Believe it or not, there once was a time in the United States when marijuana was not nationally prohibited. The legislation introducing the the bill to prohibit marijuana passed the Senate without any debate or even a recorded vote. President Roosevelt signed the bill it into law in 1937 after the passage of the Marijuana TaxAct. The simple truth is that there is no reason, biblical or scientific for any plant that is grown in nature without the assistance of man to be illegal.
There was no process involving scientific, medical, or government hearings that led to the plant becoming illegal, not even the assertion that it was done so to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug.
America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law “ordering” all farmers to grow Indian hempseed. During most of that time, Marijuana was legal tender and people could even pay taxes with marijuana. In 1850, the United States Census counted 8,327 marijuana “plantations” (minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton.
The first state laws outlawing marijuana occurred in Utah due to Mormons using it. Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. Soon after, other states followed suit with marijuana prohibition laws, including Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), Oregon (1923), Arkansas (1923), and Nebraska (1927). These laws tended to be specifically targeted against the Mexican American population.
During this same period, America was also dealing with alcohol prohibition, which lasted from 1919 to 1933. Ending just a few years prior to the establishment of a new division in the Treasury Department in 1930 called the Federal Bureau of Narcotics which was run by Harry J. Anslinger.
Anslinger used racism and violence to establish marijuana use as a problem. It was he who stated that “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers 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.”
He also campaigned on the slogan that “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” Even when it was imposed, the American Medical Association protested against the enactment of then H.R. 6906 as it relates to being “An Act to impose an occupational excise tax upon certain dealers in marijuana, to impose a transfer tax upon certain dealings in marijuana, and to safeguard the revenue there from by registry and recording.” In fact the American Medical Association said that they knew “of no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug.”
The truth is there is no scientific evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug or that it is as dangerous as many suggest, especially when compared to alcohol or cigarettes — which are legal. It is only serving the benefit of the prison industrial complex and targets African Americans more as a consequence when the fact is that whites use it as well as other drugs and in greater numbers.
Marijuana should be re-legalized. It is not a narcotic as many claim, given that a narcotic by definition is an area drug derived from opium or opium like compounds. –torrance stephens, PhD.
