The Crystal Angel tackles a tough subject
with an unbiased approach.
The Soundtrack for this page was inspired
by my friend...Henry54 - "Peace...man". About three weeks before the Olympic swimmer,
Michael Phelps, was
busted doing bong
hits
in North Carolina,
I started studying
about
"WEED"
for this article.
Please
note, I said "studying",
not "researching".
wink wink. I had the same growing up experiences that
I think most American kids do, and I got
the same education on the dangers of Marijuana
in health class (along with the other dangerous
drugs we were all taught to stay away from). Of course, living out in the country does
not really make a difference - I knew kids
smoking pot in 6th grade; or so the rumors
factually stated. Eddie Muldoon? Wastoid. Quiet and sleepy,
everyone knew he
was a stoner. LOL. Eddie
is at the University
of Colorado now, studying
to be an Electrical
Engineer. I do not know
if he is still a
stoner. I knew some Navajo
kids in my class
that smoked it and they
seemed tame enough.
I do not know where they
are now, but whatever
they are doing, I am
not sure if smoking
pot affected them one
way or the other.
I just never really cared
if people did it
or not, as long as they
were nice and kind.
Drunk people at County
Fairs and Rodeos
were more offensive to me
- and the wastoids
always had Skittles in
their pockets. ahhhh,
taste the rainbow.... So when I went to College, OMGAWD...everyone
smoked pot it seemed.
Some daily, and some
just right before
finals to calm down.
I
always wanted to
tell them, "if
you
study, you won't
freak", but
I kept
quiet. Next I moved to ski town, and pot is like
almost everywhere. Living next to the river
trail that runs the length of town, I am
often blessed with a skunkish waft of the
evil weed, followed by laughter, and the
"shhhhhhhh, quiet". It still does not bother me. But why? These
people are breaking the law. Whether or not
a law is right or wrong, you have to follow
it until you figure out a way to change it.
Right? I have given this a lot of thought and I
have come to the conclusion that I am not
bothered by this criminal behavior because
no one is getting hurt. Drunk drivers kill.
Most domestic violence occurs with alcohol
involved. You always hear about a "drunken
brawl"...never a "stoner brawl"
in your local bar. But you know what? It
is not a victimless crime. If the act of
smoking in your home, all alone was the only
action or event, then I would guess it IS a victimless crime. But, unless you are
growing it just for your use, you are most
likely getting a shipment of pot that leaves
a trail of fear, pain and often death. Bummer, doood. Marijuana distribution, like almost anything
illegal, is a business
that operates within
a circle of fear
- often bringing additional
crime and violence
with it. OHHHH, doooood. You are bringing me totally down. So now we have people dying and suffering
(check out the border wars between Mexico
and the Southwest United States) all because a bunch of stoners want to
"escape reality" for a few hours
by smoking a plant that grows....HEY WAIT! Let's think about this. Tobacco is a plant - right? People smoke
that to calm down - right? It causes cancer
and a billion other bad things, but it is
legal - right? hmmm, Now I am really confused.
Many people assume that marijuana was made
illegal through some
kind of process involving
scientific, medical,
and government hearings;
that it was to protect
the citizens from
what was determined
to be a dangerous
drug. For most of human history, marijuana has
been completely legal. It's not a recently
discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing
law. Marijuana has been illegal for less
than 1% of the time that it's been in use.
Its known uses go back further than 7,000
B.C. and it was legal as recently as when
Ronald Reagan was a boy. (Click Here to Skip the History of How Marijuana
Became Illegal or continue reading below.
It is really fascinating.) The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has
an incredible number of uses. The earliest
known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and
over the centuries the plant was used for
food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more.
This adds to some of the confusion over its
introduction in the United States, as the
plant was well known from the early 1600's,
but did not reach public awareness as a recreational
drug until the early 1900's. America's first marijuana law was enacted
at Jamestown Colony,
Virginia in 1619.
It
was a law "ordering"
all farmers
to grow Indian hempseed.
There were several
other "must
grow" laws over
the
next 200 years (you
could be jailed for
not
growing hemp during
times of shortage
in
Virginia between
1763 and 1767), and
during
most of that time,
hemp was legal tender
(you could even pay
your taxes with hemp
-- try that today!)
