The Move to Legalization

Two and a half years after writing my last entry I find myself living in the legal cannabis capital of the world Denver, Colorado. Since 2012, Amendment 64 has been enacted which legalized the personal use and regulation of marijuana throughout the state of Colorado with a number of necessary restrictions that has made the sale and possession of this harmless plant safer for everyone involved whether you "smoke pot" or not. According to Waking Times "7 Ways Cannabis Legalization Has Already Benefited Colorado" the numbers speak for themselves and show unexpected ways in which a legal system of taxing and regulating marijuana like alcohol truly benefits everyone.

1. According to Uniform Crime Reporting data for Denver, there has been a 10.1% decrease in overall crime from this time last year and a 5.2% drop in violent crime.
2. The state has garnered over 10 million in taxes from retail sales in the first 4 months. The first 40 million of this tax revenue is earmarked for public schools and infrastructure, as well as for youth educational campaigns about substance use.
3. There are renewed efforts to study the medical efficacy of marijuana within the state, making Colorado an epicenter for marijuana research. Cannabis legalization has already yielded some positive stats for Colorado. People in power are realizing there is money to be made. Will Colorado be the guinea pig for the rest of the world to follow suit?
4. The marijuana industry has developed quickly, generating thousands of new jobs. It is estimated there are currently about 10,000 people directly involved with this industry, with 1,000 to 2,000 gaining employment in the past few months alone.
5. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who opposed Amendment 64, recently compared Colorado’s economy since legalization to that of other states by noting, “While the rest of the country’s economy is slowly picking back up, we’re thriving here in Colorado.” For example, the demand for commercial real estate has increased drastically, with houses in the state appreciating up to 8.7 percent in the past year alone.
6. The voters of Colorado retain an overall positive view of the regulated marijuana market, with 54% of Colorado voters still supporting marijuana legalization and regulation, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.
7. By removing criminal penalties for certain marijuana-related offenses, thousands of individuals will avoid the collateral consequences associated with a criminal record. The state is estimated to potentially save $12-40 million over the span of a year simply by ending arrests for marijuana possession.

As for me, personally, moving to a state that tolerates cannabis use has produced some unexpected changes in my own life. When I lived in Idaho I often felt like there was something wrong with me as a person, that I needed to change, and stop using this "drug" that could ruin my life. A possession ticket for marijuana in Idaho would have destroyed my business, stopped the government financial aid that helped fund my education and my dream of being the first person in my family to graduate from college, without mentioning the loss of self worth. I did everything possible to stay "out of trouble" so that I could move to Colorado when I graduated and never have to worry about how marijuana could destroy my future again.

I wasted no time and moved to Denver two weeks after graduating for a fresh start and the opportunity to pursue creative projects in and outside of the cannabis industry. I know now that I have nothing to be ashamed of and that in a legal system the need to label disappears. I see the opportunities that a legal system can bring for all types of people from artists to writers and even scientists. Colorado is succeeding in bringing cannabis use into the light and a legal, taxed, regulated market is when it needs to remain. Let's not let the manipulated history of cannabis impact our judgment today. States like Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska are ringing in a new era and its up to all of us to make sure the cannabis lies stop. 

Introduction

With monumental legislation passing in Colorado and Washington the debate over the future of cannabis has made an expected turn towards regulation, taxation, and legalization. For the first time since the debate over cannabis prohibition propelled during the 1960’s, two states have voted to completely legalize cannabis for recreational use, despite criminalized prohibition on a federal level. After decades of racist, stereotypical, and false propaganda spread about cannabis, legislation changes at the state level are creating a controversial debate over the risks and benefits of allowing legal use. Regardless of the controversy on both sides of the debate--voters are starting to realize its simply ethically wrong to imprison millions of people for the possession of a plant.  

