on drugs? Well why they're so hard on drugs is because, uh, they love to booze. I mean, the Russians, they drink pretty good. . . . but they don't allow any drugs."

"And look at the north countries... The Swedes drink too much, the Finns drink too much, the British have always been heavy boozers and all the rest, but uh, and the Irish of course the most, uh, but uh, on the other hand, they survive as strong races."

Nixon concludes that "drug societies... inevitably come apart." Linkletter agrees: "They lose motivation. No discipline." Nixon reaffirms the superiority of the American way of life: "At least with liquor, I don't lose motivation.?

Full post as published by Althouse on May 29, 2010 (boomark / email).