--- title: Marijuana in the Pages of LIFE in 1969: To Legalize or Not to Legalize description: With pot sales now legal in Colorado, LIFE recalls the early days of the War on Drugs and long-ago arguments for and against legalization. canonical: https://time.com/3688343/what-americas-war-on-drugs-looked-like-in-1969/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-01-23T19:21:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:57.743Z og:title: Marijuana in the Pages of LIFE in 1969: To Legalize or Not to Legalize og:description: With pot sales now legal in Colorado, LIFE recalls the early days of the War on Drugs and long-ago arguments for and against legalization. og:url: https://time.com/3688343/what-americas-war-on-drugs-looked-like-in-1969/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe6eb2a7df3841cf/69877caae20a87cef4a84cf6/150129-marijuana-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Operation Intercept, 1969 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marijuana in the Pages of LIFE in 1969: To Legalize or Not to Legalize twitter:description: With pot sales now legal in Colorado, LIFE recalls the early days of the War on Drugs and long-ago arguments for and against legalization. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe6eb2a7df3841cf/69877caae20a87cef4a84cf6/150129-marijuana-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What America's War on Drugs Looked Like in 1969 by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jan 23, 2013 7:21 PM UTC  A U.S. Customs agent points his gun at a car suspected of transporting marijuana, 1969. A U.S. Customs agent points his gun at a car suspected of transporting marijuana, 1969.Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jan 23, 2013 7:21 PM UTC For all of the myriad, often-brilliant ways that LIFE covered the world in the middle part of the 20th century, the magazine had a rather fraught relationship with at least one pivotal aspect of the age: namely, the counter-culture of the 1960s, in the U.S. and around the globe. That a publication of LIFE’s influence and reach only grudgingly paid attention to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Hendrix and other avatars of the pop-culture revolution might suggest that _every_ aspect of the era’s tumult passed virtually unnoticed. In fact, though, while LIFE might not have covered the Sixties with as much unceasing, breathless fascination as some other periodicals, when it did turn its attention to, say, the explosion of recreational drug use among Americans, its coverage was often admirably even-handed, and something close to exhaustive. Case in point: In October 1969, LIFE ran a cover story (or rather, a series of stories) under the banner: **MARIJUANA: At Least 12 Million American Have Now Tried It. Are penalties too severe? Should it be legalized?** Across 10 full pages, intermingling opinion, photography and reportage, LIFE not only took a hard look at pot smoking in the U.S., but waded deep into the debate—already heated then—of whether or not the country’s draconian marijuana statutes were doing more harm than good. Part of the coverage, meanwhile, was a thoughtful, full-page essay by a former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (and Bonnie Raitt’s stepfather), Dr. James L. Goddard. --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- But the most riveting element of the feature in that issue of LIFE was a series of pictures by photographer Co Rentmester made at various points along the U.S.-Mexican border, in which he chronicled the efforts of U.S. Customs agents, through a program dubbed “Operation Intercept,” to stem the flow of weed and other drugs into the States. The pictures in this gallery, many of which never ran in LIFE, provide a window into the government’s early attempts to patrol an enormous and notoriously porous border, while also reminding us that America’s war on drugs is not only nothing new, but for decades has been a profoundly divisive response to a phenomenon—namely, people getting high—that is never, ever going away. ---  Australian Maritime Safety Authority emergency-response-division general manager John Young speaks to the media about satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Canberra on March 20, 2014 Stefan Postles—Getty Images _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at_ [_@LizabethRonk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  A U.S. Customs agent points his gun at a car suspected of transporting marijuana, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  U.S. Customs agents tailing a suspected drug smuggler, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene from U.S. Customs' anti-drug smuggling effort, "Operation Intercept," along the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Drug bust outside of San Antonio, Texas, part of U.S. Customs' "Operation Intercept," 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene from U.S. Customs' anti-drug smuggling effort, "Operation Intercept," along the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene from U.S. Customs' anti-drug smuggling effort, "Operation Intercept," along the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene from U.S. Customs' anti-drug smuggling effort, "Operation Intercept," along the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene from U.S. Customs' anti-drug smuggling effort, "Operation Intercept," along the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene from U.S. Customs' anti-drug smuggling effort, "Operation Intercept," along the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene from U.S. Customs' anti-drug smuggling effort, "Operation Intercept," along the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene from U.S. Customs' anti-drug smuggling effort, "Operation Intercept," along the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene at the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Suspected drug smugglers searched at the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene at the U.S.-Mexico border, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Customs agents, Texas, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Customs agents, Texas, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Customs agents, Texas, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Customs agents with suspected drug smugglers, Falcon Lake, Texas, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. At sunset, Customs agents, armed with shotguns, scour the darkening waters of Falcon Lake, Texas -- a favorite border-crossing point for smugglers. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  U.S. Customs agents in a car filled with seized marijuana. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  U.S. Customs agent, 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  U.S. Customs agents unload seized marijuana. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  U.S. Customs agents in a car filled with seized marijuana. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  U.S. Customs agent in a room filled with seized marijuana. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. A 500-pound cache of confiscated marijuana is removed from warehouse-like storage vault in San Diego, then burned in raging furnace, one brick at a time." (See last image in gallery.) Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  U.S. Customs agents with seized marijuana. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Room filled with seized marijuana, San Diego, Calif., 1969. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Seized marijuana burns in a furnace, San Diego, Calif., 1969. 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