Cannabis prohibition is plaguing every level of society from the cartel violence happening at the border between the United States and Mexico, to the denial of vital medication for people suffering from chronic medical conditions, and the criminal implications forced on responsible, adult cannabis users. Unfortunately, thousands of adults every year are facing criminal charges for possession of a plant which hinders their ability to find employment, receive federal financial aid, and forever labels an offender as a criminal in the eyes of the law. While in certain states cannabis possession up to a certain level is completely legal. 


This new problem emerging from drastic differences in state laws is pushing cannabis  further into a grey area which is only increasing violence in areas where the plant is still strictly prohibited. With the future of cannabis in upheaval this blog dedicated to outlining the history of cannabis prohibition in the United States. Through examining the false propaganda spread to invoke public fear hopefully a future of individual freedom and legalized, regulated, and taxed use can happen for an industry potentially worth billions of dollars. 

Hidden History of Cannabis Use in America

The first law relating to cannabis in the United States didn’t prohibit the plant or reference the term marijuana. According to Jack Herer, activist and author of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” a book used in cannabis decriminalization efforts, claims that all farmers at Jamestown Colony in Virginia were ordered to grow Indian hempseed. Additional must-grow laws were later enacted in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Chesapeake Colonies by the mid-1700’s. Surprisingly in the United States Census of 1850 an astonishing 8,327 hemp ‘plantations’ (minimum 2,000-acre farms) were counted in which hemp was grown for cloth, canvas, and even cordage used for baling cotton. 

Figure 1:

The female cannabis plant referred to as marijuana.

Source:

Blozie, Kimberly; "Cannabis/Marijuana cracked

by Medicinal Genomics"; (2012): Web.

In fact, botanically speaking hemp, cannabis, or marijuana is a member of the most advance plant species on Earth. Cannabis is  able to use the sun more efficiently than any other plant, reaching 12 to 20 feet in one, three month growing cycle. Able to grow in the majority of climates and soil conditions, cannabis is one of the most important natural resources to ever be grown on this Earth.  With the wide spread production of hemp through the 1850’s what changed this industrialize, successful crop into a prohibited drug banned from all forms of production? 

Today industrialized hemp remains illegal because of its evil step cousin--marijuana. Our Federal Government even claims that people can’t tell the difference between “marijuana” a term commonly used to refer to the buds of the female plant and the physically different looking male hemp plant. The Federal Government even claims that hemp must remain illegal because officers flying over fields of industrial hemp might confuse it with a field of illegal marijuana. I see a clear difference between Figure 1 and 2 but you can determine for yourself the validity of this statement. Nevertheless both plants remain strictly prohibited and are classified as a Schedule I Narcotic which means that, according to the Federal Government, both forms of cannabis have no recorded medical use.  

Figure 2:

The male cannabis plant referred to as hemp.  

Source:

Krafft, Randy; "Stimulate the U.S. Economy by Legalizing

Industrial Hemp"; (2011): Web

Prohibiting a substance in this manner was warned against by President Lincoln, who’s belief in equal rights can be extended to the use of cannabis. Which can be seen in Lincoln’s response to repressive mentality, “Prohibition...goes beyond the bound of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetitive by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes...A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.” When possession of a plant becomes a criminal offense people generally assume a process involving medical, scientific, and government research was used to determine its removal from society; yet when studying the history of cannabis prohibition another picture emerges filled with racism, fear, yellow journalism, corrupt legislators, and personal greed. 

The Origin of Marijuana: That Evil Weed

The onset of the 20th century changed the history of cannabis, a plant that had been mandatory to grow throughout the United States, into the stigmatized evil weed we now refer to as marijuana. During this time many western states started to develop tensions with Mexican immigrants who regularly smoked marijuana. This tension escalated as small farmers started to stigmatize large farmers use of cheap Mexican labor. The uneasiness continued until the onset of the Great Depression which eliminated jobs and resources found in the prosperous 1920’s.  