Hemp was such a critical
crop for a number
of purposes (including
essential war requirements
- rope, etc.)
that the government
went out of its way
to
encourage growth. The United States Census of 1850 counted
8,327 hemp "plantations"
(minimum
2,000-acre farm)
growing cannabis
hemp for
cloth, canvas and
even the cordage
used for
baling cotton. (a)
The Mexican Connection In the early 1900s, the western states developed
significant tensions regarding the influx
of Mexican-Americans. The revolution in Mexico
in 1910 spilled over the border, with General
Pershing's army clashing with bandit Pancho
Villa. Later in that decade, bad feelings
developed between the small farmer and the
large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor.
Then, the depression came and increased tensions,
as jobs and welfare resources became scarce. One of the "differences" seized
upon during this
time was the fact
that many
Mexicans smoked marijuana
and had brought
the plant with them,
and it was through
this
that California apparently
passed the first
state marijuana law,
outlawing "preparations
of hemp, or loco
weed." However, one of the first state laws outlawing
marijuana may have been influenced, not just
by Mexicans using the drug, but, oddly enough,
because of Mormons using it. Mormons who
traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt
Lake City with marijuana. The church's reaction
to this may have contributed to the state's
marijuana law. (Note: the source for this
speculation is from articles by Charles Whitebread,
Professor of Law at USC Law School in a paper
for the Virginia Law Review, and a speech
to the California Judges Association.) Other states quickly followed suit with marijuana
prohibition laws,
including Wyoming
(1915),
Texas (1919), Iowa
(1923), Nevada (1923),
Oregon (1923), Washington
(1923), Arkansas
(1923), and Nebraska
(1927). These laws
tended
to be specifically
targeted against
the Mexican-American
population. When Montana outlawed marijuana in 1927,
the Butte Montana Standard reported a legislator's comment: "When some beet field peon
takes a few traces of this stuff... he thinks
he has just been elected president of Mexico,
so he starts out to execute all his political
enemies." In Texas, a senator said on
the floor of the Senate: "All Mexicans
are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is
what makes them crazy."
Jazz and Assassins In the eastern states, the "problem"
was attributed to a combination of Latin
Americans and black jazz musicians. Marijuana
and jazz traveled from New Orleans to Chicago,
and then to Harlem, where marijuana became
an indispensable part of the music scene,
even entering the language of the black hits
of the time (Louis Armstrong's "Muggles",
Cab Calloway's "That Funny Reefer Man",
Fats Waller's "Viper's Drag"). Again, racism was part of the charge against
marijuana, as newspapers
in 1934 editorialized:
"Marihuana influences
Negroes to look
at white people in
the eye, step on
white
men's shadows and
look at a white woman
twice."
Two other fear-tactic rumors started to spread:
one, that Mexicans, Blacks and other foreigners
were snaring white children with marijuana;
and two, the story of the "assassins."
Early stories of Marco Polo had told of "hasheesh-eaters"
or hashashin, from which derived the term
"assassin." In the original stories,
these professional killers were given large
doses of hashish and brought to the ruler's garden (to give them a glimpse of
the paradise that awaited them upon successful
completion of their mission). Then, after
the effects of the drug disappeared, the
assassin would fulfill his ruler's wishes
with cool, calculating loyalty. By the 1930s, the story had changed. Dr.
A. E. Fossier wrote
in the 1931 New Orleans
Medical and Surgical
Journal: "Under
the influence of
hashish those fanatics
would
madly rush at their
enemies, and ruthlessly
massacre every one
within their grasp."
Within a very short
time, marijuana started
being linked to violent
behavior.
Alcohol Prohibition
and Federal Approaches
to Drug Prohibition During this time, the United States was also
dealing with alcohol
prohibition, which
lasted
from 1919 to 1933.
Alcohol prohibition
was
extremely visible
and debated at all
levels,
while drug laws were
passed without the
general
public's knowledge.
