HISTORY OF CANNABIS
HOW IT WENT FROM COMMON CROP TO ILLEGAL SUBSTANCE IN THE U.S.
The history of Cannabis is simple in the beginning. Normal even for a plant that has been used as commonly as grain. It was not until more modern times that the story starts to get convoluted. For this article I have chosen to stick to the history in the United States of America (U.S.) because much of what happens in the U.S. tends to have a ripple effect on our great country of Canada and to some degree is felt across the globe.
PRE-PROHIBITION
The first indication of hemp being utilized by humans dates back as far as 7000 B.C to China where they used the seeds for food, wove its fibres into cloth, used it to make bow strings, foot wear, and the ever important paper. By 2727 B.C. cannabis was listed in the ancient medical book, Pen Ts’ao, along with hundreds of other plants, animals and minerals, and their medicinal uses. Use of hemp spread across the ancient world due to its versatility. Indications and eventually writings of its use have been found in Greece, Rome, China, Japan, India and Europe. The Spaniards took it to South America, while the Romans took it to Britain who in turn brought it to North America and attempted it in the Caribbean.
The more recent U.S. history began in 1609 when King James 1 decreed that all famers of all colonies where to grow 100 hemp plants each for export back to England for rope and fabric production. In 1619 the Virginia Assembly passed legislation that required every farmer to grow hemp. Even George Washington grew it on all five of his personal farms as one of his three main crops. It was also allowed as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. So domestic production was legislated and hemp flourished until after the Civil War when other products began to replace hemp.
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1906 laws regarding labelling of medicine changed.
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The mid 1800’s saw a Dr.William O’Shaughnessy introduced hemp’s medicinal uses into Western medicine after he himself was introduced to it in India. Up until the early 1900’s it was regularly prescribed for coughs and colds, stomach cramps, migraines, general pain, as a sleep aide, anti-convulsant and anti-depressant, to name a few. Then in 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act came into being and required all over the counter drugs containing cannabis to be labeled as Poison. Regardless, doctors were still prescribing it for their patients. That same year the government released the results of a three year study that predicted the complete replacement of pulp and paper from trees with fibre from hemp, stating its versatility, higher yields, low cost of processing and production, and higher quality of products. Important to note that even in 1906 they realized hemp was more sustainable environmentally too.
Immigrants from Mexico flooded into the U.S. after the Mexican Revolution and brought with them recreational use of “Marijuana”. Fear and prejudice of these new strangers caused the anti-drug promoters to warn against the “Marijuana Menace”. The Dirty Thirties only caused that fear and prejudice to deepen as the country plunged into the Great Depression, in part because the farmers were no longer allowed to grow hemp. Millions of families had lost their livelihood due to the new regulations under the Marijuana Tax.
PROHIBITION
Also during this time the creation of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, headed by the original Dirty Harry, Harry J. Anslinger had a big impact on hemp, though no one realized it until it was too late. Anslinger knew that if he could convince Congress that there was a serious drug problem amoung the immigrants he would have access to more government funding. Anslinger was one of the few who actually knew Marijuana and Hemp were the same plant, and he liked it that way. Another man who was threatened by hemps versatility was John Hearst of Hearst Media. He owned many newspapers across the country, filled with new machines to process the paper from trees. If hemp replaced tree pulp as the government predicted in 1906 then it would cost him millions to re-outfit all of his production facilities. Hemp was the enemy and together they had the power to squash it. They began a systematic attack on it. Hearst released false news stories about the “evil weed - marijuana” through Hearst Media while Anslinger would use these news stories published across the country as fact to Congress in his attempt to restrict the use of hemp. Another enemy of hemp was Du Pont. He joined forces with Hearst and Anslinger to squash hemp which would make Du Ponts newest invention of nylon useless.
Without scientific studies or hard facts to back him up, J. Anslinger finally “won” Congress over in 1937 to prohibit the production, use and distribution of marijuana through fear tactics. The next few years were confusing for the country. Suddenly farmers were no longer allowed to grow hemp but they could purchase it in cough medicine in town. In fact, the first arrest for the sale of an illegal substance was a Mr. Caldwell and his customer was the first arrested for possession in 1937, the very same day the Marijuana Tax Act was enacted.
Less than a decade later during WW2 the country was forced by need to promote its “Hemp For Victory” program. Agreeing to grow hemp for the war effort could even get you out of the enlistment, but shortly after the war it was again made illegal to grow or possess hemp. To this day hemp is still illegal to grow in the United States, yet they are one of the biggest importers of hemp products in the world. While the 1950’s saw increased regulations put in place, mandatory sentences for drug related offences, including marijuana were beefed up, the 60’s drifted opposite. Instead there began a trend toward more lenient attitudes and minimum sentences were now considered too harsh.
