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Business Insider created a very
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informative video on the history of the
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drug war in the United States let's take
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a look at that early is the 1800s
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there were no federal restrictions on
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the sale or possession of cannabis in
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the u.s. hemp fiber from the plant was
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used to make clothes paper and wrote
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sometimes it was used medicinally but as
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a recreational drug it wasn't that
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widespread a New York Times article from
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1876 even cites the positive use of
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cannabis to cure a patient's dropsy
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basically swelling from an accumulation
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of fluid in the early 1900's an influx
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of Mexican immigrants came to the US
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fleeing political unrest in their home
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country with them they brought the
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practice of smoking cannabis
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recreationally and it took off the
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Spanish word for the plant started to be
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used more often to marijuana or as it
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was spelled at that time marijuana with
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an H this is when the more sensational
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headlines about the drug began to appear
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in 1936 a propaganda film called reefer
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madness was released in the movie
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teenagers smoke weed for the first time
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and this leads to a series of horrific
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events involving hallucination attempted
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rape and murder much of the media
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portrayed it as a gateway drug marijuana
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a powerful excitement produces
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unpredictable emotional results but its
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greatest danger lies in the fact that it
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is a stepping stone to the harder drugs
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such as morphine and heroin the
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following year in 1937 the marihuana Tax
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Act was passed cannabis sales were now
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taxed part of the reason this Act was
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passed was because of all the
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fear-mongering going on at the time
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in a huge instigator of that
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fear-mongering
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was the man behind the marijuana Tax Act
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Harry Anslinger Anslinger was named a
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commissioner of the Federal Bureau of
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Narcotics during the Prohibition era but
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once national prohibition ended in 1933
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Anslinger turned his focus to marijuana
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this is when racism and xenophobia
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really kicked in Harry Anslinger took
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the scientifically unsupported idea of
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marijuana is a violence inducing drug
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connected it to black and Hispanic
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people and created a perfect package of
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Terror to sell to the American media and
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public by emphasizing the Spanish word
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marijuana instead of cannabis he created
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a strong association between the drug
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and the newly arrived Mexican immigrants
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who helped popularize it in the States
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he also created a narrative around the
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idea that cannabis made black people
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forget their place in society he pushed
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the idea that jazz was evil music
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created by people under the influence of
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marijuana but these racist ideas didn't
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just influence the media's portrayal or
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the public's perception of the drug the
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discrimination they encouraged was
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evident in real numbers in the first
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full year after the marihuana Tax Act
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was passed
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black people were about three times more
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likely to be arrested for violating
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narcotic drug laws than whites and
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Mexicans were nearly nine times more
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likely to be arrested for the same
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charge by 1952 the Boggs Act was passed
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this made sentencing for drug
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convictions mandatory a first offense
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for possession could land you 2 to 5
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years in prison and a fine up to $2,000
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through the 1960s and 70s weed smoking
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took on a new perception through the
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counterculture movement young white
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people resisted mainstream culture and
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powerful institutions this was the era
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of hippies beatniks and flower power but
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despite all the peace and love laws
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continued to emphasize the severity of
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the drug
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the Controlled Substances Act of 1970
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passed under President Nixon's public
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enemy number one
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yield the marihuana Tax Act and instead
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made cannabis a Schedule one drug
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the most serious class schedule one
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drugs are considered to have a high
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potential for abuse and addiction with
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no medical use other examples of
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schedule 1 drugs are heroin LSD and
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ecstasy classifying cannabis is a
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Schedule one drug has been highly
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debated since then it's not a Schedule
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one any more than a hedgehog is an apex
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predator to this day it remains in that
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category and criminalization still
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disproportionately affects minority
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groups in the US the ACLU reported that
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in 2010 black people were four times
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more likely to be arrested for marijuana
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than white people even though both
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groups consumed marijuana at about the
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same rate some states have taken action
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to reduce this type of criminalization
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nine states and Washington DC have
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legalized the recreational use of
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cannabis in 29 states allow some form of
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medical marijuana San Francisco recently
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dropped thousands of marijuana related
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convictions and Seattle plans to do the
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same but this doesn't change the federal
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restrictions and Attorney General Jeff
