Since marijuana's inception, efforts to criminalize marijuana and stigmatize those who consume it have been based on exaggeration, stereotypes, and outright lies.
The initial push to criminalize cannabis, which began in earnest over a century ago, had little to do with maintaining public health or safety. Instead, the push to prosecute cannabis users was primarily based on sensationalism and xenophobia.
For example, a New York Times article from July 6, 1927, under the headline “Mexican Family Goes Mad,” farcically claimed: There is no hope of saving the children's lives, and the mother will go insane for the rest of her life. ”
A 1933 academic paper published in the Journal of Law and Criminology titled “Marijuana'' similarly overstated the dangers of marijuana. The authors write, “The inevitable result is insanity, which those familiar with it describe as absolutely incurable and without exception leads to death.”
By 1937, America's first “drug czar” Harry J. Anslinger had successfully lobbied Congress to ban marijuana nationwide. He did so through the continued use of racist rhetoric. “There are a total of 100,000 marijuana smokers in the United States, most of them black, Hispanic, Filipino, and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, stems from marijuana use,” he said. I said no. “This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with black people, celebrities, and everyone else.”
Fast forward to 1971. That's when Richard Nixon's administration declared drug abuse “public enemy number one.” The crux of this campaign was marijuana. Congress had just classified marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, the strictest federal category. However, President Nixon acknowledged that he personally did not consider marijuana to be “particularly dangerous” and lamented the “ridiculous” penalties meted out to people arrested for marijuana possession.
Nevertheless, he and his administration officials publicly doubled down on the alleged threat of marijuana, almost entirely for political reasons. As Domestic Policy Director John Ehrlichman later admitted, “we couldn't make it illegal to be against the[Vietnam]War or to be against black people,” but “we couldn't make it illegal to be against the[Vietnam]war or against black people,” but “we couldn't make it illegal to be against hippies and marijuana,” I was able to make the connection between black people and heroin.”
By “heavily criminalizing both,” Ehrlichman explained, “we can disrupt those communities.” We can arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up meetings, and slander them on the evening news every night. ”
“Did you know we were lying about drugs?” he asked. “Of course I did.”
More than 50 years later, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, the same classification as heroin, and various politicians still repeat many of these same myths and misconceptions. Slowly but surely, the nation is turning the page.
According to Gallup, 70% of U.S. adults believe marijuana use should be legal.
This is an increase of 19 percentage points since 2014, when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for adult use. Currently, 24 states have done so, but no state has ever repealed marijuana legalization.
In recent weeks, presidential candidates from both major parties have called for an end to the practice of arresting and jailing marijuana consumers. It's about time.
Marijuana prohibition was a fraud from the beginning, often propagated by politicians and bureaucrats who were complicit in the fraud. It's time to end it.
