KKK , government and laws passed in 20's & 30's

[Mr. Nevermind]

Not sure if this thread is off subject but i wtched something last night that got under my skin. It was a history of the KKK inthe US. Part of the documentry focused on KKK and its influence over elections and government officials. Back then in some states you couldnt run unless endorsed by the Klan and they also had many of their members in government roles such as congress and the Senate.

Now I know alot of the reasons for MJ being illegal were due to Pharma companies, but alot had to do with violence from blacks against whites in the south. Blacks were killing whites in the south and people said they were smoking MJ and that mad them act like savage murderers. They seem to forget that they enslaved and kiled blacks for shits and giggles and maybe the blacks were seeking revenge. But instead it was blamed on pot.

So my point is this. we are subject to laws passed back in the 20's and 30's when they were trying to make it illegal, yet alot of those laws that were passed were influenced by the KKK and good ol boys from the south. I for one dont think we should be held to follow laws that were influenced by racist rednecks back in the days that were part of a hate group. This country is really fucked up and we need to look at some of the things we have done in the past, correct them and allow people to enjoy their lives. Not follow some archaic laws passed by racist low IQ rednecks





Nevermind

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

true to the brew Mr. Nevermind

the reasons why Cannabis is illegal are very many; from things like the ones you have just brought to mind to other things such as the fact that anywhere in the world where cannabis is illegal, the right of each human being to explore his and her own consciousnes; or in other words, to live a religious life, is violated!

one love.

 

[Mr. Nevermind]

true to the brew Mr. Nevermind

the reasons why Cannabis is illegal are very many; from things like the ones you have just brought to mind to other things such as the fact that anywhere in the world where cannabis is illegal, the right of each human being to explore his and her own consciousnes; or in other words, to live a religious life, is violated!

one love.

Yes, i did a paper in college on the legalization of MJ. I actually wasnt smoking while i did the paper ( took a year break from MJ way back when) and did an unbiased paper with an open mind. At the end the reason why MJ were illegal made no sense to me and my stance leaned more towards legalization. Not because I like MJ, but because the there isnt one good reason ( that makes sense ) to have it illegal.

1. It caused blacks to kill whites- not really , centuires of slavery an torture had more to di with that.

2. Its a gateway drug- not really, my first drugs were alchohol and cigarettess, both kill people and and i didnt liek them. I tried MJ and realized it was safe and havent done another drug since.

3. No medical use- Not really, tell that to a cancer patient

The reason it is illegal are bullshit. The only reasons it is illegal are to benafit US government. Pharma companies line politicians pockets so if MJ is legal that money is gone . Doesnt benafit the people, just government. And the other reason its illegal is USA hasnt figured out a way to tax it or make $$ off of it.


Racism and greed are the reasons MJ is illegal and its bullshit. Next time a black gets arrested for MJ they need to stand up and fight. Fight the laws that were passed by the KKK and greedy governments. Allowing this shit to go further means that the KKK and greed means more than our freedom.

What ever happened to "The pursuit of happiness"? MJ makes me happy and doesnt harm a soul around me. I dont smoke in public, I dont drive on MJ ( though it is fun) I dont sell it. Yet alcohol which kilss thousands a year is legal. Alcohol users kill their organs, slam into kids while they drive drunk and how many disorderly conduct or drunk in public charges are passed out on 1 night in the US. you have drunks fallin down on the streets, fighting in public, pissing on walls. Yet MJ users get put in jail. This is a joke









Nevermind

 

[clorox]

its not so much the pharmaceutical industry thats against herb, its more the petro chemical and paper industries

weed can make better paper, cheaper, with more effective land use then the current wood pulp method.

the petro chemical industry could be replaced entirely, as diesel engines will run on cannabis oil.

 

[Jam Master Jaco]

Senator Robert Byrd who is from West Virginia (I think) is a former member of the KKK. The new pope used to be a fuckin Nazi in Hitler's Jouth.

But yeah, it's bullshit.


*edit* I thought his name was Larry Byrd, but it's Robert Byrd.
And like the guy that posted below me said, he's a Democrat now.