National alcohol
prohibition
happened through
the mechanism of
an amendment
to the constitution. Earlier (1914), the Harrison Act was passed,
which provided federal
tax penalties for
opiates and cocaine. The federal approach is important. It was
considered at the
time that the federal
government
did not have the
constitutional power
to
outlaw alcohol or
drugs. It is because
of
this that alcohol
prohibition required
a
constitutional amendment. At that time in our country's history, the
judiciary regularly placed the tenth amendment
in the path of congressional regulation of
"local" affairs, and direct regulation
of medical practice was considered beyond
congressional power under the commerce clause
(since then, both provisions have been weakened
so far as to have almost no meaning). Since drugs could not be outlawed at the
federal level, the
decision was made
to use
federal taxes as
a way around the
restriction.
In the Harrison Act,
legal uses of opiates
and cocaine were
taxed (supposedly
as a revenue
need by the federal
government, which
is
the only way it would
hold up in the courts),
and those who didn't
follow the law found
themselves in trouble
with the treasury
department. In 1930, a new division in the Treasury Department
was established --
the Federal Bureau
of
Narcotics -- and
Harry J. Anslinger
was named
director. This, if
anything, marked
the beginning
of the all-out war
against marijuana.
Harry J. Anslinger Anslinger was an extremely ambitious man,
and he recognized
the Bureau of Narcotics
as an amazing career
opportunity -- a
new
government agency
with the opportunity
to
define both the problem
and the solution.
He immediately realized
that opiates and
cocaine wouldn't
be enough to help
build
his agency, so he
latched on to marijuana
and started to work
on making it illegal
at the federal level. Anslinger immediately drew upon the themes
of racism and violence to draw national attention to the problem he wanted to create. He also
promoted and frequently read from "Gore
Files" -- wild reefer-madness-style
exploitation tales of ax murderers on marijuana
and sex and... Negroes. Here are some quotes
that have been widely attributed to Anslinger
and his Gore Files: "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."
"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana
is its effect on
the degenerate races."
"Marijuana is an addictive drug which
produces in its users
insanity, criminality,
and death."
"Reefer makes darkies think they're
as good as white
men." "Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist
brainwashing"
"You smoke a joint and you're likely
to kill your brother."
"Marijuana is the most violence-causing
drug in the history
of mankind."
And he loved to pull
out his own version
of the "assassin"
definition: "In the year 1090, there was founded
in Persia the religious
and military order
of the Assassins,
whose history is
one of
cruelty, barbarity,
and murder, and for
good
reason: the members
were confirmed users
of hashish, or marihuana,
and it is from
the Arabs' 'hashashin'
that we have the
English
word 'assassin.'"
Yellow Journalism Harry Anslinger got some additional help
from William Randolf Hearst, owner of a huge
chain of newspapers. Hearst had lots of reasons
to help. First, he hated Mexicans. Second,
he had invested heavily in the timber industry
to support his newspaper chain and didn't
want to see the development of hemp paper
in competition. Third, he had lost 800,000
acres of timberland to Pancho Villa, so he
hated Mexicans. Fourth, telling lurid lies
about Mexicans (and the devil marijuana weed
causing violence) sold newspapers, making
him rich. Some samples from the San Francisco Examiner: "Marihuana makes fiends of boys in thirty
days -- Hashish goads
users to bloodlust."
"By the tons it is coming into this
country -- the deadly,
dreadful poison that
racks and tears not
only the body, but the
very heart and soul
of every human being
who once becomes
a slave to it in any of
its cruel and devastating
forms.... Marihuana
is a short cut to
the insane asylum. Smoke
marihuana cigarettes
for a month and what
was once your brain
will be nothing but a
storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer
who kills for the
love of killing out of
the mildest mannered
man who ever laughed
at the idea that
any habit could ever get
him...."
And other nationwide columns... "Users of marijuana become STIMULATED
as they inhale the
drug and are LIKELY TO
DO ANYTHING. Most
crimes of violence in this
section, especially
in country districts
are laid to users
of that drug." "Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug,
that nerved the murderous
arm of Clara Phillips
when she hammered
out her victim's
life in
Los Angeles?... THREE-FOURTHS
OF THE CRIMES
of violence in this
country today are
committed
by DOPE SLAVES --
that is a matter
of cold
record."
