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The Marijuana plot
The Marijuana plot
by Shel HaberCannabis, marijuana's real name, was legal before 1930 and openly available at pharmacies across the USA. It was commonly prescribed by doctors to relieve pain and menstrual cramps.
The word marijuana is nothing more than Mexican slang for cannabis or hemp, the same plant that has been used for thousands of years around the world for medicinal, relaxation and even religious purposes.
Cannabis was not seen as a problem by anybody until, in 1916, Dept. of Agriculture scientists discovered a way to use it to create cheaper paper. Farmers saw a good cash crop and grew large amounts of cannabis for commercial paper-making.
This was a problem for William Randolph Hearst, who owned 28 newspapers and many thousands of acres of trees, which he used to make paper for his and many other newspapers. It was also a problem for the DuPont chemical company; a large crop of hemp presented a serious competitive threat to the DuPont-owned process for creating paper from wood pulp.
Hearst newspapers across the country sprang into action, printing frontpage stories about "a new national terror-killer marijuana."
Careful never to use the then-familiar word cannabis, Hearst's reporters invented stories of jazz sex orgies caused by marijuana and how Mexican immigrants, maddened by marijuana were committing horrendous crimes.
With each new edition of his newspapers, the number and savagery of the concocted marijuana crimes increased. Hearst's Hollywood friends joined in and made marijuana orgy films such as Reefer Madness. The debauchery and crime stories sold thousands of newspapers and planted the myth of deranged marijuana users.
Millionaire Andrew W. Mellon, DuPont's major financial backer, had been Secretary of the US Treasury under three Republican presidents. Before he left office, he appointed Harry J. Anslinger to head the newly-created Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger initiated a campaign to bring the "dangerous drug marijuana" under federal control. A bill to regulate cannabis was introduced in Congress. Anslinger claimed that the hemp plant needed to be banned because it had a "violent effect on the degenerate races." To prove his point he quoted articles in the Hearst press. Anslinger testified before Congress that the American Medical Association supported his demand to ban cannabis. This was a lie; actually, the AMA strongly opposed the regulation.
It was rumored that barrels of money were passed around in Washington DC and, in 1937, on the grounds that cannabis caused "murder, insanity and death," the Marijuana Tax Act was passed. This ended the legal large scale production and use of hemp fibers for paper and cannabis for medical use.
Made illegal (and much more expensive), it was pushed by gangsters. The use of cannabis as a recreational narcotic increased dramatically. Fake stories circulated by Hearst and Anslinger actually helped the underworld market marijuana as the new macho drug-not the old herb used for menstrual cramps.
In the next thirty years the use and sale of illegal drugs exploded. Elected and police officials corrupted by drug money became a commonplace in the US and around the world.
In 1970 Congress created the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse to study and shape a new drug law. Its official report favored discouraging the use of marijuana, but called for de-criminalizing it. The recommendation was disregarded and President Nixon proclaimed a national War on Drugs in 1973. Congress passed legislation giving the same severe jail time for sale or possession of cocaine and heroin as it did for the milder cannabis. This remains the foundation of current drug law.
By 1988, with the use of illegal drugs continuing to skyrocket, President Reagan's answer was to make a speech attacking the "degenerate hippie culture," and appointing a Drug Czar. Bill Clinton's solution was no better; he elevated the Drug Czar to cabinet-level status.In the last thirty years, many billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on the War on Drugs; millions have been arrested but illegal drug use continues to rise unchecked.
Today in fifteen states, for a nonviolent marijuana-related offense, you could be sentenced to life in prison without parole, while the national average sentence for murder is six to eight years.
More of our population is now behind bars for marijuana offenses than in any other time in our history, while presidents Clinton and Bush and at least one Supreme Court justice have admitted using marijuana in their youth.
If legal, the USDA's cannabis-based paper-making process would replace more than 70% of all pulp paper made from wood. Paper bags, corrugated boxes, computer paper and newspapers could all be made from this fast-growing, environmentally safer resource, sparing the nation's forests.
In January 2008, responding to a reporter's question, "should marijuana be sold next to beer in liquor stores?" former Sen. Mike Gravel, said, "Get some scotch and chug-a-lug it and you'll lose your senses faster than smoking marijuana." He said that all drugs should legalized and regulated. "The drug problem is a public health problem. It's not a criminal problem.
"You take a drug addict, you throw him in jail and he learns a trade-to be a criminal."Most experts agree-
like tobacco, marijuana is addictive and not good for your health.Today the illegal drug trade continues to finance street gangs, organized crime, giant international banks and worldwide terrorism.
Sources:The National Commission on Marijuana
USDA Bulletin No. 404,
NY Academy of Medicine, 1944,
Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report, 1894.Shel Haber is co-publisher of The Nyack Villager.
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