 

[mars2112]

^^ robert byrd from west virginia.. yeah he joined the klan when we was in his 20s.. he was pretty high ranking if i remember correctly

and now he's a democrat. go figure.

btw, need to add "marijuana law enforcement as a cottage industry" to your list of reasons why MJ is still illegal..

 

[Mr. Nevermind]

Senator Larry Byrd who is from West Virginia (I think) is a former member of the KKK. The new pope used to be a fuckin Nazi in Hitler's Jouth.

But yeah, it's bullshit.

Precisly what I am talking about. You cant have a person from a terror group have any role in our government. we have racist old men dictating how we should live our lives, when they clearly dont care about an enitre segment of the population. Most people want MJ legal yet we have these old fucks telling us wht is law. People need to remember that elected officials work for us, not vice versa. The will of the people, not the will of a few men.









Nevermind

 

[mars2112]

we have racist old men dictating how we should live our lives

speaking of which.. anyone catch dick cheney's statement this weekend that anyone who supports the antiwar campaign are "giving the Al Qaeda types exactly what they wanted" and.. that the democratic party "now stands for a wholesale retreat in the broader campaign against terror"

so anyone who doesn't support the war in iraq isn't against terrorism?

please vice president dick, tell us how the war in iraq is stopping terrorism.

what an ass.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/08/14/BL2006081400528.html

 

[Jam Master Jaco]

People need to remember that elected officials work for us, not vice versa. The will of the people, not the will of a few men.

EXACTLY! The common thought process now is that if anything goes wrong in our country we need the government to step in and solve it. It's a nice thought, but in order to get that to happen the government needs more and more power with less and less say from the public. It's getting ridiculous but people have been saying this shit for the past hundred years. It's only gonna get worse.


2012 people, end of the world according to Nostradamus, the Aztecs, and a few other ancient religions.

 

[Mr. Nevermind]

EXACTLY! The common thought process now is that if anything goes wrong in our country we need the government to step in and solve it. It's a nice thought, but in order to get that to happen the government needs more and more power with less and less say from the public. It's getting ridiculous but people have been saying this shit for the past hundred years. It's only gonna get worse.


2012 people, end of the world according to Nostradamus, the Aztecs, and a few other ancient religions.

And funnny enough anyone wwho challenges government is considered unpatriotic. I think it was jefferson thats said " discent is the greatest form of patriot ism". This government we have had for at least 200 years hasnt given a fuck about the people. Just itself. BS laws, BS taxes all to promote their wa of life, not for the pursuit of happiness of its citizens



Nevermind

 

[Fat Albert]

Senator Robert Byrd who is from West Virginia (I think) is a former member of the KKK. The new pope used to be a fuckin Nazi in Hitler's Jouth.

But yeah, it's bullshit.


*edit* I thought his name was Larry Byrd, but it's Robert Byrd.
And like the guy that posted below me said, he's a Democrat now.

Byrd being a former Klansman is something I sill can't get over. If he was a Republican, they would've assassinated him thirty years ago. As for Benedict, if you were a youth in Germany during that time, you joined the Hitler Youth Movement. To not do so would have been pretty foolish...

Fat A

 

[mars2112]

2012 people, end of the world according to Nostradamus, the Aztecs, and a few other ancient religions.

terrance mckenna said humans will go through a shift in consciousness in 2012..

and the mayan calander ends on december 12, 2012, the date they believed the world would end

hey that's only 6 yrs from now!!

 

[Tommy]

In the first place Marijuana wasn't deemed illegal untill the late 60's by the federal government. Some people are very mis-informed about the The Marijuana Tax Act in 1937. This was not the law that made weed illegal, quite the contrary.
And I quote

The apparent purpose of the Act is to levy a token tax of approximately one dollar on all buyers, sellers, importers, growers, physicians, veterinarians, and any other persons who deal in marijuana commercially, prescribe it professionally, or possess it.

The law in fact made weed legal to possess, grow and sell. To be prescribed by a Dr. for medical benefits. But there was a loophole, the tax stamps were never printed or available to the public. This was sent through congress and the senate the same way as the Firearms Act of 1934 making it legal to possess a machine gun, the Tax stamps were never issued or produced. Deception by the federal government runs deep and long.

