Charles Manson’s letter to President Ronald Reagan, concerning the “War On Drugs” bill:

U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Washington D.C.

August, 1986

The government didn’t beat the moonshine still, and whiskey has power just as coffee and tobacco do. Uncle Jess from Kentucky said, when I was a child, that the government would end up with whiskey in stores and would run the stills because people in government were the big crooks. I tell you what he said and I say this: You’re not going to beat drugs. I was in prison before people came to prison for drugs. I saw the government make the problem. From your foundation, you can’t help the people that don’t want help. You’ve got to go with the will of the people, or lose heart within your own government. You’re going to rip it apart and waste a lot of money.

Your war should be against pollution, and for putting trees back before you lose the air, water and wildlife. Take over the drugs and use their power to move people to work on CCC projects. Put the trees back fast, before the pollution destroys all life. I saw it dying in Death Valley. That’s why Krishna Venta blew himself up in 1949 at the Fountain of the World in Box Canyon, California, when the Feather River Project cut off his fountains of water off.

Plants and herbs that you call drugs have more power than you understand. All the distorted thoughts and rules make problems worse. Here is a story: Two men are in a cell. One said he wanted to die and was going to kill himself. The other said he wouldn’t let him. So the first guy killed the other one, and then himself. If people want to eat shit, you can’t stop them without going with them.

No one even knew what drugs were until Mr. Anslinger told everyone what not to take. Cops teaching kids what not to do, only shows them what they can do if they want to go against someone. And you put a bunch of fools who only know what the books say… No new game, honor or purpose. Some of the meanest fighting men in history got high before they went into battle. 'Remember why the .45 caliber gun was put into service?

You can take a pile of rocks and use them to build a house, or you can take the same pile and start a war. Tell children not to throw rocks, make rules against picking up rocks, and then make them mad. Keep projecting what not to do, and you can make the thought in their brains of what can and will be done.

Before the U.S. had a government, the monks sat on top of the grapes, the wine, Buddhists and other monks had the poppies and flowers of power under control. Control must be in order and order must be in truth. And when in truth, you can face the problem as it is, not through distorted judgements. Roots and herbs are part of life, things not known but by a few. One day all you space cases will face the Earth dying under your feet. We saw the water out of balance with the land at the Fountain of the World, and the old man in Death Valley told me the same, after I got out from 17 years of service to the truth in government hallways. I’m the last guy in line, but I’ve got all the thoughts for the balance of order and peace with a one world government, if we all are to survive.

I want a telephone and the charge to call anyone … or simply a courtroom with the rights I was denied 17 years ago.

Easy,

Charles Milles Manson