Why is Marijuana Illegal?

In 1619, the Jamestown colony of Virginia passed a law, which required all colonists to cultivate hemp, for use as paper, clothing, sails, etc. Later, in the 1700’s, hemp was the primary crop grown by Washington and the secondary crop grown by Jefferson. Now however, cannabis remains classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act. This entails that there is no recognized medical use of marijuana and that it is federally illegal. This came to be in 1937, with the implementation of a heinous act know as the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. This essentially created a federal ban on anyone growing or otherwise having anything to do with cannabis.

Astonishingly, more than 99% of the time humans have know about marijuana, it has been legal. Only in relatively recent times have we declared an all-out war on this amazing, healing and resourceful plant. The beginning stages of marijuana moving towards becoming federally illegal most likely began in the United States in the early 1900’s. During this time, the western United States, namely California, began receiving a large influx of Mexican-Americans. Many of these immigrants smoked marijuana, and brought both bud and seed with them to these states. Perhaps most amazingly is that in 1910, when hundreds of Mormons left Salt Lake City to visit Mexico on a religious mission, they returned with marijuana seed and bud as well, and were known to grow and smoke it. This caused a serious uproar in the Church of Latter Day Saints, as you can probably imagine. California and Utah became the first states to create laws outlawing marijuana, and over the course of the next 17 years, 9 additional states followed suit by outlawing marijuana, including Texas, Wyoming, Oregon, Arkansas, Washington, Nevada, Nebraska, Montana and Iowa.

The West weren’t the only ones experiencing non-Caucasians being the primary users of marijuana. Over in the eastern United States it was becoming known that the majority of marijuana smokers were black and Latin musicians, namely Jazz musicians. You can see how times were certainly different in 1934, with this quote from a newspaper regarding marijuana use: “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at white women twice.” Dripping with ignorance and racism, this belief and sentiment spread like wildfire among “prominent whites” in the coming years.

This was by no means the end of the ignorance towards marijuana. During the 1930’s two more fear-tactics used to eventually outlaw marijuana came around. One was the sentiment that African-Americans and Mexican-Americans were luring white children to “the dark side” with marijuana. Another fear-tactic used was contorting the story of Marco Polo. Some early stories of Marco Polo describe hashashins, derived from the word “assassin“, or those warriors who would eat hashish in the garden of a ruler with a specific quest for them. While they were sitting, very high in the garden, whatever they experienced would give them the knowledge to complete the mission. This was later contorted by ignorant whites in the 1930’s to mean that anyone who ate, smoked or otherwise ingested hash or marijuana, would immediately turn violent and savage.

Also in 1930, an arrow would strike marijuana and its users straight in the heart, with the implementation of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, led by marijuana tyrant, Harry J. Anslinger. Anslinger was famous for using fear-tactics to pursue his dream of making marijuana completely federally illegal. He was quoted telling the press, “There are 100,000 total marijuana users in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.” Too bad racism wasn’t made federally illegal. Anslinger also showed more ignorance with many other quotes about marijuana, such as “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother,” and “Marihuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.” Then he later contradicted himself, saying “Marijuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing.”

Twisted journalism also played a part in outlawing marijuana, when Anslinger got assistance from William Randolf Hearst, an ambitious member of the timber industry and owner of a huge newspaper chain. He was eager to help Anslinger outlaw cannabis, since his reasons for investing in the timber industry was to generate materials for his newspaper chain and hemp was therefore his arch-nemesis. Secondly, he was a notorious racist, mostly against Hispanics after he lost nearly a million acres of timberland in Pancho Villa. With his power in the press, he constantly slandered Mexican-Americans blaming them for the notorious “drug problem” in the United States.

Finally, the demise of marijuana came in 1937, with the Marihuana Tax Act. Anslinger spent two full years meticulously preparing his argument for outlawing marijuana. As you will see, 100% - that’s right 100% - of his argument was based on lies. Not once did he cite a fact or legitimate source in his outrageous and ignorant remarks towards marijuana. When he finally presented his case before congress, he even had a scrapbook he had compiled, which was full of slanderous and false newspaper articles about marijuana from Hearst’s newspapers, such as the San Francisco Examiner. In the scrapbook, he also had a multitude of demeaning racist remarks and lies of more than one axe murderer who had reportedly smoked marijuana and gone on to murder their victims. Despite a protest from Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council for the American Medical Association, that Anslinger’s remarks were outrageous and unfounded, Congress ignored the advice of a medical doctor on the American Medical Association and instead listened to the propaganda spewed by Anslinger. Movies in later years like Reefer Madness, simply continued to wrongfully instill fear towards marijuana in the general public.