With tensions at an all time high--many white Americans started to focus on the differences between them and Mexican immigrants.  According to Jack Herer, activist and author of “The Emperor Wears Clothes” politicians trying to please the white working class, blamed Mexican immigrants for a violent crime wave. Their habit of smoking marijuana, received the blame for a phony outbreak of crime and health problems. Before this time period the term “marijuana” wasn’t used as a term to refer to cannabis or hemp it originated, as a Mexican slang term, which politicians used to confuse and mislead the public. The terms popularity escalated during a series of media and governmental programs known today as the‘Refer Madness  Movement'.

Figure 3:

Advertisement for the 1930's film 
Marihuana. 

Source:

"Dog Eat Dogma"; (2011):Web. 

Through repetition of this slang phrase linked to lazy, violence causing Mexicans--the words “hemp” and the scientific term “cannabis” were largely ignored. This lead people to believe that marijuana and cannabis, or hemp which had been used to make cloth, rope, and even medicine over the past three hundred years were completely different substances.The popular name for cannabis today is still derived from this slang term acquired through fear and racism. With the majority of racist slang terms from the 1930’s viewed as socially inappropriate today--why is the slang term “marijuana” still used instead of cannabis or hemp?

The term seems to solidify the acceptable of falsely spread cannabis propaganda that still remains the primary message set forth by the United State’s Federal Government. Negative stereotypes associated with cannabis use weren’t solely found in Western states, problems in Eastern states linked cannabis use with black jazz musicians.  Again, racism was used to discriminate against the use of marijuana. Marijuana traveled with the popularity of jazz music from New Orleans, to Chicago and then to Harlem, becoming a major part of the music scene. 

Figure 4: 

Advertisement Circulated by the Federal Bureau

of Narcotics in 1935. 

Source:
Killer Drug by Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

Advertisement. 1935. Web

The mass media used fear and racism to push cannabis out of mainstream society, as one newspaper in 1934 captured: 

“Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white women twice.” With the spread of false marijuana propaganda plaguing the early 20th century marijuana prohibition became the solution to stop minority group’s cultural habits from spreading into mainstream society. Ultimately marijuana became the scapegoat for all poorly perceived subculture habits which led to its eventual and  continued eradication.

Men Die For It, Women Cry For It: Explosion of the Reefer Madness Movement

                                                                                                              

:

Figure 6:
Reefer Madness Theatrical Poster

Source:

Reefer Madness Original Theatrical 

Release Poster by Motion Picture Ventures. 

Advertisement. 1936: Web.

From 1919 to 1933, alcohol prohibition became the focus of public opinion due to its impact on individual rights and the spread of organized crime. With alcohol prohibition extremely visible and openly debated on all levels of society, drug laws were passed without the general public's knowledge. This accumulated in a new division of the treasury formed in 1930 known as the Federal Bureau of Narcotics with Harry Anslinger, the first unofficial Drug Czar, named the director according to Jack Herer. This marked the beginning of the war against cannabis. The Bureau of Narcotics became a revolutionary government agency with the unique opportunity to define the problems with narcotics and the steps that needed to be taken to deal with the problem. 

At the time the only banned substances were cocaine and opiates, which lacked enough users to maintain an entire bureau, as a result Anslinger turned his attention to creating a problem with a plant already linked to racism and false propaganda--cannabis. These quotes from Anslinger are an example of the type of propaganda he used, “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.” “You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother.” “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.” 

            Figure 6: 

            Theatrical Poster for anti-marijuana film.

Source:
Assassin of Youth Original Theatrical Poster by BCM 
Roadhouse Productions. Advertisement.1937. Web

In an interesting twist the Federal Government ignored the Siler Commission which studied the effects of off-duty marijuana smoking by American serviceman in Panama which concluded that smoking marijuana wasn’t a problem and that no criminal penalties should result in it’s use.Yet these blatantly racist and misleading statements aimed at solidifying subcultural groups as subordinate to white  Americans was unacceptable during the early 20th century and an abomination now. With the adaptation of laws that outlaw discrimination based on sex, race, and gender is it appropriate to have laws in place that prohibit a substance based on manipulative propaganda spread to further the career of one man?