Your original topic may hold some truth, the kkk was strong back then. But it is my understanding that the pressure was put on Harry J. Anslinger by several of the south western states due to the increased presence of the mexican community in their states.

Marijuana is Mexican opium, a plant used by Mexicans and cultivated for sale by Indians. 'When some beet field peon takes a few rares of this stuff,' explained Dr. Fred Fulsher of Mineral County, 'he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico so he starts to execute all his political enemies

The best examples were contained in his "Gore File", a collection of police-blotter-type narratives of heinous cases, most with flimsy substantiation, linking graphically depicted offenses with the drug.

An entire family was murdered by a youthful addict in Florida. When officers arrived at the home, they found the youth staggering about in a human slaughterhouse. With an axe he had killed his father, mother, two brothers, and a sister. He seemed to be in a daze? He had no recollection of having committed the multiple crime. The officers knew him ordinarily as a sane, rather quiet young man; now he was pitifully crazed. They sought the reason. The boy said that he had been in the habit of smoking something which youthful friends called ?muggles,? a childish name for marijuana.

I could go on with this, it makes a deeper impact on a person if they seek the truth, start here >> http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/mjtaxact.htm

When you get that read, try this>> http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/lag/lagmenu.htm

This was a report made by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York on the Sociological, Medical, Psychological AND Pharmalogical Studies of marijuana. It was a direct contridiction of Anslinger and brought on a bitter battle between the two men and the Government they represented.

If these do not make you mad.......................nothing will.

I close with my signature.

 

[rsteeb]

Why is Marijuana Illegal?

Why is Marijuana Illegal?

From Drug WarRant.com by Pete Guither

Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug.

The actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. You'll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.

You'll also see that the history of marijuana's criminalization is filled with:

* Racism
* Fear
* Protection of Corporate Profits
* Yellow Journalism
* Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Corrupt Legislators
* Personal Career Advancement and Greed

These are the actual reasons marijuana is illegal.

A picture named leaf.gif Background

For most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It's not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it's been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy.

The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600's, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900's.

America's first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law "ordering" all farmers to grow Indian hempseed. There were several other "must grow" laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp -- try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements - rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth.

The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp "plantations" (minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton.

The Mexican Connection

In the early 1900s, the western states developed significant tensions regarding the influx of Mexican-Americans. The revolution in Mexico in 1910 spilled over the border, with General Pershing's army clashing with bandit Pancho Villa. Later in that decade, bad feelings developed between the small farmer and the large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor. Then, the depression came and increased tensions, as jobs and welfare resources became scarce.

One of the "differences" seized upon during this time was the fact that many Mexicans smoked marijuana and had brought the plant with them.

However, the first state law outlawing marijuana did so not because of Mexicans using the drug. Oddly enough, it was because of Mormons using it. Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church was not pleased and ruled against use of the drug. Since the state of Utah automatically enshrined church doctrine into law, the first state marijuana prohibition was established in 1915. (Today, Senator Orrin Hatch serves as the prohibition arm of this heavily church-influenced state.)

Other states quickly followed suit with marijuana prohibition laws, including Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), Iowa (1923), Nevada (1923), Oregon (1923), Washington (1923), Arkansas (1923), and Nebraska (1927). These laws tended to be specifically targeted against the Mexican-American population.

When Montana outlawed marijuana in 1927, the Butte Montana Standard reported a legislator's comment: "When some beet field peon takes a few traces of this stuff... he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies." In Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: "All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy."

Jazz and Assassins

In the eastern states, the "problem" was attributed to a combination of Latin Americans and black jazz musicians. Marijuana and jazz traveled from New Orleans to Chicago, and then to Harlem, where marijuana became an indispensable part of the music scene, even entering the language of the black hits of the time (Louis Armstrong's "Muggles", Cab Calloway's "That Funny Reefer Man", Fats Waller's "Viper's Drag").

Again, racism was part of the charge against marijuana, as newspapers in 1934 editorialized: "Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice."

