Part F of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 established the
National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse—known as the Shafer Commission after its chairman,
Raymond P. Shafer—to study
marijuana abuse in the United States.
[7] During his presentation of the commission's First Report to Congress, Shafer recommended the
decriminalization of marijuana in small amounts, saying,
[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use. It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only 'with the greatest reluctance.
