With election day weeks away and with Proposition 19 generating much debate in newspapers and elsewhere, I wanted to post the following video of Professor Noam Chomsky speaking on the history of cannabis criminalization. Like with a great many other things, the linguist and political theorist provides perspectives often ignored, explaining how the association of Mexicans with marijuana played a role in prohibition.
Interestingly enough, a poll taken in July found that Latinos opposed Prop 19 by a margin of 2-1 (just enough to sink it?) That’s no surprise. First, since drugs and the prison industrial complex hits minorities hardest, voters in that community are likely to associate the effects of the criminalization of cannabis with the drug itself. It’s also painfully obvious that the movement to legalize marijuana isn’t the most diverse of coalitions! I’d hate to see the Proposition go down on account of such…
EDIT: If you take Chomsky’s original analysis and apply it to Orange County, the discussion becomes even more interesting. The extent of legality in the state as is comes in the form of medical marijuana dispensaries. The two most Mexican cities in OC – Santa Ana and Anaheim or as I like to group them ‘Santanaheim’ – have effective bans on them (though some collectives have set up shop in both cities in defiance) It’s easy to see why this is the case in Anaheim with its sad city council. What’s Santa Ana’s excuse?
Chomsky is right.
Many people don’t understand that Indian hemp (which is what “marijuana” was originally called) was grown by the millions of acres in the United States in the 19th century because it was used to make all kinds of products, like paper, canvas, rope, and cloth. Some brands of Levis jeans used to be made from hemp. The reason why it was banned in the early 20th century had nothing to do with its pharmacological properties.
In the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, thousands of undocumented workers came to the United States in search of work in the agricultural industry. Because they were poor, many couldn’t afford to buy alcohol. But cannabis grew freely at that time, so they smoked it. Racist white people fearful of Mexicans passed laws banning pot at the state and local level hoping it would cause them to go home.
It was the prohibition of alcohol by the Volstead Act in 1919 that sparked the widespread use of marijuana in the U.S. Persons who couldn’t get beer or didn’t want high potency liquor sold by bootleggers switched to pot, a cheap substitute. By the late 1920s, its estimated that in New York City alone there were more than 500 places where marijuana could be purchased and smoked freely, mostly in the Jazz scene in Harlem.
The rise in cannabis consumption along with other forms of drug use as a result of alcohol prohibition led to the creation of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, whose commissioner, Harry Anslinger, formerly worked for the U.S. Bureau of Prohibition. Anslinger traveled across the country making racist claims about pot, many of which were printed as fact in newspapers and magazines owned by William Randolph Hearst.
In fact, the term “marijuana” was first used in publications owned by Hearst because it was a Spanish word. He owned millions of acres of forest land and a machine that simplified the process of making paper from hemp had just been invented. Since that would compete against his own economic interests, he linked hemp to “marijuana” and “marijuana” to Mexicans to create a panic among white people and get it banned.
In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed by Congress, despite lone opposition from the American Medical Association. Anslinger testified under oath that pot was used by “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.” He also said it caused African-Americans to be “uppity” towards white people.
Understand that at that time, the Democrats who controlled both houses of Congress mostly came from the South and were closet supporters of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations. Criminalizing pot gave law enforcement in the South just another tool they could use to harass, intimidate, abuse, maim, and kill darker skinned people into submission …
Duane —
Thanks for expanding upon the history even further! Reefer madness indeed!
Point of clarification:
When I wrote that It was the prohibition of alcohol by the Volstead Act in 1919 that sparked the widespread use of marijuana in the U.S., I should have mentioned that this was the first time millions started using it as a recreational drug.
Prior to the 20th century, there is little evidence to suggest that Americans smoked “Indian hemp” for pleasure. But medical journals first started publishing articles about using cannabis for medicinal purposes in the early 1840s.
I’d like to expand on my “Edit” note. Los Angeles ain’t no different. When the dispensary limit was placed, the LAT printed a map with dots of mandated closures. There was hardly any in South LA or East LA to begin with and a ton concentrated in ‘other’ areas…
Thanks for the history lesson Duane!
LA Times today noted a reversal in Latino support for Prop 19 to the tune of 63% to 33%