Two other fear-tactic rumors started to spread: one, that Mexicans, Blacks and other foreigners were snaring white children with marijuana; and two, the story of the "assassins." Early stories of Marco Polo had told of "hasheesh-eaters" or hashashin, from which derived the term "assassin." In the original stories, these professional killers were given large doses of hashish and brought to the ruler's garden (to give them a glimpse of the paradise that awaited them upon successful completion of their mission). Then, after the effects of the drug disappeared, the assassin would fulfill his ruler's wishes with cool, calculating loyalty.

By the 1930s, the story had changed. Dr. A. E. Fossier wrote in the 1931 New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal: "Under the influence of hashish those fanatics would madly rush at their enemies, and ruthlessly massacre every one within their grasp." Within a very short time, marijuana started being linked to violent behavior.

Alcohol Prohibition and Federal Approaches to Drug Prohibition

During this time, the United States was also dealing with alcohol prohibition, which lasted from 1919 to 1933. Alcohol prohibition was extremely visible and debated at all levels, while drug laws were passed without the general public's knowledge. National alcohol prohibition happened through the mechanism of an amendment to the constitution.

Earlier (1914), the Harrison Act was passed, which provided federal tax penalties for opiates and cocaine.

The federal approach is important. It was considered at the time that the federal government did not have the constitutional power to outlaw alcohol or drugs. It is because of this that alcohol prohibition required a constitutional amendment.

At that time in our country's history, the judiciary regularly placed the tenth amendment in the path of congressional regulation of "local" affairs, and direct regulation of medical practice was considered beyond congressional power under the commerce clause (since then, both provisions have been weakened so far as to have almost no meaning).

Since drugs could not be outlawed at the federal level, the decision was made to use federal taxes as a way around the restriction. In the Harrison Act, legal uses of opiates and cocaine were taxed (supposedly as a revenue need by the federal government, which is the only way it would hold up in the courts), and those who didn't follow the law found themselves in trouble with the treasury department.

In 1930, a new division in the Treasury Department was established -- the Federal Bureau of Narcotics -- and Harry J. Anslinger was named director. This, if anything, marked the beginning of the all-out war against marijuana.

A picture named anslinger.jpg Harry J. Anslinger

Anslinger was an extremely ambitious man, and he recognized the Bureau of Narcotics as an amazing career opportunity -- a new government agency with the opportunity to define both the problem and the solution. He immediately realized that opiates and cocaine wouldn't be enough to help build his agency, so he latched on to marijuana and started to work on making it illegal at the federal level.

Anslinger immediately drew upon the themes of racism and violence to draw national attention to the problem he wanted to create. Some of his quotes regarding marijuana...

"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 sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others."

"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."

"Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death."

"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."

"Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing"

"You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother."

"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

And he loved to pull out his own version of the "assassin" definition:

"In the year 1090, there was founded in Persia the religious and military order of the Assassins, whose history is one of cruelty, barbarity, and murder, and for good reason: the members were confirmed users of hashish, or marihuana, and it is from the Arabs' 'hashashin' that we have the English word 'assassin.'"

A picture named hearst.jpg Yellow Journalism

Harry Anslinger got some additional help from William Randolf Hearst, owner of a huge chain of newspapers. Hearst had lots of reasons to help. First, he hated Mexicans. Second, he had invested heavily in the timber industry to support his newspaper chain and didn't want to see the development of hemp paper in competition. Third, he had lost 800,000 acres of timberland to Pancho Villa, so he hated Mexicans. Fourth, telling lurid lies about Mexicans (and the devil marijuana weed causing violence) sold newspapers, making him rich.

Some samples from the San Francisco Examiner:

"Marihuana makes fiends of boys in thirty days -- Hashish goads users to bloodlust."

"By the tons it is coming into this country -- the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms.... Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him...."

And other nationwide columns...

"Users of marijuana become STIMULATED as they inhale the drug and are LIKELY TO DO ANYTHING. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that drug."

"Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim's life in Los Angeles?... THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES -- that is a matter of cold record."

Hearst and Anslinger were then supported by Dupont chemical company and various pharmaceutical companies in the effort to outlaw cannabis. Dupont had patented nylon, and wanted hemp removed as competition. The pharmaceutical companies could neither identify nor standardize cannabis dosages, and besides, with cannabis, folks could grow their own medicine and not have to purchase it from large companies.

This all set the stage for...

