16 How and why was hemp made illegal?
Description
This article is from the Hemp / Cannabis / Marijuana FAQ, by Brian S. Julin verdant@twain.ucs.umass.edu with numerous contributions by others.
16 How and why was hemp made illegal?
Tough question! In order to explain why hemp, the most
useful plant known to mankind, became illegal, we have to
understand the reasons why marijuana, the drug, became
illegal. In fact, it helps to go way back to the beginning
of the century and talk about two other drugs, opium (the
grandfather of heroin) and cocaine.
Opium, a very addictive drug (but relatively harmless by
today's standards) was once widely used by the Chinese. The
reasons for this are a whole other story, but suffice to say
that when Chinese started to immigrate to the United States,
they brought opium with them. Chinese workers used opium to
induce a trance-like state which helped make boring,
repetitive tasks more interesting. It also numbs the mind
to pain and exhaustion. By using opium, the Chinese were
able to pull very long hours in the sweat shops of the
Industrial Revolution. During this period of time, there
was no such thing as fair wages, and the only way a worker
could make a living was to produce as much as humanly
possible.
Since they were such good workers, the Chinese held a lot of
jobs in the highly competitive industrial work-place. Even
before the Great Depression, when millions of jobs
disappeared overnight, the White Americans began to resent
this, and Chinese became hated among the White working
class. Even more than today, White Americans had a very big
political advantage over the Chinese -- they spoke English
and had a few relatives in the government, so it was easy
for them to come up with a plan to force Chinese immigrants
to leave the country (or at least keep them from inviting
all their relatives to come and live in America.) This plan
depended on stirring up racist feelings, and one of the
easiest things to focus these feelings on was the foreign
and mysterious practice of using opium.
We can see this pattern again with cocaine, except with
cocaine it was Black Americans who were the target. Cocaine
probably was not especially useful in the work-place, but
the strategy against Chinese immigrants (picking on their
drug of choice) had been so successful that it was used
again. In the case of Blacks, though, the racist feelings
ran deeper, and the main thrust of the propaganda campaign
was to control the Black community and keep Blacks from
becoming successful. Articles appeared in newspapers which
blamed cocaine for violent crime by Blacks. Black Americans
were painted as savage, uncontrollable beasts when under the
influence of cocaine -- it was said to make a single Black
man as strong as four or five police officers. (sound
familiar?) By capitalizing on racist sentiments, a powerful
political lobby banned opium and then cocaine.
Marijuana was next. It was well known that the Mexican
soldiers who fought America during the war with Spain smoked
marijuana. Poncho Villa, A Mexican general, was considered
a nemesis for the behavior of his troops, who were known to
be especially rowdy. They were also known to be heavy
marijuana smokers, as the original lyrics to the song `la
cucaracha' show. (The song was originally about a Mexican
soldier who refused to march until he was provided with some
marijuana.)
After the war had ended and Mexicans had begun to immigrate
into the South Eastern United States, there were relatively
few race problems. There were plenty of jobs in agriculture
and industry and Mexicans were willing to work cheap. Once
the depression hit and jobs became scarce, however, Mexicans
suddenly became a public nuisance. It was said by
politicians (who were trying to please the White working
class) that Mexicans were responsible for a violent crime
wave. Police statistics showed nothing of the sort -- in
fact Mexicans were involved in less crime than Whites.
Marijuana, of course, got the blame for this phony outbreak
of crime and health problems, and so many of these states
made laws against using cannabis. (In the Northern states,
marijuana was also associated with Black jazz musicians.)
Here is where things start to get complicated. Put aside,
for a moment, all the above, because there are a few other
things involved in this twisted tale. At the beginning of
the Great Depression, there was a very popular movement
called Prohibition, which made alcohol illegal. This was
motivated mainly by a Puritan religious ethic left over from
the first European settlers. Today we have movies and
television shows such as the ``Untouchables'' which tell us
what it was like to live during this period. Since it is
perhaps the world's most popular drug, alcohol prohibition
spawned a huge `black market' where illegal alcohol was
smuggled and traded at extremely high prices. Crime got
out-of-hand as criminals fought with each other over who
could sell alcohol where. Organized crime became an
American institution, and hard liquor, which was easy to
smuggle, took the place of beer and wine.
In order to combat the crime wave, a large police force was
formed. The number of police grew rapidly until the end of
Prohibition when the government decided that the best way to
deal with the situation was to just give up and allow people
to use alcohol legally. Under Prohibition the American
government had essentially (and unwittingly) provided the
military back-up for the take-over of the alcohol business
by armed thugs. Even today, the Mob still controls liquor
sales in many areas. After Prohibition the United States
was left with nothing to show but a decade of political
turmoil -- and a lot of unemployed police officers.
During Prohibition, being a police officer was a very nice
thing -- you got a relatively decent salary, respect,
partial immunity to the law, and the opportunity to take
bribes (if you were that sort of person.) Many of these
officers were not about to let this life-style slip away.
Incidentally, it was about this time when the Federal Bureau
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs was reformed, and a man
named Harry J. Anslinger was appointed as its head.
(Anslinger was appointed by his uncle-in-law, Andrew Mellon,
who was the Secretary of the United States Treasury.)
Anslinger campaigned tirelessly for funding in order to hire
a large force of narcotics officers. After retiring,
Anslinger once mused that the FBNDD was a place where young
men were given a license to steal and rape.
The FBNDD is the organization which preceded what we now
call the DEA, and was responsible for enforcing the new
Federal drug laws against heroin, opium, and cocaine. One
of Anslinger's biggest concerns as head of the FBNDD was
getting uniform drug laws passed in all States and the
Federal legislature. (Anslinger also had a personal dislike
of jazz music and the Black musicians who made it. He hated
them so much that he spent years tracking each of them and
dreamed of arresting them all in one huge, cross-country
sweep.) Anslinger frequented parent's and teacher's
meetings giving scary speeches about the dangers of
marijuana, and this period of time became known as Reefer
Madness. (The name comes from the title of a silly movie
produced by a public health group.)
``Drugs and minority oppression'' by John Helmer pub. Seabury Press
New York, 1975.
``The Emperor Wears No Clothes The Authoritative Historical Record of
the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition, & How Hemp Can Still Save
the World'' by Jack Herer pub. Queen of Clubs HEMP Publishing, 1993.
Continue to:
My Books