Enter the counter-culture of the 60’s. Use of marijuana increased amoung upper middle class whites and the government realized the stories of old, that marijuana made you violent, were wrong. A short lived weakening of marijuana laws occurred in the 60’s and 70’s across a few states for a few years, eleven even decriminalizing it altogether. A study commissioned by Congress recommended that marijuana be unscheduled altogether as it was a non-toxic substance and was extremely versatile. President Nixon refused the recommendations and in 1973 when the DEA was formed it got top billing, as schedule 1. No medicinal value, high potential for abuse, no acceptable safe use. Years later Nixon’s aid, John Ehrlichman, was interview. Here’s the shocking confession of why the recommendations were ignored and marijuana was scheduled so severely.
THE WAR ON DRUGS
Nation wide parent groups got bigger and with the backing of the DEA and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) they affected not just public attitudes towards drugs, but were instrumental in starting the War on Drugs of the 80’s. Mandatory sentences for drug related crimes increased, even providing for life sentences or the death penalty for “drug kingpins” under the Reagan administration.
A war waged on home soil, under a title that seemed to make the general public happy. The government was cracking down hard on druggies and pushers, dealers and growers. Commercials on television taught children, teens and adults alike that your brain on drugs was like an egg in a hot frypan. Unbeknownst to the general public it was just more fear and false information being doled out. But in reality the war was still based on prejudice and greed.
Again in the late 80’s yet another President would declare a new War on Drugs. The result was more of the same, increased spending by the DEA and NIDA and in the 90’s the United States incarcerated so many people for non-violent drug offences that the system was over loaded and in crept privately funded facilities. Today they have a system that is bulging at the seams. While Whites, Blacks and Latinos are all just as likely to use marijuana, Blacks and Latinos make up almost 80% of the prison population. Whether the whole reason for this dramatic increase can be attributed just to the War on Drugs since Nixon was in office is up for debate amoung some, but the figures are hard to ignore.
FIGHTING PROHIBITION
Advocacy for less archaic laws surrounding marijuana came out of the war on drugs. As the United States Government increased stricter laws, organizations began springing up across the Nation calling for decriminalization and legalization of marijauna specifically. The 70’s saw the formation of several big names in the fight against marijuana prohibition, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) the founding of High Times, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy to name a few. But advocacy really started with a man named Robert Randall. Mr. Randall sued the federal government in 1978 for arresting him for using marijuana to treat his glaucoma. Ruling in his favour the Judge issued the Food and Drug Administration to set up a program to grow and supply Mr. Randall with 300 cannabis cigarettes a month under the “Compassionate Use” program. Unfortunately Mr. Randall’s advocacy put an end to the program when in 1992 he attempted to have HIV/AIDS patients made eligible. George H.W. Bush discontinued the program as a result, but by then thirteen people were already enrolled and were allowed to continue. Mr. Irvin Rosenfeld was the second person to become eligible for the program in 1982. He attempted to have the program reopened during the second Bush’s Administration but was unsuccessful. He is one of four who still receive their shipment of cannabis cigarettes from the government.*Note: article printed in 2005.
“The government did everything they could to keep the program a secret since 1992,” said Keith Stroup, founder and legal counsel of NORML. For political reasons, the government doesn’t want people to know that they are spending millions on research into medicinal uses for Marijuana. They have even been getting many patents on THC and CBD, two of the main chemical components of marijuana (THC induces a psychoactive effect, while the other does not) since the late 1990’s. To admit they were patenting the medicinal applications of the chemicals found in Marijauna would be to nullify the very reason it is prohibited in the first place. As a Schedule One drug the government decrees cannabis has no medicinal value, yet their patents quietly declare it does.
IN CONCLUSION
Looking back over the history of marijuana in the United States and trying to pin down any one
reason for its prohibition can be difficult. The contributing factors are many. Reasons of fear, racial prejudice and suppression, and even greed all factor in. The road towards restricting its use had many ups and downs as the government was forced to realize the country could not truly live without hemp products. While one hand of the government was praising its versatility and benefits the other was maligning it with violent and devious behaviour. The more recent struggles between the two sides contain the same biases as the old, fears and prejudices. Only the voices against prohibition have gotten louder, and stronger because they are based on the science and fact that hemp, cannabis, or marijuana (which ever you decide to call it) is the most versatile plant with the most possible uses of any plant
. Our ancestors knew it and that’s why it was spread so far and wide across the globe.
So hold on to that doobie, we just might see full legalization yet in our lifetime.
Reference Links:
Literally every day I have received emails from Indeed.com with multiple job postings from across Canada for employment in anything Cannabis related. Those jobs postings are for positions like; Master Grower, Medical Sales Reps, Medical Receptionist, Security Guards, Executive Assistances, AVAC Techs, Accountants, Social Media Specialists, Graphic Designers, Chief Financial Officers, Production Facility Managers, Director of E-Commerce, International Import/Export Associates, IT Support, QA Managers...and the list goes on. All require a higher level of education than I have. But this is not a pity party. I have a point.