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

After two years of secret planning, Anslinger brought his plan to Congress -- complete with a scrapbook full of sensational Hearst editorials, stories of ax murderers who had supposedly smoked marijuana, and racial slurs.

It was a remarkably short set of hearings.

The one fly in Anslinger's ointment was the appearance by Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical Association.

Woodward started by slamming Harry Anslinger and the Bureau of Narcotics for distorting earlier AMA statements that had nothing to do with marijuana and making them appear to be AMA endorsement for Anslinger's view.

He also reproached the legislature and the Bureau for using the term marijuana in the legislation and not publicizing it as a bill about cannabis or hemp. At this point, marijuana (or marihuana) was a sensationalist word used to refer to Mexicans smoking a drug and had not been connected in most people's minds to the existing cannabis/hemp plant. Thus, many who had legitimate reasons to oppose the bill weren't even aware of it.

Woodward went on to state that the AMA was opposed to the legislation and further questioned the approach of the hearings, coming close to outright accusation of misconduct by Anslinger and the committee:

"That there is a certain amount of narcotic addiction of an objectionable character no one will deny. The newspapers have called attention to it so prominently that there must be some grounds for [their] statements [even Woodward was partially taken in by Hearst's propaganda]. It has surprised me, however, that the facts on which these statements have been based have not been brought before this committee by competent primary evidence. We are referred to newspaper publications concerning the prevalence of marihuana addiction. We are told that the use of marihuana causes crime.

But yet no one has been produced from the Bureau of Prisons to show the number of prisoners who have been found addicted to the marihuana habit. An informed inquiry shows that the Bureau of Prisons has no evidence on that point.

You have been told that school children are great users of marihuana cigarettes. No one has been summoned from the Children's Bureau to show the nature and extent of the habit, among children.

Inquiry of the Children's Bureau shows that they have had no occasion to investigate it and know nothing particularly of it.

Inquiry of the Office of Education--- and they certainly should know something of the prevalence of the habit among the school children of the country, if there is a prevalent habit--- indicates that they have had no occasion to investigate and know nothing of it.

Moreover, there is in the Treasury Department itself, the Public Health Service, with its Division of Mental Hygiene. The Division of Mental Hygiene was, in the first place, the Division of Narcotics. It was converted into the Division of Mental Hygiene, I think, about 1930. That particular Bureau has control at the present time of the narcotics farms that were created about 1929 or 1930 and came into operation a few years later. No one has been summoned from that Bureau to give evidence on that point.

Informal inquiry by me indicates that they have had no record of any marihuana of Cannabis addicts who have ever been committed to those farms.

The bureau of Public Health Service has also a division of pharmacology. If you desire evidence as to the pharmacology of Cannabis, that obviously is the place where you can get direct and primary evidence, rather than the indirect hearsay evidence."

Committee members then proceeded to attack Dr. Woodward, questioning his motives in opposing the legislation. Even the Chairman joined in:

The Chairman: If you want to advise us on legislation, you ought to come here with some constructive proposals, rather than criticism, rather than trying to throw obstacles in the way of something that the Federal Government is trying to do. It has not only an unselfish motive in this, but they have a serious responsibility.

Dr. Woodward: We cannot understand yet, Mr. Chairman, why this bill should have been prepared in secret for 2 years without any intimation, even, to the profession, that it was being prepared.

After some further bantering...

The Chairman: I would like to read a quotation from a recent editorial in the Washington Times:

The marihuana cigarette is one of the most insidious of all forms of dope, largely because of the failure of the public to understand its fatal qualities.

The Nation is almost defenseless against it, having no Federal laws to cope with it and virtually no organized campaign for combating it.

The result is tragic.

School children are the prey of peddlers who infest school neighborhoods.

High school boys and girls buy the destructive weed without knowledge of its capacity of harm, and conscienceless dealers sell it with impunity.

This is a national problem, and it must have national attention.

The fatal marihuana cigarette must be recognized as a deadly drug, and American children must be protected against it.

That is a pretty severe indictment. They say it is a national question and that it requires effective legislation. Of course, in a general way, you have responded to all of these statements; but that indicates very clearly that it is an evil of such magnitude that it is recognized by the press of the country as such.

