Marijuana, for most of its recent history, has been defined by skepticism and negative stereotypes. And why wouldn’t it be? Its use, along with LSD, is tied closely to the hippie counterculture of the 60s and 70s, which rejected mainstream societal structure and values and looked to these drugs for expanding consciousness. The 1980s’ War on…
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Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.
Elvin B. Ross April 19th, 2015 at 11:49
You posted this a day early!
Bunya April 20th, 2015 at 16:14
That’s right! 4/20 is the holiday!
baddog April 19th, 2015 at 12:56
You know what makes me happy Alan? Your consistent stance and logic on this issue.
arc99 April 19th, 2015 at 13:38
Marijuana prohibition should never have been passed in the first place. First there are the 9th amendment implications. The 9th amendment states that the people (not the states) retain other rights. Anyone care to argue that a Constitution written by men who earned their living in agriculture did not intend that the ability to cultivate your property as you see fit, was not one of the unenumerated rights they envisioned?
Then there are the racist origins of marijuana prohibition. Laws prohibiting both cocaine and marijuana arose from the virulent racism that permeated American culture in the first half of the twentieth century. Nearly a century later, large segments of the American public have been brainwashed to the extent that a recreational drug which can kill you in 24 hours (alcohol) is perfectly legal. But when it comes to marijuana, suddenly it does not matter that there are any number of perfectly legal substances that are harmful or even deadly if misused. Marijuana must be singled out and demonized.
When it comes to marijuana laws, I adopt the approach of right wing politicians and gun laws, e.g. I ignore them. Under no circumstances will I accept the validity of laws which originated from ignorant garbage like this bit of hyperbole from FDR’s head of the Bureau of Narcotics
This insanity comes not from a personal diary or newspaper editorial. This is actual on-the-record testimony presented to the United States Congress in 1937. And I, a black man am supposed to respect this “rule of law”? I don’t think so….
That part about white women is patently false.
Trust me on that…
http://www.ukcia.org/potculture/20/lies.html
“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 usage.
This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations
with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”
Harry J. Anslinger, testimony to Congress, 1937
FatRat April 20th, 2015 at 15:57
(This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.) It made me think of the reason why guns were increased in caliber, at least that is what the claim was.
An extremely racist article from 1914.
The following additional example comes from an article by Edward Huntington William, M.D., in The Medical Record in 1914:
once the Negro has reached the stage of being a ‘dope taker’ (dope here referring to cocaine) . . . he is a constant menace to his community until he is eliminated . . . Sexual desires are increased and perverted, peaceful Negroes become quarrelsome, and timid Negroes develop a degree of ‘Dutch courage’ that is sometimes almost incredible. . In the language of the police officer, ‘The cocaine n*gger is sure hard to kill’ – a fact that has been demonstrated so often that many of these officers in the South have increased the caliber of their guns for the express purpose of ‘stopping’ the cocaine fiend when he runs amuck. 8
A review of more popular reading of the day would have revealed the following statement in a 1914 Literary Digest article:
“Under its (cocaine) influence are most of the daring crimes committed . . . Most of the attacks upon white women of the South are the direct result of a cocaine crazed Negro brain.”9
Or consider the following attributes of cocaine as reported again by Edward Huntington Williams, M.D. in an article in the New York Times:
The list of dangerous effects produced by cocaine . . . is certainly long enough. But there is another, and a most important one, this is a temporary steadying of the nervous and muscular system, so as to increase, rather than interfere with good marksmanship . . . the record of the ‘cocaine n*gger’ near Asheville, who dropped five men dead in their tracks, using only one cartridge for each, offers evidence that is sufficiently convincing. 10