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The White House’s Latest Reefer Madness
05-13-08|Beyond Chron|by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca

Whom do you believe? A White House Office of National Drug Control Policy report which says that marijuana use by teens may increase depression and cause addiction, mental illness and suicide, or a study by British government scientists which concludes the opposite, that they are “unconvinced that there is a causal relationship” between pot and any “affective disorder?”

On opposite sides of the Atlantic, both reports were issued last week. That they contradict each other shouldn’t come as a shock to any rational person who’s been following the marijuana debates. That the American report denounces marijuana while the British one doesn’t also shouldn’t surprise anyone. America has been under the grip of full-blown Reefer Madness for a long time, but more recently since the 60s when masses of young people began experimenting with the drug.

What most people don’t realize is that marijuana is illegal in America not because of any scientific or medical evidence, but largely because of racism. In the early 1900s tensions developed in the western part of the country between small and large farmers over the use by the latter of cheap Mexican labor. After the depression, those tensions heightened, with large farmers publicly trashing Mexicans because of their use of marijuana (a centuries-old tradition among indigenous peoples).

The debate over marijuana spread to state legislatures where anything but the facts were allowed to be heard. During debates in Texas, one state senator proclaimed, “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff (marijuana) is what makes them crazy.”

It wasn’t just Mexicans. One newspaper editorialized: “Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eyes, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.”

Harry Anslinger, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, summed it all up in the 30s: “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 use. This marijuana causes white women to seek relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

After the 60s flower children and others, including rock musicians such as the Beatles, made smoking marijuana into a symbol of their rebellious lifestyles, the war on the herb intensified. Had it been issued in 1969, Anslinger’s statement would no doubt have included “hippies, homosexuals, Satanic rock singers, and draft dodgers.”

It’s no stretch to think that the White House would knowingly continue this tradition of promoting misinformation about marijuana. Remember, this is the same White House that assured us that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. According to the Center for Public Integrity, President George Bush and other White House officials told almost a thousand lies after 9/11 about Iraq’s threat to our nation in order to get Congressional approval for an illegal and immoral war.

White House or British scientists? It’s a no-brainer.

(Check out Why is Marijuana Illegal? for an excellent summary of why marijuana is illegal.)

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

 

Buzzby

Great Britain has it's own brand of Reefer Madness. The government just upgraded cannabis to Class "B" from Class "C", putting it in the same class as methamphetamine. They have been claiming for the last few years that cannabis is a cause of schizophrenia. Since cannabis causes neither affective disorders nor schizophrenia, they're both liars. They just have different lies.

All the American report says, if you look at the data, not the explanations, is that depressed people are likely to smoke pot. Who would have guessed? Marijuana is a euphoric/mood elevator. If your mood is depressed, marijuana can make you feel better. Living under the Bush regime for eight years, it's amazing that everyone isn't depressed and smoking pot.

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captainReefer

They want to keep it illegal because there is big money and power in doing so. It has been shown that the government brings the drugs in and then turns around and arrests you for using them (watch America's Drug war). How free can a country be when it is a FELONY to grow a plant. The founding fathers should have put it in the Bill of Rights -- Congress shall make no law prohibiting anyone from growing any plant there is for any reason. It probably never crossed their minds that such a thing would be necessary.