And that was basically it. Yellow journalism won over medical science.

The committee passed the legislation on. And on the floor of the house, the entire discussion was:

Member from upstate New York: "Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?"

Speaker Rayburn: "I don't know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it's a narcotic of some kind."

"Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?"

Member on the committee jumps up and says: "Their Doctor Wentworth[sic] came down here. They support this bill 100 percent."

And on the basis of that lie, on August 2, 1937, marijuana became illegal at the federal level.

The entire coverage in the New York Times: "President Roosevelt signed today a bill to curb traffic in the narcotic, marihuana, through heavy taxes on transactions."

Anslinger as precursor to the Drug Czars

Anslinger was essentially the first Drug Czar. Even though the term didn't exist until William Bennett's position as director of the White House Office of National Drug Policy, Anslinger acted in a similar fashion. In fact, there are some amazing parallels between Anslinger and the current Drug Czar John Walters. Both had kind of a carte blanche to go around demonizing drugs and drug users. Both had resources and a large public podium for their voice to be heard and to promote their personal agenda. Both lied constantly, often when it was unnecessary. Both were racists. Both had the ear of lawmakers, and both realized that they could persuade legislators and others based on lies, particularly if they could co-opt the media into squelching or downplaying any opposition views.

Anslinger even had the ability to circumvent the First Amendment. He banned the Canadian movie "Drug Addict," a 1946 documentary that realistically depicted the drug addicts and law enforcement efforts. He even tried to get Canada to ban the movie in their own country, or failing that, to prevent U.S. citizens from seeing the movie in Canada. Canada refused. (Today, Drug Czar John Walters is trying to bully Canada into keeping harsh marijuana laws.)

Anslinger had 37 years to solidify the propaganda and stifle opposition. The lies continued the entire time (although the stories would adjust -- the 21 year old Florida boy who killed his family of five got younger each time he told it). In 1961, he looked back at his efforts:

"Much of the most irrational juvenile violence and that has written a new chapter of shame and tragedy is traceable directly to this hemp intoxication. A gang of boys tear the clothes from two school girls and rape the screaming girls, one boy after the other. A sixteen-year-old kills his entire family of five in Florida, a man in Minnesota puts a bullet through the head of a stranger on the road; in Colorado husband tries to shoot his wife, kills her grandmother instead and then kills himself. Every one of these crimes had been proceeded [sic] by the smoking of one or more marijuana "reefers." As the marijuana situation grew worse, I knew action had to be taken to get the proper legislation passed. By 1937 under my direction, the Bureau launched two important steps First, a legislative plan to seek from Congress a new law that would place marijuana and its distribution directly under federal control. Second, on radio and at major forums, such that presented annually by the New York Herald Tribune, I told the story of this evil weed of the fields and river beds and roadsides. I wrote articles for magazines; our agents gave hundreds of lectures to parents, educators, social and civic leaders. In network broadcasts I reported on the growing list of crimes, including murder and rape. I described the nature of marijuana and its close kinship to hashish. I continued to hammer at the facts.

I believe we did a thorough job, for the public was alerted and the laws to protect them were passed, both nationally and at the state level. We also brought under control the wild growing marijuana in this country. Working with local authorities, we cleaned up hundreds of acres of marijuana and we uprooted plants sprouting along the roadsides."

After Anslinger

On a break from college in the 70s, I was visiting a church in rural Illinois. There in the literature racks in the back of the church was a lurid pamphlet about the evils of marijuana -- all the old reefer madness propaganda about how it caused insanity and murder. I approached the minister and said "You can't have this in your church. It's all lies, and the church shouldn't be about promoting lies." Fortunately, my dad believed me, and he had the material removed. He didn't even know how it got there. But without me speaking up, neither he nor the other members of the church had any reason NOT to believe what the pamphlet said. The propaganda machine had been that effective.

The story since then has been a continual litany of:

* Politicians wanting to appear tough on crime and passing tougher penalties
* Constant increases in spending on law enforcement and prisons
* Racist application of drug laws
* Taxpayer funded propaganda
* Stifling of opposition speech
* Political contributions from corporations that profit from marijuana being illegal (pharmaceuticals, alcohol, etc.)

[CONTINUES]
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html