Harry Anslinger partnered with William Randolf Hearst, the owner of a huge chain of newspaper heavily invested in the timber industry to support it’s production. The elimination of hemp paper would leave little competition for the timber industry and his magazine to flourish. Ultimately, Hearst’s newspapers used Yellow Journalism, the type of journalism that relies on sensationalism and lurid exaggeration to attract readers, to manufacture a new threat to America for the purpose of outlawing hemp. Which is illustrated in this quote found in the San Francisco Examiner: “Marihuana makes fiends of boys in thirty days. By the tons it's 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 becomes a slave to its cruel and devastating forms.” Finally Anslinger and Hearst gained support from the Dupont Chemical Company, that had just patented processes for the production of plastics from oil and coal; and a new sulfate process that would make paper from wood pulp.

                                                                                         Figure 7:

                                                                                         Clip from the 1937 film Reefer Madness. 

In 1937, Anslinger testified before Congress claiming that “Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind.” The accumulation of yellow journalism in addition to Anslinger's testimony persuaded Congress to pass The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 which called for an "occupational excise tax upon dealers, and a transfer tax upon dealings in marijuana”. The new tax virtually killed the legal cannabis industry because farmers couldn’t transfer cannabis without a special stamp and in order to apply for the stamp farmers had to bring their cannabis to Washington D.C. breaking the law in the process. The propaganda and laws created
during this time period led to these common practices:

• Politicians wanting to appear tough on crime by passing tougher penalties 
• Constant increases in spending on law enforcement and prison
• Racist application of drug laws
• Taxpayer funded propaganda
• Censorship of opposition speech
• Political contributions from corporation that profit from cannabis being illegal

Ultimately this tactic of lying to the public about the beneficial nature of cannabis through the publication of “marijuana” propaganda has been successful in manipulated the history of a plant that's been cultivated for thousands of years. 

                                            Figure 8: Assassin of Youth: Full Feature Film (1937)

The Green Plant that Propelled a Red Scare

                                                                                                     Figure 9:
                                                                                                                                       Theatrical Poster for "Devil's Harvest

Source:
Devil's Harvest Original Theatrical Poster
by Continental Films.Advertisement.1942:Web. 

The portrayal of cannabis as a violence inducing substance 
lasted until 1948 when Anslinger capitalized off of a much larger fear plaguing a new generation. During the peak of the Red Scare, politicians would do anything to link drug use to communism. As a result, Anslinger deployed a new public menace destroying the teenage generation--the communist tendencies inducing marijuana plant. According to Jack Herer, Anslinger began “red baiting” which is the act of attacking or persecuting as a Communist or communistic, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

 The frightened public was told by the Federal Government that smoking marijuana would give the user Socialist, Marxist, and Communist tendencies which ultimately gave users the power to overthrow the government. The substance that just years ago caused black men to rape white women--was now destroying the teenage youth, one pacifistic user at a time. Which can be seen in the quote from Anslinger, “Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing.” 

Figure 10:
Novel Cover for Marijuana Girl

Source: 
Marijuana Girl. Advertisement.
1951:Ramble House. Web. 

The Federal Government propelled marijuana's link to the Red Scare by telling Americans that Communists would use marijuana to hinder our American soldiers' motivation to fight.This false message received such a large amount of attention worldwide that within the next twenty years Russia and China, both Communist countries, outlawed marijuana out of fear that American’s would use it to turn communist soldiers into pacifists. Which completely contradicted  cannabis's use as a medical drug and relaxant for thousands of years in this region. 

Regardless of the time period the Federal Government has been spreading propaganda aimed at demonizing cannabis use. Whether the message is marijuana causes violence,  pacifism, laziness, insanity, or terrorism--the plant has been manipulated into a feared narcotic that’s taken the blame for social upheaval. Unfortunately the information presented to citizens regarding cannabis has been deliberate deception. Which has lead users and non-users to question if cannabis is a violence inducing devil weed, or if our government is deliberately manipulating the image of a plant.