Lit_Match

Marijuana Laws Based On Discriminatory Past
02-19-08|Daily Campus|By Greg Pivarnik

Marijuana has been illegal for a long time. However, unlike with most drugs there has always been a rather distinguished movement to have it legalized. In the American psyche, it lies somewhere between alcohol and everything else. It recent years, doctors and patients touting its medical benefits have brought it back to the forefront, causing some states and cities to either decriminalize it or to allow doctors to prescribe it for medical uses. It is time that the history and reasons for marijuana prohibition be reexamined and hopefully significant and serious debate can be reopened among politicians.

Any intelligent debate, especially in Congress, has been stifled by the knee-jerk reaction to say that it is illegal and it should stay that way. There is some fear marijuana will open a can of worms and "corrupt our youth." However this argument has no firm ground to stand on, especially when upon further examination - marijuana was made illegal without any scientific basis. The passages of the first prohibitive pieces of legislation regarding marijuana, the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act (1932) and the Marihuana Tax Act (1937), were passed based only on racist agendas against minority classes - especially Mexicans - and by overly exaggerated tales of murder and mayhem caused by the drug.

Marijuana legislation began primarily as a regional phenomenon based in southern and western states. For the most part, the legislation was racially motivated. Despite what people may think, Mexican immigration is not a new issue. Today it may be based on nationalism and fairness to the working class, though some may argue otherwise, but in the 1920s and 30s anti-Mexican sentiment was based on blatant racism.

It was generally known that marijuana use in these states was limited to Mexican immigrants. During this time, with the Mexican population growing in Southern and Western states, legislators saw their use of marijuana as a way to stem this tide. There are two reasons that state legislatures made marijuana illegal. The first is that during this time the Temperance Movement was in full swing. This was at the height of alcohol prohibition in the United States. Legislators wanted to ensure with the influx of Mexican immigrants, there was no rise in use of marijuana among the white middle- and upper-classes. Second, the onset of the Great Depression, created an enormous of resentment among the white populations competing for jobs with Mexican immigrants. Marijuana prohibition was the perfect to tool to prevent the loss of jobs among the white populations, because it only affected Mexicans workers.

The second leg of marijuana prohibition involved yellow journalism, mainly under the leadership of William Randolph Hearst, the owner of one of the largest newspaper chains in the United States. In many stories, writers often tied marijuana to violent crimes, including rapes and murders, earning its reputation as the "killer weed." Often these reports were unsubstantiated. There was never any scientific proof cited that marijuana caused the violence. Many of the culprits tried to pin their behavior on their marijuana use, claiming it made them crazy. This was good enough for many reporters despite the lack of scientific evidence. This could allow states to rationalize the deportation, imprisonment, and immigration quotas of Mexican workers.

The stories of minority perpetrators often added to the marijuana hostility by whites. In 1935, a Sacramento, Calif. reader wrote to The New York Times stating "Marijuana, perhaps the most insidious of narcotics, is a direct by-product of unrestricted Mexican immigration ... Mexican peddlers have been caught distributing marijuana cigarettes to school children." The racist sentiments even reached the floor of Congress. Harry J. Anslinger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the organization in charge of instituting marijuana prohibition, presented a letter he received from the editor of a Colorado newspaper as part of his testimony in favor of the Marihuana Tax Act. The letter described an attack by a Mexican-American under the influence of marijuana on a girl in the region and went on to state, "I wish I could show you what a small marijuana cigarette can do to one of our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents. That's why our problem is so great; the greatest percentage of our population is composed of Spanish-speaking persons, most of whom are low mentally, because of social and racial conditions."

Eventually, the Marihuana Tax Act was overturned by the Supreme Court. According to the law it was illegal to possess marijuana, but in order to obtain the necessary tax stamp, one had to have the marijuana present. This meant a person trying to obtain the stamp was in direct violation of the law while trying to do so.

Despite the racial motivations for the first marijuana legislative measures, this not did not stop Congress from passing the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, making marijuana a Schedule I drug (along with heroin, while cocaine is a Schedule II). This is not to say Congress was motivated by racial intolerance. However, the previous laws which had their basis in racial prejudice contributed unconsciously to the mindset that marijuana is evil. This mindset has unfortunately lasted in the psyches of people to this day, who refuse to look at marijuana legislation with an open mind. However, since marijuana is illegal, it will be very hard to overturn such a law. Alcohol prohibition lasted 13 years, and was repealed after an exhausting fight. Despite this pitfall, any laws that have a historical basis in racial prejudice need to be reexamined and reevaluated.

__________________
Donation links to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) | MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)