Yesterday Washington became the second state to legalize
marijuana, following Colorado’s legalization of weed last month. Under the new laws it is legal to possess up
to an ounce of pot. It’s still illegal
to grow and sell it, but you won’t get busted for having it on you. In the past decade several states have approved
medical marijuana use. Despite it’s
illegal status, marijuana is the nation’s number one cash crop. Advocates for weed legalization have proposed
taxing pot as a way to pull our economy out of the gutters.
To change the future we have to understand the past. Why is weed illegal? Studies have proven time and again that it is
much less harmful than alcohol, which is legal.
Many support it’s medicinal use.
If you ask a random person on the street why marijuana is illegal, they
most likely can’t tell you. Let’s find
out.
Marijuana became illegal in the United States in 1937. When we start to dig into the history books,
we quickly find that more than questionable motives and unethical avenues were
used to make this happen. The star of
the show was Harry J. Anslinger, an ambitious man who was appointed as the
first head of a new division of the treasury department, the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics. Thinking that a war against
cocaine and opiates wouldn’t be enough to secure his job for the long run,
Anslinger declared an all out war on marijuana.
He was responsible for outrageous anti-marijuana propaganda.
One of Anslinger’s pals and supporters was newspaper
tycoon William Randolph Hearst. His
daughter Patty made her own headlines later after first being kidnapped by the
Symbionese Liberation Army, and then appearing to join them. Hearst was a racist who especially hated
Mexicans. He had invested heavily in the
timber industry and saw hemp cultivation as dangerous competition. A large area of land he intended to log had
been lost to Pancho Villa, which further fueled his racist hatred. When Hearst and Anslinger joined forces,
newspapers were filled with outlandish tales of people trying marijuana,
immediately becoming maddeningly addicted, and going on murderous
rampages. Big money further came into
the picture when the DuPont company sided with Hearst and Anslinger. They had recently patented nylon and wanted
the hemp competition out of the way.
Before we go on, let’s back up some more and look at
marijuana further back in history. It’s
known use goes back 7,000 years. Queen
Victoria was prescribed tincture of cannabis for menstrual cramps. Marijuana made it’s way to the New World when
Christopher Columbus came over in 1492 and brought in along on his ships. The first law here regarding marijuana was in
stark contrast from the laws today. It
was mandated in the Jamestown colony that every farmer grow a certain amount of
hemp, and they could be jailed for failing to comply. Thomas Jefferson and
George Washington grew huge fields of the plants. Benjamin Franklin owned one
of the first paper mills in the US, which produced hemp paper. When Rudolph Diesel came up with the diesel
engine we still use today, he originally intended it to run off hemp seed
oil.
Anslinger spent two years secretly drawing up his plan to
outlaw marijuana. He relied on newspaper
stories like those Hearst was publishing to start a public outcry against the
dangers of marijuana. The popularity of
weed among Mexicans and black jazz musicians fueled their fires. Stories flew off the presses about the
satanic jazz music of the devil, and how black men who smoked pot couldn’t help
but to rape the first white woman they saw.
Countless stories were also printed about school children losing their
minds and other users taking axes to their families after the first time they
smoked. Although there were no actual
cases of any of these instances happening, Anslinger picked up speed and in
1937 brought his plan to Congress.
In an absurdly short hearing Anslinger came armed with
editorials from Hearst’s newspapers and speeches in which the bulk was one long
racial slur. The one opponent Anslinger
encountered was Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the
American Medical Association. Woodward
pointed out that Anslinger had distorted previous AMA information to support
his stance. He pointed out that the proposed
legislation only referred to marijuana, which the common man didn’t realize was
the same as hemp, which was a large industry, so that those who had reason to
oppose the bill wasn’t even aware of it.
He outright stated that the AMA was opposed to the criminalization of
marijuana and even accused Anslinger of misconduct and abuse of power.
Woodward was berated by the committee, who cited the outlandish
newspaper articles with no factual basis as evidence that marijuana was the
biggest danger to society. When the bill
went up for a vote, it was asked on the floor what the position of the AMA was. Despite Woodward’s defiance of the movement,
a congressman stood up and stated that the AMA had sent their representative
there, and he had supported it 100%. On
the basis of that lie marijuana became illegal at the federal level on August
2, 1937.
In 1972 Richard Nixon commissioned a study on marijuana
use. The study found that the
prohibition of cannabis was constitutionally questionable and should be subject
to serious review. The Nixon administration
took no further action. In 1973 Oregon
reduced the penalties for marijuana related arrests, separating weed from other
illicit drugs. Alaska, Ohio, Colorado,
and California followed suit in 1975. By
1978 North Carolina, Mississippi, New York and Nebraska had taken action to
decriminalize marijuana. In recent years
Massachusetts and Connecticut amended laws so that possession only results in
a civil fine.
Here’s a few quick weed facts:
- The oldest relic in human history is a piece of hemp fabric from Mesopotamia dating back 8,000 years.
- At one time in America you could pay your taxes with hemp.
- You’d have to smoke 15,000 joints in 20 minutes to get a lethal dose of THC.
- The paintings of Rembrandt and Van Gough were on hemp canvases, with hemp seed based paint.
- Hemp is 8 times stronger than cotton and more air-permeable.
- One acre of hemp can produce as much raw fiber as 4.1 acres of trees, which take much longer to grow back.
- Paper made from hemp lasts centuries longer and doesn’t yellow.
- For thousands of years nearly all ships’ canvases and ropes were made from hemp. The word canvas comes from the Dutch for cannabis.
- Betsy Ross’s flag, and the first drafts of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were made of hemp.
- Henry Ford’s Model T was built to run on hemp gasoline and used hemp plastic panels that were 10 times stronger than steel.
Here's a short clip from the propaganda film "Reefer Madness":
Now that we know the history of the marijuana laws, why
haven’t they been overturned? The answer
is much the same as it was when these shady goings-on were taking place. Too many big industry companies have
anti-marijuana interests and can afford to payroll lobbyists to ensure it stays
illegal. It has been proven that marijuana
is not addictive and has medicinal uses, the two main reasons cited for it’s
initial criminalization. The potential
profits from taxes imposed on legal pot could pull us out of the economic slump
we’re languishing in, especially here in the hills of Kentucky where weed is a
major industry despite the laws against it. Recent law changes show that the public's attitude toward marijuana is changing. It has taken nearly a century, but it seems as though Anslinger's unbelievable smear campaign may have cracked enough for the truth to shine through.
For more information on the history of marijuana an it's legality see the following links:
Wow. This completely fascinating. You know, Rolling Stone did an article a couple of years ago outlining how quicking our entire government could be out of debt if we would just legalize marijuana. The fact that it is illegal and that alcohol remains legal is absurd. I feel much safer on the road with someone who has been smoking than someone who has been drinking. I think we should drop pounds of pot instead of bombs. It could bring about world peace. Thank you for such an informative blog. Great job, as always. Please keep em coming!
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