Hearst and Anslinger
were then supported
by Dupont chemical
company and various
pharmaceutical
companies in the
effort to outlaw
cannabis.
Dupont had patented
nylon, and wanted
hemp
removed as competition.
The pharmaceutical
companies could neither
identify nor standardize
cannabis dosages,
and besides, with
cannabis,
folks could grow
their own medicine
and not
have to purchase
it from large companies.
This all set the stage for...
Continued Below
The Marijuana Tax
Act of 1937. After two years of secret planning, Anslinger
brought his plan
to Congress -- complete
with a scrapbook
full of sensational
Hearst
editorials, stories
of ax murderers who
had
supposedly smoked
marijuana, and racial
slurs. It was a remarkably short set of hearings. The one fly in Anslinger's ointment was the
appearance by Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical
Association. Woodward started by slamming Harry Anslinger
and the Bureau of
Narcotics for distorting
earlier AMA statements
that had nothing
to
do with marijuana
and making them appear
to be AMA endorsement
for Anslinger's view. He also reproached the legislature and the
Bureau for using
the term marijuana
in the
legislation and not
publicizing it as
a bill
about cannabis or
hemp. At this point,
marijuana
(or marihuana) was
a sensationalist
word
used to refer to
Mexicans smoking
a drug
and had not been
connected in most
people's
minds to the existing
cannabis/hemp plant.
Thus, many who had
legitimate reasons
to
oppose the bill weren't
even aware of it. Transripts from the debate and vote Member from upstate New York: "Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?" Speaker Rayburn: "I don't know. It has something to do
with a thing called marihuana. I think it's
a narcotic of some kind." "Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical
Association support this bill?" Member on the committee jumps up and says:
"Their Doctor Wentworth[sic] came down
here. They support this bill 100 percent." And on the basis of those events, on August
2, 1937, marijuana became illegal at the
federal level. The entire coverage in the New York Times
announcing this "now
- controversial
issue" was:
"President Roosevelt signed today a
bill to curb traffic
in the narcotic, marihuana,
through heavy taxes
on transactions." (a) Soooo, being against smoking pot is being
a racist? Of course
not. People evolve and
back in those days,
people were pretty ignorant
on race, gender,
nationality and who loved
who. Just cause they
might have been ignorant
in these areas, does
not really mean the
law was bad. it was
just motivated by utter
stupidity. ...but what about now? People are smarter
than back in the old days when a different
skin color and an accent were considered
so very scary and different. Right? hmmmmm.
About three weeks before the Olympic swimmer,
Michael Phelps, was
busted doing bong
hits
in North Carolina,
I started studying
about
"WEED"
for this article.
Please
note, I said "studying",
not "researching".
wink wink.
totally down.
woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and
over the centuries the plant was used for
food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more.
This adds to some of the confusion over its
introduction in the United States, as the
plant was well known from the early 1600's,
but did not reach public awareness as a recreational
drug until the early 1900's.
Mexican-Americans. The revolution in Mexico
in 1910 spilled over the border, with General
Pershing's army clashing with bandit Pancho
Villa. Later in that decade, bad feelings
developed between the small farmer and the
large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor.
Then, the depression came and increased tensions,
as jobs and welfare resources became scarce.
comment: "When some beet field peon
takes a few traces of this stuff... he thinks
he has just been elected president of Mexico,
so he starts out to execute all his political
enemies." In Texas, a senator said on
the floor of the Senate: "All Mexicans
are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is
what makes them crazy."
ruler's garden (to give them a glimpse of
the paradise that awaited them upon successful
completion of their mission). Then, after
the effects of the drug disappeared, the
assassin would fulfill his ruler's wishes
with cool, calculating loyalty.
to the problem he wanted to create. He also
promoted and frequently read from "Gore
Files" -- wild reefer-madness-style
exploitation tales of ax murderers on marijuana
and sex and... Negroes. Here are some quotes
that have been widely attributed to Anslinger
and his Gore Files:
horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer
who kills for the
love of killing out of
the mildest mannered
man who ever laughed
at the idea that
any habit could ever get
him...."
Legislative Council of the American Medical
Association.