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Sessions seems hell-bent on enforcing
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those federal rules people don't smoke
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marijuana Kansas state representative
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Steven Alford made a case against
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legalizing cannabis by referring to the
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racist rhetoric of the Anslinger era
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they couldn't they they were eventually
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users and they were basically responding
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the worst of all those drugs is because
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their character isn't that amazing
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I mean credit to Business Insider for
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making that long and informative video
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there yeah I remember that story that
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wasn't that long ago January 6 and the
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guy was like yeah the genetics of the
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black man that makes this that they
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can't handle drugs I can't handle
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marijuana
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nonsense totally made-up total [ __ ]
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this is reefer madness propaganda that
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took root and many people still believe
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to this day so you saw the timeline
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there 1936 reefer madness comes out its
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sheer propaganda talking about how you
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know marijuana is evil and it makes you
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a bad person and it makes you become a
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criminal and then BOOM 1937 you have the
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first real marijuana anti marijuana law
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that passes which is the marijuana Tax
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Act now isn't it amazing how gradual
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they had to move in the direction of
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total criminalization so it started with
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ok here's a propaganda video then it
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became now we're just gonna tax
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marijuana then they said it was 1952
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when they got the Boggs Act which locked
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people up for weed and then finally 1970
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was when Richard Nixon this douche bag
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said alright we're gonna treat drugs
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like they're the worst thing in the
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world and lock people up and by the way
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there was an admission from top
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officials in Nixon's cabinet where they
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said no the whole reason we did it was
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to crack down on the black population
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and crack down on what they called
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hippie whites because they knew that
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those demographics would never support
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Richard Nixon and that would never
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support that white house so they said
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well let's just criminalize our enemies
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and lock him up and that's what ended up
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happening
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they criminalized their enemies and they
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locked him up and the the quotes are
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insane when you go back and read like
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that was the whole point of it they
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weren't actually keeping people safe
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they didn't think they
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we're keeping people safe it was a dirty
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[ __ ] trick to try to criminalize
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segments of the population that they
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knew would never back them so and you
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also learn there that the same people
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who did prohibition banning of alcohol
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were directly involved in crafting the
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drug war that the same people 1937 the
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marihuana Tax Act that came right after
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reefer madness in 1936 and it was 1933
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that they that they got rid of
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prohibition so you see the timeline you
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see if people in the government like
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alright what can we crack down on now
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and what do how can we take away
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people's freedom more now that's what
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was going on and then you also see the
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disproportionate arrest rate and listen
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man that's the history of this so there
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was there's another amazing fact I
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learned about opium apparently opium was
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perfectly legal in the United States
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laudanum I think they called it
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something like that it was illegal until
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you had Chinese immigrants building the
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railroad and they had their opium dens
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and what happened is there were fears
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that the young white girls would go into
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the opium dens and start having sex with
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the Chinese immigrants so they made
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opium and opium dens illegal so again
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this it's amazing how this all stemmed
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directly from xenophobia and bigotry but
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that's what happened it stemmed directly
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from xenophobia and bigotry and then
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here we are today so many years later
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and you don't have the freedom to put in
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your body whatever you want to put in
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your body if you're not hurting anybody
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else and think about how many lives have
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been ruined as a result of this and they
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talk about the disproportionate arrest
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rate black people white people use drugs
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at a similar rate black people get
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arrested for four times more often it's
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the same for selling drugs by the way
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white people are more likely to sell
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drugs black people are more likely to
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get arrested for selling drugs so and
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even putting the racial angle aside
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there are plenty of poor white people
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who have their lives ruined as a result
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of this so it's time to end the drug war
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by the way we also wasted a trillion
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dollars in the process we lock up more
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people than any other country on earth
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so
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it's time to to end the drug war and
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have reasonable laws you can legalize
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tax and regulate substances and also
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empty the prison's of nonviolent drug
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offenders and also send them a heartfelt
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apology because you've ruined so many
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lives for people doing something that's
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not even close to wrong
